NACCIMA partners Cote D’Ivoire to drive non-oil export

EFFORTS at improving Nigeria’s non-oil potential and intra-regional trade may have received a boost with new moves by the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and Cote D’Ivoire to improve trade in agricultural products.

    Similarly, improved bilateral ties are expected to see the two countries sharing information and strategies to improve outputs of certain agricultural products where the countries share similar competitive edges.

  The second Deputy National President of the association, Iyalode Alaba Lawson, disclosed this during the courtesy visit on NACCIMA by the Cote D’Ivoire Ambassador to Nigeria and Benin Republic, Mrs. Toure Kone Maman recently.

    Lawson, who commended Cote D’Ivoire on its giant strides on agriculture, explained that the Nigerian business environment like any other developing countries in the world has tremendously improved with numerous opportunities in agriculture, oil & gas, telecommunication and power.

   She therefore called on the visiting Ambassador to sensitize her country’s businessmen and women through the Chamber of Commerce platform to visit Nigeria in order to explore areas of partnership and possible investment.

  Also, the Cote D’Ivoire Ambassador to Nigeria and Benin Republic, Mrs. Toure Kone Maman said Cote D’Ivoire is committed to building partnership with Nigeria as a big brother especially in the area of agriculture and trading between the two countries.

   The Ambassador, who recalled the state visit of President Goodluck Jonathan to Cote D’Ivoire in 2013, said that the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Joint Commission and Seven Agreements during the visit.

   Maman said she was in the NACCIMA Secretariat to share her country’s progress in the area of cocoa, cashew and coffee production as well as enlist the chamber’s support and participation in their forthcoming ‘SARA’ Agriculture Exhibition scheduled for April 2015 in Abidjan.

   She said, apart from participating in the exhibition, there would be a platform for Nigerian businessmen and women to have B2B meeting with their Ivorian counterparts.

   Maman noted that her country has equally created the single window for registration of businesses and reduced tax from 35 per cent to 25 per cent.

   Meanwhile, NACCIMA has taken over the chairmanship of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) for the next one year.

   The NACCIMA National President, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, took over from the President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Chief Frank Jacob.

   Consequently, the OPS Secretariat has moved from MAN to NACCIMA. 

   The OPS is currently comprised of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN); Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA); Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA); Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) and Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME).