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Tag: LCCI

  • LCCI appoints Segun Alabi as corporate communications manager

    LCCI appoints Segun Alabi as corporate communications manager

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has appointed  Segun Alabi as its new Corporate Communications Manager.

    LCCI Director- General Mr. Muda Yusuf, in a statement on Monday, said Alabi is a talented corporate communications professional, who has gained diverse experience in the Pay T.V, manufacturing, financial and real estate sectors.

    He said Alabi will be an added value and a real asset to the Chamber, “As we continue to support, promote and represent the opinion of the business community, as well as contributing to the growth of our economy.”

    Before his new appointment, Alabi served as Head of Corporate Affairs at Forthright Group of Companies, overseeing all public relations and communications functions of the organisation. He has focused on media relations, image architecture, internal communication, perception management and social media management at various levels. He is also a consummate corporate communications professional, who possesses the qualities of a communication connoisseur, with a canny ability to manage and disseminate information to a competitive advantage.

    Upon starting, Alabi said, “I am excited about joining the LCCI during this crucial period of entrenching positive change in all facets of our economy. The task ahead is not only to make the image but also to sustain the already made image of the chamber, as well as improving on it.”

    Alabi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria and a Master’s degree in English from the University of Lagos, specialising in Language Use and Communication.

  • LCCI honours La Campagne Beach Resort

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has honoured theLa Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, Ikegun, Lagos.

    This was at the 2015 Commerce and Industry Awards  held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

    The resort was honoured with the award of the best theme resort in Nigeria Reacting to the award, the head of the resort, OtunbaWanleAkinboboye

    said the awards and recognition coming two decades after the setting up of the African themed resort, was something to be proud of and celebrate as the Pan African theme and culture that he had laboured to promote and market has finally gained the much desired recognition by the people.

    Coming this far, he said, has not been an easy task as he had to endure different challenges but standing firm and focused on his belief as well as being consistent, factors which he said had helped in the realisation of the dream when he first step foot in the jungle of Ikegun Village as a 29 years old boy, brimming with energy and a vision to conquer the world with his love for His fatherland.

  • LCCI: three million jobs yearly possible with SMEs

    LCCI: three million jobs yearly possible with SMEs

    The Federal Government’s promise of creating three million jobs yearly is achievable, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Director General Mr. Muda Yusuf has said. It can be achieved with the aid of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the real sector, he said.

    Speaking at a forum with the theme: ‘Job Creation through Entrepreneurship Empowerment’ held in Lagos, he said entrepreneurship plays an important role in the economic growth and development of any nation. “It is a purposeful activity involving the initiation, promotion and distribution of wealth and service,” he said.

    He, however, listed some of the obstacles to include skill and human capacity issues, hash business environment – infrastructure lapses, policy and regulatory shortcomings, access and cost of funds, macroeconomic challenges, interest rate and inflation, multiple taxation and inadequate incentives for entrepreneurial development.

    He called for  collaboration between the public and private sectors; development of incubation centres and enterprise development centres; creation of  free trade zones; promote the teaching of entrepreneurial skills in schools and colleges; use mentoring as a means of business skills development to encourage skill sharing and long-term personal relationship between mentor and mentee; and providing vocational skills and income-generation opportunities for the marginalised, such as women, people with disabilities and the unemployed.

    The Director General/Chief Executive, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr. (Mrs) Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, said ITF has achieved over 70 per cent job placement for its trainees across major sectors of the economy.

    According to her, the ITF’s focus was to ensure 100 per cent employment for trainees that had benefitted from the various trainings conducted in collaboration with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and other organisations.

    “Our focus is to achieve 100 per cent employment for all trainees that come on the platform. And so far, I would say that we have done quite well. Up to 70 per cent get retained by the companies that work with us to train these people, and some go to sister companies, other companies that offer the same services, and they get employed.”

    She said over 74,000 Nigerians have been trained in various vocational and technical areas under the 1,000 per state training scheme, while about one million benefitted from the overall ITF training projects, in-house and across industries in the last one year.

