Abuja Chamber urges Buhari to fix power, refineries, SMEs

As the voice of the private sector in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry,(ABUCCI) has said  the in-coming Muhammadu Buhari administration should  pay attention to  some critical areas such as power, refineries as well as micro, small and medium enterprises.

The chamber noted that acute shortage of power in Nigeria is the number one area that affects and puts unbearable pressure on all other aspects of the economy, including the demands on the petroleum sector.

The chamber, in a statement by Jude Igwe, vice- president, media, maintained that the issue of provision of adequate power for the nation must be urgently addressed so as to bring back to life a lot of industrial and manufacturing outfits that have been grounded as a result of unsustainable costs of running their operations on generators.

On Privatisation in the power sector, the statement urges the new administration to do an urgent review with stakeholders in the sector to avoid total collapse of the entire economy, which largely depends on the power sector.

It further urged the new administration as an interim measure, to present a balance between deregulation of the oil sector and having functional refineries in the country to avoid exploitation by few cartels that the nation depends on for fuel importation.

In addressing the MSMEs, the statement wants  the in-coming  administration  to  intervene and review the conditions for accessing the N220 billion MSME Federal intervention loan  and to  come up with terms that would enable  easier  access for operators which would impact positively  on the economy.

 

HARRISON EDEH