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Despite challenges, Nigerian businesses growing – LCCI

By on May 4, 2014

The President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Alhaji Remi Bello, has said that despite the challenging investment environment in the country, entrepreneurs are still growing.

Bello spoke at LCCI’s maiden Commerce and Industry Awards, held in Lagos on Thursday, adding that the event was aimed at promoting core values and celebrating private and public businesses for positive impact on the society.

He said, “The investment environment may be challenging, but it has brought the best out of entrepreneurs. We are today celebrating enterprises that have excelled in the economy amidst multitude of challenges in the environment. We are also excited that many of them are indigenous enterprises.

“We recognise that there is no perfect time to make an impact in any system. While the government is fixing the power sector, security challenges, infrastructure issues, national bottlenecks, corruption, the private sector must move on. Our nominees have not only moved on but they have excelled.”

Several companies were given awards for innovation and best business practices in different categories including finance, professional services, hotel and tourism, telecommunications, transport and logistics, agriculture, oil and gas, manufacturing, retail trade as well as the grand award of company of the year.

According to Bello, the award is expected to promote healthy competition among corporate organisations as well as the public sector and to also promote core values that will ensure sustainable progress of the nation’s economy.

He added that these core values included integrity, transparency, social responsibility, and sincere commitment to the ideals of business ethics.

In his goodwill message, Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, described commerce as the driving force of the economy.

Fashola who was represented by the Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mrs. Olusola Oworu, said the state would continue to do its best to provide a conducive and safe environment in which people can conduct business.

He said, “As the governor of a state with a monthly GDP of N20bn, I know how important commerce is for our growth. That is why, in Lagos State, we do all we can to support organizations, including small and medium businesses.

“Through our laws and policies we strive to ease the constraints of doing business so that companies can be more productive and, thus, contribute better to the economy.”

He said the focus on expanding the business terrain in the state prompted the government to embark on the provision of power, expansion of agriculture, the provision of organised transportation systems and affordable housing.

“As a state government in a federal system of government, there are constraints limiting what we can achieve, especially in the power sector, but we are constantly finding creative solutions to these problems. That is why we embarked on building Independent power plants, a project that we are constantly expanding so that in some years, power will no longer be an impediment to conducting business in Lagos State,” he said.

Fashola commended companies in the private sector for their commitment to economic growth, adding “although today we are celebrating companies in the public and private sectors, which have contributed most meaningfully to the development of commerce and Industry in different sectors of the Nigerian economy in the past year, I urge others to emulate these companies.”

The National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar said there was the need for the government to re-invigorate its efforts at enhancing the growth and development of the private sector through effective policies.

This, he said, would make them play their role as the drivers of economic growth and development of the nation.

 

 

[Punch]