    The Director-General assured that the ITF would continue to increase the number of trainees in the coming years to further address the issues of unemployment in the country, adding that already the process of training two million annually has commenced.

    “I have told my team that we should look at training and working on getting jobs for at least 50 per cent of four million people to be trained. That is because the need is huge. If we don’t do this considering the number of youths that graduate from the universities every year, from the polytechnics and even the secondary schools, the unemployment rate will continue to grow at a very high rate”, she said.

    Onaeko was honoured with award of Excellence in Vocational Training and Development.

  • Empower women entrepreneurs, LCCI pleads

    Empower women entrepreneurs, LCCI pleads

    The women group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)  has made a case for more energy and resources to be channelled towards grooming the next generation of female entrepreneurs as a way of tackling the high unemployment rate in the country.

    Speaking at the second edition of the Group’s annual conference held in Lagos, the Chairperson of the Women Group, Mrs Adenike Sobajo, said this will only be possible when women take it as a point of duty to nurse and spur entrepreneurial spirit in their offspring from a tender age.

    She explained that the aim of the conference themed ‘Developing the Next Generation of Female Entrepreneurs’ was to afford up and coming female entrepreneurs the opportunity of rubbing minds with successful business women and tapping from their wealth of experience.

    “At the LCCI, the women group is ensuring that women move forward. Out of the school, we should begin to mentor them so that they can think on their own as to how to develop themselves business-wise. It is not just about making money, but adding value to their persons and to the society, Sobanjo said.

    She stated that the LCCI Women Group is already in partnership with international bodies to support aspiring women entrepreneurs with start-up capital to develop their businesses.

    Commending the initiative, LCCI President Mr. Remi Bello, represented by the former deputy governor, Lagos State, Mrs. Sarah Sosan, described the conference as ‘timely,’ considering the limited employment opportunities in the country. He however, urged women to remain undaunted from taking bold steps towards attaining outstanding financial height.

    As Bello stated, “Most of our women are inhibited; they don’t have the confidence, and for you to go into business you must be bold regardless of whether you are going to fail or not. If you fail, you will try again. Many have started and they have failed but today, they are successful.”

    The LCCI chief challenged women to strive to equip themselves with the necessary values and skills on how to access funding, start a business and be successful in their chosen field.

    “There are lots of financial outfits out there, but they will always ask for collateral that people do not have. Regardless, there is one very key asset and that is getting the first start finance from friends or families. Whatever you get, don’t take it for granted.

    Don’t mix business with pleasure or mix your capital with personal spending,” he advised.

    The Executive Director of 141 Worldwide Limited, Mrs. Bunmi Oke, said the use of modern technology and social platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and WhatsApp, among others, would afford women entrepreneurs the opportunity of global branding and recognition. “It’s all about marketing. If you cannot market yourself, you may not be successful in business,” she said.

    For Managing Director, Hayil Consult, Mrs Fehintola Folusho-Onagoruwa, there is need for women to adopt a positive mind-set on entrepreneurship. She noted that succeeding in business is not entirely a function of the environment or location, rather it is about mind-set.

    She said: “You need to move from being the employee to being a business owner. You are not a business owner when your enterprise cannot last one day without your presence. You must also understand the power of networking and partnering to make your business thrive.”

  • LCCI to focus on non-oil economy at trade fair

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said the Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) is aimed at accommodating all sectors of the economy and showcase the potential of the economy beyond oil.

    In a parley with reporters on the preparations of the fair tagged, “Enhancing value addition in the non-oil economy”, scheduled to hold between November 6 and 15, the Chairman, Trade Promotion Board of the LCCI, Dr. Olawale Cole, said the LCCI is breaking new grounds in response to the yearnings of the business world as the fair will hold simultaneously in three various venues.

    “The Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan will host   the business-to-customer general fair, the MUSON Centre, Onikan, will host the business-to-business and corporate exhibition and the Freedom Park, Broad street will host the creative industry fair, tagged Eko Akete.

