Post by Trade facilitator on Sept 11, 2014 14:08:05 GMT 1
The Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NBCC) is planning to take 30 food processors, fashion designers and other businesspeople to the United Kingdom to explore various markets in the country.
The chamber has also signed a five year memorandum of understanding (MoU) to wholly manage Nigeria’s non-oil exports moving to the UK.
Adeyemi Adefulu, president and chairman of the council, said the chamber also intends to take Nigerian exporters of various segments abroad every year, stressing that NBCC is on the verge of establishing an export desk which will be a one-stop agency to Nigerian exporters and chambers of commerce whose members are interested in exporting to the UK .
‘’We would also have the necessary structure in Britain which can manage Nigerian products in the UK in a way they have not been managed before,’’ he said during the launch of Ondo Kingdom Chamber of Commerce held in the state.
According to him, while the NBCC has the total effect of taking Nigerian exporters to the UK market has been tangential. He said Nigerian yams, plantains, bananas, pineapple, smoked fish are not found on the high street shops of London even though Ghanaian products are very much available, adding that this provides opportunities to Nigerian businesspeople.
‘’There are no less than three million Nigerians living in the UK. It is a country which should be a major target of our non oil export. Yet it was not happening,’’ he stated, adding that NBCC has to improve its operational capacity because it observed that the trade between Nigeria and Britain was not at the level in which it should be.
He said the formation of Ondo Kingdom Chamber of Commerce at this time is considered late as the inability to organise and sharpen its voice and being aggressive through advocacy and lobby and pressure group as seen cocoa and timber decimated, with an attendant removal of a solid base of wealth creation.
“These are resources on which several industries would have been founded. Today, properly managed, Ondo should be exporting cocoa butter, cocoa creams, chocolates and other cocoa based products from cottage industries,” he said.
“ It should also be exporting chipboards, veneers, plywood, not to talk of excellent wood- based furniture to many parts of the world. My conclusion is that by standing by and leaving everything to government, the Ondo business class has been complicit in the destruction of these sustainable wealth generating resources and with it thousands of jobs and opportunities,’’ he added.
Source: Businessday.
The chamber has also signed a five year memorandum of understanding (MoU) to wholly manage Nigeria’s non-oil exports moving to the UK.
Adeyemi Adefulu, president and chairman of the council, said the chamber also intends to take Nigerian exporters of various segments abroad every year, stressing that NBCC is on the verge of establishing an export desk which will be a one-stop agency to Nigerian exporters and chambers of commerce whose members are interested in exporting to the UK .
‘’We would also have the necessary structure in Britain which can manage Nigerian products in the UK in a way they have not been managed before,’’ he said during the launch of Ondo Kingdom Chamber of Commerce held in the state.
According to him, while the NBCC has the total effect of taking Nigerian exporters to the UK market has been tangential. He said Nigerian yams, plantains, bananas, pineapple, smoked fish are not found on the high street shops of London even though Ghanaian products are very much available, adding that this provides opportunities to Nigerian businesspeople.
‘’There are no less than three million Nigerians living in the UK. It is a country which should be a major target of our non oil export. Yet it was not happening,’’ he stated, adding that NBCC has to improve its operational capacity because it observed that the trade between Nigeria and Britain was not at the level in which it should be.
He said the formation of Ondo Kingdom Chamber of Commerce at this time is considered late as the inability to organise and sharpen its voice and being aggressive through advocacy and lobby and pressure group as seen cocoa and timber decimated, with an attendant removal of a solid base of wealth creation.
“These are resources on which several industries would have been founded. Today, properly managed, Ondo should be exporting cocoa butter, cocoa creams, chocolates and other cocoa based products from cottage industries,” he said.
“ It should also be exporting chipboards, veneers, plywood, not to talk of excellent wood- based furniture to many parts of the world. My conclusion is that by standing by and leaving everything to government, the Ondo business class has been complicit in the destruction of these sustainable wealth generating resources and with it thousands of jobs and opportunities,’’ he added.
Source: Businessday.