President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce & lndustry (LCCI), Dr Olawale-Cole said the core objective of the Chamber is to facilitate trade. He spoke at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair themed, “Connecting Businesses, Creating Value”.
He said the Chamber’s aim is to facilitate trade towards advancing industrialisation, engendering a high growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), promoting inclusive and sustainable economic development.
According to him, this year’s fair is specifically packaged to showcase innovations in goods and services on the platform of competitiveness that showcases indigenous/ home grown businesses and their foreign counterparts from across the globe.
“With the disruptions to global supply chains induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, and more recently Climate Change impacts, international trade has been recommended as a veritable tool to build back and sustainable too,” he stated.
The LCCI chief hailed the launch of the Special Agro lndustrial Processing Zone’s (SAPZ) programme by the Federal Government and supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Islamic Development Bank and the lnternational Fund for Agricultural Development as CO- Financiers.
Olawale- Cole argued that financing trade to boost exports from Nigeria should be the target of Banks in exploring the opportunities provided by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). He said LCCI is deliberately featuring some African countries hosted by AFREXIM Bank as a practical way to promote AfCFTA and boost intra- Africa trade.
On the country’s involved in the deal, he listed them as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, Rwanda, South, South Sudan, Cameron etc.
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“The 2022 Lagos lnternational Trade Fair is poised to create value for exhibitors, visitors and sponsors.” he added.
Earlier, Minister of Industry, Trade & investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo also supported the AfCFTA) hinting that the agreement will dramatically boost intra-African trade which Nigeria is a signatory.
According to him the agreement is expected to deliver an integrated continental market, consisting of 1.3 billion consumers. He stated that it is a great opportunity for Nigeria as the nation’s international trade is currently doing well with a trade surplus between January and June of 2022 in excess of N3.2 trillion.
He said: “This trade fair is a great opportunity to showcase Nigeria’s capacity to produce to international standards and also to export. The public sector will continue to drive investment into infrastructure development, encourage access to low-cost financing and provide fiscal incentives to companies wishing to manufacture products for sale”.
The minister underscored the need for the public and private sectors to work together. He encouraged the private sector to assist in boosting the demand for Nigerian products by aggressively pursuing value addition and increasing the quality of exported goods originating from our country.