    “In hosting this fair in these venues, the LCCI aims to hold an all-inclusive fair, which will accommodate all sectors of the economy and expose the potentials of the Nigerian economy beyond oil,” he said.

    He noted that the fair has attracted numerous local and international companies and already, they have confirmed bookings from China, Egypt, Japan, Ghana, India, European Union, Indonesia and Pakistan for participation in the fair.

    “The need to support the development of the non-oil sector in Nigeria especially now that the country urgently needs to diversify the economy cannot be over-emphasised. Nigeria is a mono-economy country; and it has become clear to every Nigerian that things must change fast. In line with this, especially in today’s business world, developmental initiatives such as investment conference and entrepreneurship development programmes with special focus on the non-oil sector is a means of getting the country out of the present precarious situation,” Cole said.

    According to him, another major innovation in the  LITF is the Lagos International Trade Fair Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Fora, which will be held for five days during the fair.

     

     

  • Why manufacturing sector is in recession, by LCCI

    Why manufacturing sector is in recession, by LCCI

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has stated that the nation’s manufacturing and service sectors have entered recession after recording successive decline over the last two quarters.

    Its president, Remi Bello, who spoke at a media parley at the weekend, called for urgent measures to reverse the trend.

    He blamed the sector decline on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) tight forex policies, which he said made it difficult for manufacturers to acquire imported inputs among others.

    Bello pointed out the vulnerability of the nation’s economy to external shocks and heightened fiscal challenges were beginning to manifest with the collapse of crude oil price.

    According to him: “CBN foreign exchange policy needs to be urgently reviewed to encourage the inflow of autonomous funds into the foreign exchange market.

    “The current tight exchange controls is a major disincentive to the inflow of Diaspora funds, export proceeds and other autonomous funds into the economy, thus worsening the foreign exchange crisis.

    “The CBN needs to be creative in its fight against money laundering to minimise disruptions to economic activities.

    “Its current approach has caused considerable disruptions to economic activities in the country.”

    On the impact on the manufacturing sector, he said the sovereign risk perception of Nigeria has worsened over the last two months.

    He explained: “Several credit lines for Nigerian investors have been lost following the numerous cases of payment defaults to foreign suppliers.

    “Many companies are on the brink of collapse because of the failure to access foreign exchange for raw materials and other critical inputs, even companies whose inputs are valid for foreign exchange also suffer the same fate.”

    The LCCI boss called on the government to review some trade policy measures to boost customs revenue.

    He also suggested regular value-for-money audit in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), greater vigilance on fiscal leakages from ghost workers, ghost pensioners and ghost institutions to stimulate the economy.

  • Oil sector mismanagement killing economy, says LCCI

    THE inability of the Federal Government to provide policy direction for growth in oil and gas industry is rubbing off on manufacturing, banking, maritime, and other critical sectors of the economy, the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr Muda Yusuf, has said.

    Speaking at an event in Lagos, he said the failure of successive administrations to provide a policy that would facilitate growth in the oil and gas industry is having a spill-over effect on other sectors of the economy

    He explained that oil is the barometer which gauge or measure the growth of the nation’s economy, adding that manufacturing and other sectors will experience growth once the petroleum industry grows.

    Yusuf said many local and foreign investors are willing to invest in the oil and gas sector due to its immense opportunities, noting that there has never been an enduring policies to attract investments and by extension growth to the industry.

    He said when the oil and gas sector experiences boom, as a result of increased activities, other sectors would benefit as well.

    He said when the fundamentals in the oil and gas industry are good, and businesses were recording huge turnovers and profit, people would have money to invest in banking, manufacturing and other sectors.

    According to him, recession in the industry is creeping to other areas of the economy, arguing that well articulated and implemented policies would bring about the desired growth in the economy.

    He said when policies are right the right personnel would be employ to drive the growth of the petroleum industry.

    Lawal said the appointment of Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was  welcome, in view of problems, such as low investment and activities in the oil sector.

