Lagos Chamber of Commerce Tackles Economic Meltdown
Manvic Nzekwe
Worried by the current global economic meltdown, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) chose its theme for the just concluded 24th edition of the Lagos International Trade Fair as: Turning the Global Economic Crisis into New Opportunities; with a view to providing other avenues to tackle the problem.
The 10 day event saw captains of commerce and industry, top government functionaries, exhibitors and participants gather to proffer alternative ways of tackling the problem and avert its ruinous repercussions on the nation’s economy.
The Federal Government had earlier kick-started the objective by embarking on various banking reforms through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as part of its initiatives at strengthening the financial sector and restoring investor confidence.
Against this backdrop, the President, Alhaji Musa Yar’ Adua, declared during the opening ceremony that Nigeria as a nation must move to reposition her economy to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities she faced at home and internationally.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, assured that his administration is unequivocally committed to engendering the enabling environment and requisite fiscal policies needed to drive sustainable growth and economic development in the country.
He expressed confidence in the support of the organized private sector as represented by the Chamber, as a way of meeting the challenges of the present meltdown. He also announced to the gathering that ‘the Federal Executive Council has awarded contracts for the rehabilitations of 25 major road projects spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country’.
In his address, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, noted that the global meltdown has adversely affected the economies of developed and developing countries alike. “Given our level of development” he said, “the impact will be more on our economy” and therefore, called for conscious efforts on the part of government and the private sector to reduce the adverse repercussions on the citizens.
While pointing out that the nation is undoubtedly blessed with abundant human and natural resources, he called for the adequate harmonization of these resources for the peoples benefit through careful planning and robust partnership between government and the private sector.
Chief Udenwa suggested that one of the initiatives the nation must explore is the inculcation of a culture of patriotism in the citizenry to buy Made-in-Nigeria products as ‘this is a veritable tool to get our economy out of the world economic crisis through stimulation of domestic product demand”.
He assured of his ministry’s determination to collaborate with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other relevant stakeholders to fashion out ways of approximating this objective and urged the Chamber to further get involved in checking fake products.
Participants agreed that the theme was timely and could not have come at a more appropriate time considering the present general outcry from stakeholders with regards to the negative effects the current meltdown has had on their businesses since 2008.
Dr. Simon Chukwuemeka Okolo, National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers, Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) says: The present economic meltdown calls for serious concern by both the government and private sector of the economy on the need to come together and proffer sustainable solutions on how the monster can be turned into an angel of new opportunities”.
The association’s National President, who was represented at the opening ceremony of the Fair by the First Deputy National President, Dr. Ademola Ajayi, advised that for the global economic crisis to be turned into new opportunities, government must demonstrate political will and pay attention to the agricultural, industrial, solid minerals and tourism sectors of the economy by ensuring good governance, the provision of an enabling business environment, infrastructure, adequate power supply as well as formulating consistent economic policies and legislation that would facilitate profitable ventures.
Dr. Okolo also urged all levels of government to take necessary steps to ensure the security of life and property, as a way of attracting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country which could turn the global crisis into new opportunities in Nigeria.
Earlier in his address, the President of the Lagos Chapter, Mr. Aiwa Solomon Onafwokan, explained that the theme was chosen to emphasize that, even in a crisis situation, there are opportunities. He noted that a good entrepreneur will see opportunities where others see challenges. He also remarked that the global economic crisis has taken a toll on business performance pointing out that credit performance has become tighter, interest rates risen sharply, government spending slowed, the naira exchange rate worsened, manufacturing capacity utilisation declined and the stock market experiencing the worst downturn in recent history.
As a way out, Onafowakan stressed the need to rescue the economy from numerous parasites in the system and free it from the shackles of needless regulations and red tapism. He also wants the government to open up the economic and investment space to allow entrepreneurs to optimally express themselves within the framework of the best practice principles of a marketing economy.
The paramount challenge in the nation’s quest for economic transformation is to deal with factors impeding competitiveness of the private sector including infrastructure conditions like poor public power supply, the menace of multiple taxes and levies, corruption, dumping of substandard and fake products, the NACCIMA President further counselled.
