Chamber plans business parks to deepen US-Nigerian trade relations
The Nigerian America Chamber of Commerce says it is planning to establish parks in states for businesses to benefit from the duty-free Africa Growth Opportunities Act of the United States government.
The President, NACC, Otunba Toyin Akomolafe, during a courtesy visit to The PUNCH head office in Ogun State on Tuesday said the parks would be a platform to create awareness of the eligible products and acceptable standards by the American government.
Already, he said Osun and Imo state governments had shown interest in the parks.
He described AGOA as an initiative of the United States Government to open up a preferential window of export opportunities to selected countries in Africa, including Nigeria.
Akomolafe said, “This window of opportunity helps in assisting our members with information and training on export procedures and standards in exporting non-oil and agro-allied products to the United States.
“Our members stand to gain a lot more with higher standards of exports and better access to finance under the AGOA initiative but all these are currently being addressed by the chamber through education and training of members by the chamber.”
According to him, Nigerians are enterprising and creative and are exporting technology skills to America regularly.
He stated that the chamber was already 60 years old in October this year, and had served as an important catalyst in bringing together people and ideas to bolster bilateral commercial relations between Nigeria and the United States over the years.
Also speaking, a board member of NACC, Emmanuel Efuntayo, said Nigerian had a lot to gain by exploring non-oil export than oil exports.
According to him, the chamber has been involved in the training of members and non-members as well as government agencies facilitating export of commodities.
He said, “We have held some training where we invited Customs because some of the government agencies constitute a roadblock when businesses are trying to export.
“We have been visiting some states to create AGOA parks and some states have promised.”
Efuntayo stated that the chamber was also facilitating access to finance for members to enable them grow their businesses.
The Director-General, NACC, Sola Obadimu, said the government needed to encourage Nigerians in America to come home often to use their talents and resources to develop the country.
He urged the government to develop investment-friendly policies and improve the ease of doing business.
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