Category: Industry

The Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) will soon unfold strategies to increase trade with the United States, its National President, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, has said. He also promised that NACC would grow the non-oil trade by about 30 per cent in 2015.

Ohuabunwa spoke at the Annual Dinner Dance of the group in Lagos.

He said: “There is no gainsaying that, we at NACC, remain resolute at creating an enabling environment for promoting cordial business relationship between businesses in Nigeria and the United States of America. We cannot but applaud President Obama’s valued focus on increasing trade ties and general economic development of sub-Saharan Africa.

“Our nation remains one of the leading suppliers of oil to the United States. It is not enough to stop there. We will not relent on pursuing expanded and positive business opportunities that will benefit our dear countries and their citizenry. At the home front, we will continue to provide members with training, educational and robust networking opportunities, accumulate business and trade intelligence as well as other allied services about doing business in Nigeria and across the Atlantic.”

On the event, he said : “The Annual Dinner Dance has, therefore, brought us together once again with all intents and purposes to be truly memorable for all our members, friends and guests of the chambers.

“Apart from the huge networking opportunities it will provide, it is also a great re-union for our members to renew their commitment and foster a buy-in culture for the programmes and activities of the chambers noting that.

“It will interest you to know that we are also raising funds for the chamber’s permanent secretariat, which is long overdue. Our overall intention is to promote a very vibrant chamber that actively engages all the relevant stakeholders for a win-win partnership not only in Lagos but across Nigeria. We cannot but deeply appreciate the Consulate and the US Mission in Nigeria for their support and cooperation as we embark on this journey of relevance.

The Consul-General of the United States in Nigeria, Mr Jeffrey Hawkins, who was represented by its deputy, Mr Fred Armand, said the US sees Nigeria as partners in business and leader in the sub-Saharan Africa.

“Therefore, there is need to deepen democracy in Nigeria by engaging the civil society group and politicians so that Nigeria can flourish in business and continue to play leadership role across Africa,” he said.

Members of the Association of Progressive Traders (APT) have decried the concessioning of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex to a private firm.

A statement by the traders’ group said the concessioning remained a major challenge to its members, who had invested huge sums over the last six years to build their shops and improve the jewellry market in the complex.

The statement signed by the Secretary-General, APT, Mr Obiora Chijioke, said the concessioning was against the recent agreement the traders had with the Federal Government.

He said: “The concession of the Trade Fair Complex to Aulic Nigeria Limited is the major challenge facing the traders at the moment, and we are not pleased with the acquisition of the complex, which we believe has little or no regard to our multibillion investments which existed long before the concession.

“We had an agreement with the then Federal Ministry of Trade and Commerce that the already commercialised portions should be excluded from privatisation. Despite all efforts by the consortium of traders operating in the complex, which include Balogun Business Association, Auto Spare Parts and Machineries Dealers Association, to receive fair hearing during the concession, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), still went ahead and sold the complex to Aulic Nigeria Limited.”

Chijioke said the traders had invested over N85billion in the infrastructure, and called on the Federal Government to step into the issue and ensure that justice was served to the traders, who had occupied the place for many years.

“Nigerian traders and their huge investments at the complex is worth more than N85 billion and we, therefore, call on the Federal Government to protect our rights as responsible and law-abiding citizens of the country by reviewing this acquisition by the company,” he said.

Chijioke said some of the challenges facing the traders include: bad roads, illegal check points by the police and customs as well as dilapidated infrastructure within the complex.

“Our relationship with the state and local governments are very cordial. But the new management of the complex is not helping matters. Despite all the revenue collected daily from the traders and our customers, nothing is done to reduce our sufferings, at least by upgrading the roads and infrastructure within the trade fair complex,” he said.

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) will, henceforth, seize any product that is not electrically registered.

Speaking with The Nation, its Director-General, Dr Joseph Odumodu, said the agency had started e-registration nationwide in a bid to make the product registration easy.

He said the initiative was aimed at curbing the sale and production of unwholesome and substandard products in the country.

His words: “Very soon such products that are not registered through the e-registration process will not be allowed to be sold in markets or they will be confiscated and marketers will face prosecution, in line with the quest to ensure the success of the zero tolerance initiative against substandard products.

“The development is part of our efforts at ensuring quick registration of products belonging to genuine manufacturers and dealers, as well as to ensure success in its Zero Tolerance to substandard products campaign, which they have taken to different sectoral groups and some parts of the country since its launching”.

Odumodu said SON would make the registration of consumer products compulsory for manufacturers before such could be displayed on shelves, adding that the process would involve the launch of product identification marks on products under the category under review, and that any product without proper identification marks would be barred from the country’s market.

“This is something we believe would help the manufacturers, the dealers and the SON. It is all in the bid to ensure safer products, safer Nigerians and a healthier economy.

“What we are doing is introducing initiatives that would help us achieve our target of reducing the prevalence of substandard products in the country. It is based on current realities in products registration all over the world.

“We enjoin stakeholders to embrace the e-products registration scheme. At the end of the day, any product which does not bear a registration mark of the SON would of course be confiscated,” he said.

Odumodu said the agency is leveraging on available opportunities and platforms to make its work become easier for both the regulator and the nation.

He reiterated the agency’s determination to further reduce the prevalence of substandard products from its current level of 60 per cent to about 30 per cent in the next three months.