    He said: “The role of the Federal Government is to provide an enabling environment for operators in the oil and gas, manufacturing and other sectors. President Muhammad Buhari has started well by appointing a qualified person to man NNPC. Supposing the country has men of integrity in various sectors, there would not be problems in the economy. People are describing Buhari as a man of integrity; a man who is ready to work for the progress of the country but the question is: What if Buhari leaves tomorrow? What would happen in Nigeria? That is the reason why sustainability of good policies and ideas is key to the growth of the economy.”

    He said there would not be growth in the economy, until the government provides an enabling environment for operators.

    On subsidy, Yusuf said the country cannot afford to be paying trillions of naira as subsidies to major oil marketers approved, by the Federal Government,  to import fuel into the country,

    He said it does not make sense to spend huge amount of money on subsidies, when governments at various levels cannot pay their workers.

  • NSE wins LCCI’s award on best practice

    NSE wins LCCI’s award on best practice

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI)  has conferred its Award for Promotion of Best Practice Reporting and Corporate Disclosure on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    The award was presented to NSE by the President of the LCCI, Alhaji Remi Bello at the ceremony  in Lagos.

    LCCI’s Director-General, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said the objective of the yearly awards was to recognise, celebrate and promote private and public institutions that have exhibited the core values of best business practices, growth through innovations, business sustainability and have impacted the society positively.

    According to him, the award is  highly credible where winners emerge through a painstaking selection process from hundreds of entries backed by feedbacks from dedicated research and market intelligence.

    On the award, Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema said the award highlights the positive reaction to the strong corporate governance regime that the management of the Exchange has emplaced and the success the Exchange had achieved with its listed companies on timely financial and information disclosures.

    “We are encouraged to do more by ensuring that our listed companies continue to act in the best interest of investors thereby adding tangible value in protecting and sustaining the corporate health of the exchange and the capital market in general,” Onyema said.

    This is the third award received by the Exchange in barely a month.

    The Exchange was first presented with the African Regulator of the Year at the Sixth African Business Leadership Awards in London in July. Last week,  it clinched the Financial Institution of the Year Award at the Oil & Gas Year Nigeria Award.

  • LCCI decries govt’s inability to meet financial obligations

    LCCI decries govt’s inability to meet financial obligations

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has frowned at the inability of governments at all levels to meet their financial obligations, noting that the situation underscored the imperative of economic diversification and prudent management of state resources and efforts at blocking all fiscal leakages as well as the recovery of looted funds.

    While commending the Federal Government’s intervention in mitigating the conditions of the states and local governments, and efforts at blocking all fiscal leakages and recovery of looted funds, the LCCI proposed that appropriate systems, structures and institutions should be put in place at all levels of government to sustain the integrity and transparency of public sector transactions.

    In a communiqué issued after its meeting in Lagos on Wednesday by LCCI Director-General, Mr. Muda Yusuf, the Chamber urged the Federal Government to unveil its economic blueprints in order to stem the tide of declining investors’ confidence in the economy.

    “Council notes that there is yet no clarity in the policy direction of the government and this is a major factor in investors’ confidence. The uncertainty that began in January this year seems to have lingered. Council urged the Buhari administration to make clear pronouncements with respect to its fiscal policy, foreign exchange policy, and tax policy,” Yusuf said, in the document made available to The Nation.

    He listed other areas where such pronouncement would address to include subsidy policy, trade policy, reform of oil and gas sector (upstream and downstream), power sector, 2015 Budget, auto policy, and other sectoral policies. “All these are necessary for the investors to have a clear insight into the policy direction of the government and take strategic investment decisions,” Yusuf said.

    LCCI also noted the current macro-economic challenges facing the nation, especially the decline in foreign exchange inflow, saying that Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) numerous efforts to protect the foreign reserves and stabilise the exchange rate were acknowledged.

