By Naomi Uzor

THE new National President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Chief Alaba Lawson, has said that her vision for the chamber in the next two years is to bring back its age long mandate as the voice of the Nigerian business, by consciously influencing government policies and businesses.

•Iyalode Alaba Lawson

She said,“This I believe will enhance our visibility and further position us as a trusted partner of government. A group of high powered and influential members of our association would be put together to relate with government on a regular basis and initiate programmes with all the tiers of government for the development of our economy. This is the concept behind the chamber of commerce movement all over the world, and we will ensure that programmes such as budget dinner, presidential dialogue, and legislative roundtable, etc., would be brought back, and we will ensure that they are sustained and are impactful.”

On women and youth empowerment, she said women and youth form more than half of any country’s talent base and our country was not an exception.

“It is important that we empower the workforce so as to enhance their productivity and foster economic growth. While we recognize the effort of the current administration in developing the MSME sector in Nigeria, I will like to state that our association also recognises the fact that women and youth take the larger percentage of MSME operators, who have found it difficult to access different opportunities and privileges that are available in the country.

“We will strive to work with Federal Government and development agencies to create a platform that can enhance the capacity of our women and youth, while also establishing job centres through collaborations with agencies organizations,” she affirmed.

Lawson noted that as a leading player in the global economy, efforts would be made to enhance regional trade relationship by repackaging our trade mission to tend towards foreign direct investment (FDI) i.e. ensuring that more foreign organization are invited to partner with our members and government in establishing companies and creating demand supply platform for Agricultural products and other mineral resources.