Explaining the e-registration process, Odumodu said: “It would assist us in developing a data base of consumer products in the country. The scheme will enhance traceability in our compliance monitoring activities that is making it easy for us to trace any product and its manufacturer any time the need arise.”

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Mr Dauda Kigbu, has said Nigeria’s new trade policy, which is going through the final review may be ready in June.

Kigbu, who is also the Chairman of the Enlarged National Focal Point (ENFP), spoke in Abuja, during the ENFP meeting.

He said the last trade policy was adopted in 2002.

Kigbu said: “This stakeholders meeting is looking into a draft trade policy, which is a continuous engagement of stakeholders. We have had one in Geneva to look at international perspectives of what we are trying to do.

“The last time we had trade policy was in 2002 and because the society is very dynamic, policy needs to be reviewed at most every five years to make the outlook dynamic to the society. This time around, we want to have it around June, 2013.”

The Enlarged National Focal Point on trade matters is an inter- agency body charged with preparing Nigeria’s position on trade.

Kigbu urged the committee to complete the review so that the country could have a policy that can give direction to its national and intellectual trade.

The stakeholders recalled that Nigeria has pursued an unstable and unpredictable tariff policy with high rates in some cases, and duty charges imposed with little or no consultation with interested parties. He added that Nigeria follows consistent and predictable policy having adopted the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET) in line with its West African partners.

The meeting noted that Nigeria has imposed Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) on the import of some products.

Among other things deliberated upon were sector analysis and policies, cross-sector issues, trade regulatory framework, domestic trade, international trade agreements and the promotion of international trade policy implementation Framework.

The Federal Government began a review of Nigeria’s trade policy two years ago with the inauguration of a 23-man technical review committee, which was given three months to submit its report.

During the inauguration, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, said the country required a sound trade policy that would be investment-friendly to attract substantial local and foreign investment and increase its share of the global trade in the next four years

According to him, some of the trade practices are outdated. This often resulted in the ad-hoc and sometimes conflicting approach to implementation, he said.

He said: “Nigeria does not have a comprehensive and coherent trade policy framework to adequately govern and guide the nation on domestic and international trade in view of the dynamism of the global market environment.

“Some of the existing trade rules, regulations and practices are outdated and applied haphazardly, thus resulting in the ad-hoc and sometimes conflicting approach to implementation.”

DESPITE the challenges in the North, Unilever Nigeria has increased its sales in the region, the company’s Managing Director, Mr Mabe Thabo, has said.

He attributed the growth to the company’s ability to adapt to the market and keep its team safe and motivated to go the extra mile.

He spoke at a customer forum and award night for the company’s key distributors and partners in Lagos.

The best sales person went home with a brand new car.

Thabo said the reforms that necessitated the sales increase was when they got to the point where they realised they had to be flexible in the volatile environment and the level of empowerment given to the company’s team.

He said for any business to succeed in the year, it should be able to move its products fast, adapt to the environment and be flexible.

On the business environment,Thabo said: “It will be tougher, and the environment which I call volatile, ambiguous, complex, will be easy to predict in our segment because as in every environment, how do we see ourselves as our job is to reach store by store, channel by channel, customer by customer and to provide the best products.”

He said the firm was celebrating its partners because in two years, the share price have more than trippled from N18.5 to N47 per share.

The Ministry of Trade and Investment is working with its Foreign Affairs counterpart to end the harassment of Nigerian traders in Ghana.

Speaking at the inauguration of the National Organising Committee (BOC) for the Seventh Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Trade Fair in Accra, Ghana, in October, Minister of State for Trade aand Investment, Mr Samuel Ortom, said the ministries would work with their Ghanaian counterparts on the matter.

He was responding to the recent closure of about 40 shops belonging to Nigerian traders in Ghana.

Ortom said: “We are working with our foreign affairs counterpart to ensure that we interface with Ghanaian officials to stop the harassment of our traders in Ghana.

“You know that existing ECOWAS protocols require us to operate in Ghana just like Ghanaians are also allowed to do same in Nigeria.

“But as long as we are not harassing them, they are not supposed to be harassing our traders.”

Ortom said the Federal Government has taken the first step to address the situation.

“We have already constituted a committee to visit Ghana, and we will first of all hear from the traders themselves and then, some Ghanaian officials. This will help us to chart a way forward,’’ he said.

Officials of Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry had raided the shops owned by Nigerians located at Okaishie in Accra.

The Ghanaian officials, who carried out the operation, had based their action on the alleged failure of the Nigerian traders to regularise their businesses.

On the fair, the minister said the event would be a good opportunity for both countries.

“It will help to strengthen our relationship and the resolve to work together as a family in the region,’’ he said.

Ortom said the government was determined to take advantage of the fair to attract more direct foreign investments to the country.

“Nigeria, in the last three years, has witnessed strong economic growth which has positively impacted on poverty reduction and unemployment levels in the country. The government is determined to maintain this tempo.

“A central focus of the government, therefore, is to ensure an employment generating growth process capable of addressing the issue of development and poverty reduction,” he said.

The minister said Nigeria’s share of global and regional trade was still low, both for exports and imports.

He said economic activities in Nigeria had not gathered enough momentum to improve trade performance in the regional market, despite the country’s enormous human and material resources.