    However, the Council expressed concern over the current methodology of the CBN in achieving these objectives. “The current model of foreign exchange management by the CBN has profound negative consequences for investors’ confidence and the stability of the foreign exchange market. Council, therefore, calls for a more strategic framework for the management of the foreign exchange market,” the document said.

    The Chamber also urged the President to quickly set up an economic team that will interface with the CBN, the organised private sector and key economic ministries to come up with a sustainable model for the management of the foreign exchange market.

  • LCCI faults CBN’s decision on forex

    LCCI faults CBN’s decision on forex

    The dust raised by the Foreign Exchange (forex) policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which excluded 41 items from the foreign exchange market, has refused to settle. This time, the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the CBN to maintain status quo on its policy stance has not gone down well with members of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)

    The MPC had after its meeting of July 23 and 24, 2015, decided to retain the current demand management model in the foreign exchange market.

    However, after a review of the MPC’s decisions, LCCI said “this singular decision reflects an ominous indifference of the CBN to the plight of various stakeholders including manufacturers over its foreign exchange management strategy.”

    The Chamber in a statement signed by its President Remi Bello, said it shared CBN’s concern that there are no easy choices given the dwindling crude oil price, dwindling accretion to reserves, weak fiscal position of government and the pressure on foreign reserves.

    “We also share the submission of the apex bank that the Federal Government needs to unfold its economic agenda to boost investors’ confidence and reduce uncertainty in the economy.

    “We support CBN’s position that monetary policy instruments need to be complemented with fiscal policies to achieve the desired economic outcomes, as monetary policy has severe limitations in the present circumstances,” the statement said.

    The LCCI however, argued that the present model, which is essentially an administrative allocation mechanism, has profound collateral consequences for the economy – the opaqueness of the foreign exchange management, vulnerability to corrupt practices and distortions in the economy.

    LCCI noted that submissions by stakeholders in the economy to the CBN to review its list of items not valid for foreign exchange were completely ignored by the MPC, and that the matter was not even mentioned in the communiqué. “We are gravely disturbed by this disposition,” Bello said.

    Bello further expressed the chamber’s worry on the apparent trivialisation by the CBN of developments in the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange market. “It is curious that the unprecedented disparity in the rates did not seem to bother the CBN,” he added.

    He also affirmed that the widening disparity in rates has profound implications for the economy. “It is an incentive for round tripping. “It would create distortions in the economy, compromise the principle of level playing field in the economy, and make the management of the foreign exchange market vulnerable to all manner of sharp practices and corruption,” he added.

    LCCI pointed out that the large informal sector of the economy is fed largely from this segment of the market and that these are issues the CBN cannot afford to ignore.

    He observed that fuel import exerts the highest pressure on the foreign exchange market and the country’s reserves.

    While stating that the chamber expects this matter to be highlighted in the MPC communiqué, Bello called on President Muhammadu Buhari to do something urgently about these critical issues.

    He said: “The protracted problem of excess liquidity should be addressed in a manner that would not persistently cause disruptions and dislocations in the economy.  The therapy of interminable monetary tightening has really not worked.  The focus has been on tackling the symptoms, not the cause.”

    Bello advised that fixing the problem through a root cause analysis will be more helpful to the economy. “We note, for instance, that while the benchmark for Net Credit to the economy was 29.3 per cent for 2015, credit to Federal Government grew by 40 per cent as at June 2015. These are issues to worry about,” he said.

    Bello also noted that the money supply impact of monetisation of oil revenue receipts, banking system credit to government, and the various intervention funds of the CBN need to be critically examined at this time.

    According to him, the crisis of excess liquidity has done incalculable damage to the economy for many years.  “There is a strong nexus between the crisis of liquidity, rising inflation; exchange rate depreciation, weakening purchasing power and worsening poverty of citizens over the years.  It is in fact the principal reason for the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty,” he pointed out.

    The LCCI President disagreed with CBN that the factors driving inflation at this time are transient as suggested by the MPC. Rather, he observed that the continued depreciation of the currency and the structural issues are major factors putting pressures on prices, which needs to be tackled urgently.