I came in contact with the chamber of commerce as a young boy, precisely the Ondo State Chamber of Commerce where my late father, Sir Chief Felix Aiyegbusi, 1935-2019, and my dear ”uncle”, Dr Femi Orebe, the great historian, columnist and ‘another master of the pen’, held sway as Chairman and secretary sometime in the early 1980s. It was in fact the high esteem that the government held the Chamber that got my late father a place in the pioneer governing council of the then newly established Ondo State University as a member representing the Chamber.
Since then I have been a silent watcher of the activities of Chambers of Commerce all through the country with particular interests on the prestigious Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce and the Enugu Chamber of Commerce. Their annual organisation of trade fairs across the three cities at different times of the year almost became a “commercial rituals of some sort where people look up to for good buying and selling deals across the country. It was a vital part of our economy that a permanent trade fair complex was built in lagos to host the fairs and in almost all the states of the federation. They are still monuments of some sort till date. I recall vividly while as young men how we go to trade fairs looking for the stands of Breweries looking for discounted bottles of beer to buy. Trade fairs were indeed carnival like and always an exciting trading experience. They were centers of business consumation where traders and consumers look forward to meeting manufacturers. And some meetings were indeed life-changing.
The prestigious Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry stands out as the pioneer Chamber of commerce in the country probably because Lagos is the nerve center of commercial activities in the country and of course the headquarters of all major businesses ranging from Banking, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Insurance and more importantly Maritime and Avaition even till this very moment.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry was established in 1888 and was incorporated as non profit organisation in 1950 under the companies act of 1948. Since then, the chamber has paraded an array of erudite and successful businessmen and administrators as presidents amongst whom were Mr Goodie Ibru OON, chief S.K Onafowakan OON, Dr Mrs Nike Akande CON, to mention a few, and the last president Mr Gabriel Idahosa FCA who handed over the to the current president Engr Leye Kupoluyi.
This write up therefore is to put in focus the impactful leadership that this current president has put up so far in the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry. His tenure has made a big difference as the Chamber is partnering with the Federal Government and the sub-nationals by giving solid and tangible economic advices towards a complete revamp of the economy without being combative or unnecessarily canterkerous that would not have yielded any positive result. There now seems to be a synergy between the chamber and relevant government ministries, agencies and regulators saddled with the responsibility of formulating , supervising and regulating Nigeria’s fiscal and trade policies.
The Lagos Chamber has continued to identify common human factor, policy -induced, economic and implementation- constrained challenges facing the business sector as at this moment and providing a visible, realistic, and achievable solutions to the government. Under his able leadership, Engr Kupoluyi and the management led by Dr Chinyere Alumona FCA, the lagos chamber has remained the ‘official voice’ of business in Nigeria and the official medium from which reactions to fiscal policies are measured. It continues to serve as the incubator for foreign direct investment and equally as a forerunner for international diversification by Nigerian businesses.
It has continued to contribute to fiscal policies formulation and execution, evaluation and supervision.
Let me advise also that there are still areas of challenges facing the business sector and especially manufacturing in Nigeria that the president and the chamber will still have to subject to scrutiny. Despite the current laudable efforts of the present governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in making foreign exchange available to manufacturers for the importation of their raw materials sourced from abroad, there are still bureaucratic bottlenecks being experienced at the level of commercial banks in the procurement of foreign exchange by manufacturers. Why do forex funds approved by the Central bank become inaccessible in the commercial banks by the beneficiary customer? Unless a proper monitoring and evaluation process is put in place, there are always potent threats of sabotage to every good fiscal policies formulated by the government in our country. The same goes for the clearing of goods at the designated sea ports too. Despite all the “ease of doing business efforts” by government, bureaucratic bottlenecks, intentional sabotage and unpatriotic regulatory authorities have made the process of export and import business unnecessarily cumbersome in Nigeria.
These are areas the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry can also throw its search lights on with the aim of getting the government to pay attention and make amendments in other to create an enduring, transparent and a smooth business environment for its members as it is in tandem with its mission statement. “To develop and grow an engaged membership and protect the interests of the organised private sector through good governance, advocacy, enabling business opportunities, and providing support services”
By Fola Aiyegbusi, hefzibar2006@yahoo.com
