…As chamber holds 10th lecture
From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State was agog recently during the installation of Mr. Don Ebubeogu as the 12th President of the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ONICCIMA).
The Onitsha Chamber established in 1954 is the voice of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) East of the Niger and has since been striving for a friendly business environment through advocacy and strategic engagements.
The chamber also promotes business ethics and engages in service oriented interventions, just as it strives for a sustained, friendly business environment, engages in appropriate legislative and public advocacy exercises for the overall interest of its members and the larger business community.
With a total of 11 presidents in the past who had all contributed their own quota in maintaining the objectives, mission and vision of the chamber, the inauguration of Ebubeogu, managing director, Tiger Foods Ltd, came with high expectations.
Venue of the installation ceremony was filled to the brim with captains of industry, government officials, politicians, the clergy and persons from all other sectors.
Chairman on the occasion, Chief Oranu Chris Chidume, group managing director, Krisoral Group of Companies, noted that ONICCIMA has impacted greatly on the lives of the citizenry through agriculture while the chamber is growing from strength to strength in the area of entrepreneurship.
Chief Oranu urged the government to make practical policies that would help engage the youths and improve the agricultural sector of the economy.
While urging the youths to also key into the existing opportunities embedded in agriculture, he lamented the frustration facing industrialists in the area of energy and called on the Federal Government to declare an emergency in the power sector and pursue the actualisation of steady power supply with vigour and determination.
The immediate past president of ONICCIMA, Uche Apakama, a pharmacist, congratulated the new president and assured him of continued support.
He called on all credible OPS operators in Onitsha in particular and the larger business community to embrace and support the chamber as the major voice of private sector enterprise.
Apakama called on the Federal Government to consider the Second Niger Bridge as a project of national importance, which would add significant value to the socio-economic life of the country when successfully executed.
He also called for a transparent process in the selection of concessionaries for the recently advertised concessioning of the Onitsha River Port and also noted that the OPS was concerned about the slow implementation of the 2017 Federal budget passed by the National Assembly.
The royal father of the day, Igwe Alfred Nnamemeka Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, remarked that the wellbeing of any nation lies on its ability to create wealth, noting that the Onitsha business environment is under threat as a result of weak commitment in city planning.
He said the Onitsha traditional institution would always welcome the chamber and offer any assistance required to maintain the glory of the city as the commercial nerve centre of West Africa.
National President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Iyalode Alaba Lawson, shortly before inaugurating the new executives of ONICCIMA, said despite the fact that the nation was facing economic recession, the federal and state governments were putting in earnest efforts to restore the nation’s economy to the path of growth.
She noted that based on the report from the National Bureau of Statistics released in the fourth quarter of 2016, agriculture contributed only 5.85 per cent to the nation’s export despite the fact that the country is blessed with arable land good for agriculture.
She said modernised agricultural practices and infrastructure needed to ensure efficiency was applied to produce quantity at internationally acceptable exportable quality.
She congratulated Ebubeogu and his team and expressed hope that ONICCIMA under him would accomplish remarkable increase in membership, flourishing of businesses as well as successfully engage in the establishment of new ventures.
Ebubeogu promised to continue from where the former president, Uche Apakama, stopped in the pursuit of the objectives of ONICCIMA.
He assured that he would undertake wide range of activities, which would include the promotion, protection and development of all matters affecting business leading to the repositioning of the association.
“With 17 years of rich experience in the Executive Council of ONICCIMA and the opportunity of studying the dynamic leadership of the last four presidents of ONICCIMA,, I have no doubt that I shall continue to uphold the tradition and tenets of this chamber which have supported enterprise and made great efforts to fulfill its tasks of representing the business community, contributing to the improvement of economic development and business climate, promoting trade and investment and supporting enterprise to develop and integrate.
“As the Nigerian economy gradually recovers from recession, the Onitsha business community is currently making effort to accelerate restructuring and successfully promoting the cause of industrialisation and modernisation. I pledge that under my leadership, ONICCIMA, as a professional representative of the Onitsha business community, will continue to uphold its tradition of solidarity, actively take part in this recovery process and fulfill all tasks entrusted it by organized private sector,” he said.
The state governor, Chief Willie Obiano, who was represented by the Commissioner for Lands, Sir Okey Morka, also wished the ONICCIMA president a fruitful tenure.
He recounted all efforts made by his administration in providing a favourable atmosphere for business in Anambra through security and other incentives to farmers.
The inauguration was spiced with a lecture entitled: “Commercial agriculture value chain: Providing opportunities for economic recovery and growth”, delivered by Prof. Charles U. Onugu, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.