Niger Delta
PHCCIMA, Centre Partner To Promote Business Organisations
The Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA) and Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E & I) Centre have indicated their readiness to partner in promoting business organisations in the state.
The Second Deputy President of PHCCIMA, Dr. Chinyere Nwoga, who made this known recently in Port Harcourt when PHCCIMA, in collaboration with E & I Centre, organized a one-day relationship building and partnership brokering workshop, emphasized on the need for business linkages and connections.
Dr. Nwoga, who represented the PHCCIMA President, Chief Nabil Saleh at the occasion, stated that this is why the present PHCCIMA administration has continued to provide support for businesses in the State.
“The present administration has continued to make effort to provide support for growing business connections of member companies via exploration of possible avenues with partner organisations”, she said.
She explained that PHCCIMA is aware of the constraints hampering local businesses, which, she said, include: deficiency in human and financial resources, as well as lack of access to bigger corporations.
“This is why the Chamber serves as a bridge by creating platforms for an interface between stakeholders”, she explained.
She emphasized the need for bigger corporations to join the Chamber, noting that “they have the capacity, competence, and hunger for higher level facilitation”.
While expressing the belief that the workshop will open new frontiers of business opportunities that will translate to increased employment and stimulation of local earning, Dr. Nwoga further noted some of the advantages accruable from businesses linking with PHCCIMA.
According to her, “PHCCIMA is the second largest Chamber of Commerce, first e-Chamber of Commerce in the country, and renowned for housing a one-stop-shop with various Federal agencies and business entities.
“The Chamber provides advocacy, advisory, mentorship, and a direct communication with embassies, trade missions, etc”, she said.
Also speaking, the Managing Partner/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of E & I Centre, Mr. Chika Chinwah, explained the reason for the workshop.
“The ‘Rivers State Local Enterprise Development Business Linkages Workshop’ is one of the strategies through which E & I, PHCCIMA, and other key stakeholders seek to broaden its outreach activities, particularly to large corporations and multinationals in Rivers State and the Niger Delta”, he said.
According to him, it is intended to provide a platform for local enterprises to establish sustainable business relationships with large multinational and corporate buyers of goods and services in the State.
The Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, has alerted the Governor of Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Abia states to what he calls an emerging ‘Economic Triangle’ within their states.
Mr China, a real estate success strategist who has won numerous local and international awards, has thus drawn the attention of the governors of the concerned states to the emerging development and has urged them to intentionally accelerate the emergence of the economic triangle.
Speaking to newsmen in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital at the conclusion of his business trip to the state, Mr China, who is the managing director of the Housing and Construction Mayor Limited, said the envisaged economic corridor would compete favourably with the Lagos economic hub or even better.
He said: “Talking about ‘Economic Triangle’, the only place that can wrest economic power from Lagos is Akwa Ibom, Abia, and Rivers states axis or corridor. This corridor contains more than Lagos has, if they can be interconnected with smooth roads, ports, and if their blue potentials are unlocked. They will not only wrest power from Lagos but would be more lucrative.”
The investor who is behind the emerging Alesa Highlands Green Smart City in Eleme, near Port Harcourt, said the new ‘Economic Triangle’ has a bigger potential due to massive land assets with the corridor plus blue economy and the existing hydrocarbon industry.
Explaining, Mayor of Housing said Aba (Abia State) provides the biggest fabrication capacity in West Africa to supply goods to the Gulf of Guinea; Port Harcourt provides access to the Gulf of Guinea for off-taking Aba products, and the Uyo provides deep sea port at Ibaka and international airport facilities as well as forest reserves for massive agro-economy.
He said with sea ports in Rivers State and deep seaport in Akwa Ibom, and international airports in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, Aba can focus on adequate power supply and fabrication boom to supply a new booming market around the economic triangle.
By doing this, he said, jobs would spill out in huge quantities and more manufacturers would be drawn from all over Africa to boost the fast coming African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). He said Nigeria would thus have two major trade nodes in West Africa; Lagos and the PH/UYO/Aba triangle.
He said goods going to or coming from Chad, Niger, and the rest of Central Africa can head to the Lagos ports or to the Ibaka/PH ports zone in the new economic triangle.
He said with power supply made stable, good roads, excellent security system, and ease of doing business enthroned in the zone, the South-South and South East would become the biggest economic nerve in the near future.
Mayor of Housing called on governors of the three states to be intentional about the new corridor, put away political differences (if any), and create this corridor by agreeing on projects each state would execute with a short period of time so the states would be linked by good roads, communication, security, trade laws, concessions to investors, etc.
He remarked that northerners were already heading to the Onne Port in Rivers State to export goods, saying creating a commission to oversee the development of the ‘Economic Triangle’ would fast-track its emergence.
He observed that people of the three states are peaceful and usually preoccupied with zeal for economic prosperity, saying that if they are linked to such huge opportunities staring at them in the emerging economic triangle, they would totally shun violence and focus on prosperity.
Mr China insisted that the emerging economic triangle would form a big node not only into the Gulf of Guinea economic zone but into Africa because AfCFTA is about production, certification, market availability, and easy transport nodes by sea and air. He said the new economic triangle boasts of all the factors.
“They can only realise this by working together, through collaboration. One state cannot do it but a triangle of the three will create it through seamless interconnection, ports, industrial park, etc. The people will be the richest and internally generated revenue (IGR) will be the biggest in the country,” he said.
Niger Delta
Bayelsa’s Aircraft Makes Inaugural Flight…As Lawmakers, Oil Minister, NDDC’S MD Hail Diri
-
Featured4 days agoOil & Gas: Rivers Remains The Best Investment Destination – Fubara
-
Nation4 days ago
Hausa Community Lauds Council Boss Over Free Medical Outreach
-
Nation4 days agoOgoni Power Project: HYPREP Moves To Boost Capacity Of Personnel
-
Nation4 days ago
MOSIEND Calls For RSG, NDDC, Stakeholders’ Intervention In Obolo Nation
-
Nation4 days ago
Association Hails Rivers LG Chairmen, Urges Expansion Of Dev Projects
-
Nation4 days ago
Film Festival: Don, Others Urge Govt To Partner RIFF
-
News4 days agoNDLEA Arrests Two, Intercepts Illicit Drugs Packaged As Christmas Cookies
-
News4 days agoTroops Rescue 12 Abducted Teenage Girls In Borno