- …As Enelamah harps on Developmental financing, higher collaboration, better results
- …OGFZA says Why Intels’ licence is not renewed
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Mr Roberto Azevedo on Thursday in Abuja identified trade as Africa’s most effective tool for fighting poverty.
Azevedo indicated this in Abuja, at a two-day high level policy and private sector trade and investment facilitation partnership forum, noting that trade must however be complemented by increasing connectivity and good infrastructure.
“Trade is 24 per cent of the GDP of African countries. Developing countries will need 2.5 trillion dollar investments annually if they are to meet certain goals.
“Steps to creating enabling environment include sharing ideas, exchanging insights, cooperation at the global level to facilitate investment flows.
Also, the host and Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Okechukwu Enelamah, said although Nigeria had moved up to 145 from its previous position of 169 out of 190 economies collated by the World Bank, there was room for improvement.
“The World Bank also said Nigeria is one of the top 10 reformers. That is not where we want to be but it is better than where we were and we will move up,’’ he said.
Welcoming investors and his trade counterparts across Africa, Enelamah said there was an abundance of opportunities which must be tapped with right policies and regional integration.
He said there was an urgent need to facilitate development financing and to encourage better collaboration that would lead to better results.
In his remarks, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Marcel de Souza, commended Nigeria’s latest World Bank ranking on the ease of doing business charts.
He said although Africa had improved in free movement of persons, there was the challenge of movement of goods and the need to refocus on employment for the youth.
“We still have terrorism threatening our regions but we have adopted systems to resolve conflicts and created adopted investment codes to avoid competition among member states.
“We must begin to think towards the common currency. Systems of exchange are not easy so we have adopted programmes to go towards common currency as soon as possible.
“If we can achieve this, we’ll have more investments. I urge investors to look into health, transportation to reduce poverty,’’ he said.
The Commissioner for Trade and Industry African Union, Mr Albert Muchanga, said Nigeria’s new ranking “will improve livelihoods for the ordinary people, create jobs and boost standard of living.
“The visa on arrival policy is a step in the right direction. It will promote trade and investments across the continent’’.
The Secretary-General, UN Conference on Trade and Development, Mr Mukhisa Kituyi, expressed the said hope that Nigeria would exert its weight as the regional leader.
“Your success will go a long way in achieving our collective goals. It is sad that many African countries charge higher tariffs on goods from other African countries than goods from Europe.
“Investments cannot happen by accident, even through promotion councils, but through actual investments which is as important as trade,’’ Kituyi said.
An investor, Omar Ben Yedder, lauded the visa-on-arrival policy at the nation’s port of entry to encourage investors, calling it “smooth and easy to get’’.
The visa on arrival was initiated to fast track entry into the country for investors coming into the country.
The forum, which has the theme: Facilitating Trade and Investment for Developmen,t is co-hosted by the WTO, ECOWAS Commission and the private sector.
In the meantime, amidst escalating dispute between the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA) and the oil and gas logistic giant, Intels Nigeria Limited (INL) OGFZA has alleged that INL has not met the conditions for licence renewal.
Earlier, last week, INL had indicated that OGFZA held back its licence renewal due to outstanding contention between the two organisation even after it had paid the renewal fee.
INL had listed some of the contentious issues including the imposition of land charges by OGFZA; nullification of INL’s Industry Wide Standard Tariff (IWST) and other port related charges by OGFZA. But OGFZA said though the payment of a licence fee is necessary, it is not a sufficient condition for the renewal of a Free Zone licence.
In a statement, last night, the Managing Director of OGFZA, Mr Umana Okon Umana, said: “The payment of free zone licence fee by Intels does not in itself constitute a sufficient condition for the renewal of its operating licence for 2017.” He also said that in line with Section 35(b) of the Act, OGFZA, in a letter, FZA/INTEL/02/FZE/VO1/007, received by INL on December 21, 2016, had requested INL to submit its audited accounts and other reports.
According to him, INL has yet to meet that requirement and has not even responded to that letter. He stated: “Intel’s explanation for non-compliance is that it has disputed some of the charges that it has been asked to pay. By its position, Intels is asking for the suspension of Section 35 of the Act so that it can meet the conditions for licensing, OGFZA said.
“We find your position quite unacceptable because payment of fees and any outstanding amount due to the Authority cannot be compromised on the altar of a purported dispute unilaterally set up by a prospective licensee,” OGFZA stated in its response to Intels’ protest letter December, last year. OGFZA also said other licensees who had issues with the demand notices, took immediate steps to meet with the OGFZA in order to reconcile areas of differences.
Intels also disputed the land lease/sublease registration charge demanded by the free zone regulator, saying that the land it occupies was leased from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and not from OGFZA.
Additional report from Vanguard
