The managing director/chief executive officer, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, has reiterated the need to deepen collaboration with the Organised Private Sector (OPS) for a sustainable free trade zone operation.
Adesugba stated this Thursday at the First Quarter Council Meeting of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in Abuja.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Authority’s head of corporate communications, Martins Odeh.
He said the scheme was a global concept that liberalised the business environment through various task exemptions, adding that enterprises operating in the zones were less likely to struggle because of the existing safety nets.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari administration means well for the growth of the economy and he has been consistent with investing in the two public zones. We, therefore, need a sustainable collaboration with the organized private sector for NEPZA to achieve its lofty mandate.
“Without sounding immodest, I am a man of many parts, traversing the public and private sectors with a stop-over at this highly revered association, NACCIMA, being also a member. We should be genuinely interested in helping the government and its agencies to develop the country.
“Just as I thought I was done with the public sector, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari found me worthy to step in as the managing director/chief executive officer of NEPZA on June 26,” the statement read in part.
It read further, “I may be the managing director of NEPZA today, but I want to state for the record that the experiences I had garnered from NACCIMA and other of its affiliate bodies like the Abuja Chamber of Commerce, have continued to assist me tremendously in my current national duty.
“I have in the over 100 days as head of NEPZA tried to do that which His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, had sent me to do, which is simply to reposition the Authority to begin to truly drive the country’s industrialisation.
“I had, therefore, within this short period engaged the management and staff of the Authority, zones’ operators, some state governors, the organised private sector (OPS) and other stakeholders to reset our thinking towards only ensuring the success of the free trade zone concept in Nigeria.”
In her remarks, the NACCIMA president, Hajiya Saratu Iya Aliyu, urged members to explore and exploit NEPZA’s new investment focus which included the medical and pharmaceutical, agriculture, technology, mining and tourism.
Aliyu said the need for public and private sector collaboration could not be overemphasised, adding that NACCIMA and NEPZA collaboration would speedily have a positive impact in job creation, revenue generation and industrialization of the nation.
