Nigeria Must Sign To African Continental Free Trade Zone – NACCIMA President

The National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Iyalode Alaba Lawson, while fielding questions from journalists shortly after the commissioning of Ide John C. Ideagbala Business Centre (NACCIMA House) in Ikeja, Lagos, today, speaks on her achievements during her two years tenure, saying Nigeria must sign to the African Continental Free Trade Zone. Excerpts:

What can you say is one of the memorable things you have been able to do as the President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA)?

One of the memorable things that I have been able to do through the grace of Jehovah God is the inauguration of NACCIMA Youth Entrepreneur. You know there are so many unemployment rates going on and these youths we are catching them young using their talent instead of wasting their effort on looking for ‘white collar’ job.  The ‘white collar’ jobs are no longer there. So we inaugurated them and put some of us in a position to mentor and monitor them, to make sure they can use their talent and we put them into some agencies such as Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO); Nigeria Export Promotion Council and we put all of them together for capacity building trainings and workshops and this bring up their talent.

 I want to say a big thank you to Segun Awolowo who has been constantly there for us, sponsoring them to so many workshops even outside this great country.  For that one I have done, I can say that yes our youths are not wondering around the streets, they are working together.

Another thing is this NACCIMA Export Group. They are doing extremely well. You see, to improve our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) you need to have a very good solid export group that will obey the rules and regulations of each country so that they don’t sell our products back to us, so that our products can compete favourably all over the world.  These are the little achievements I have been able to record and I thank God for my life.

What are your views concerning African Continental Free Trade Zone? Do you think Nigeria should sign and if they sign what are the consequences?

We need to sign. There is no need to fear anything because you have to go into something before you decide whether you can now relate it to your own country. Those that have signed do not mean that immediately they will start. Whether we like it or not, we have to sign now and if we don’t sign, we have to make sure that whatever they do, we have to obey.  But as the giant of Africa, we have no option than to sign and ensure the rules and regulations are being monitored and implemented according to the Nigerian structure.

Signing doesn’t mean yes trains will start coming in here and there.  And there must be quality infrastructure on ground because even the so called developed countries, they too have gone through what Nigeria is going through today.  But what they did was  to make sure that the products coming from that country are well structured and they also ensure that quality infrastructures are put in place.

So, National Agency  for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) including all agencies, we must ensure that the quality of our products at this point in time must be able to compete favourable all over the world. So that our products will now move out and we will be able to generate income and with our foreign exchange, our economy will pick up. We have to compete with others.  The fear of unknown should not send us to becoming ant of Africa.

Can we know the number of youths that you have been able to empowered under the NACCIMA Youth Entrepreneur?

We are in seventeen states today and we are about 50,000 now and more are still joining. We had a Youth Summit in Kano, July last year and another one is coming up in Ibadan for the whole West of Odua, coming up very soon. We had a meeting at Premier Hotel, about two weeks ago, and they are really planning high while another one will be holding in Aba or Port Harcourt for the Eastern Region, but it has not yet been decided.

You see in NACCIMA, our forefathers took us into three real zones – that is the West, the North and the East.  So for the Northern Youths, we have Alhaji Yali Ibrahim monitoring and mentoring them; for the East, we have Ide John Ideagbala monitoring and mentoring them and for the West we have Chief Bayo Jimoh, immediate past Group Managing Director of Adua Group of Companies mentoring and monitoring them. So you can see, the way we have done it, they have their own shepherd flocking their sheep everywhere.

In this export group, we have so many of them now into groups, forming them into clusters on what they are able to do.

So it is not wrong to say that in your tenure you have succeeded in empowering over 50,000 youths?

Let people blow my trumpet. I am a quiet person when it comes to that, let other people see what I have done and then be able to say it out. But I felt fulfilled for the two years because God has given me the grace to do the little that I have been able to do.

I am bowing out tomorrow. I am handing over to another credible woman, Hajia Saratu in Kaduna because you have to go to your base. I came from the West, I am passing the baton to the North, and the North will pass the baton to the East. As am bowing out tomorrow, another person from the West will come to number three so that you learn for the next four years. What do you have to do?  How can you do it? And that is why we must have credible person in the Presidency of NACCIMA.

Can you tell us a bit about this event?   

When I came on board I saw that we have so many places that are not being used. So at the EXCO meeting, I told them that there are so many places that we can use especially at this area in this part of Ikeja municipality and so I called Ide ( I always called him ‘Omo Igbo’) why can’t you turn this place into business centre? And he said as your Lordship pleases, that is how we started and today we are commissioning it and somebody has been taking care of it to run it and am happy that it’s going to generate revenue for NACCIMA.