International business operators in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State have been advised to imbibe modern business practices to avoid been shortchanged.
Chimezie Oguh, head of missions, Nigeria Consulate in Shanghai, China, gave this advice Wednesday, in Aba, at the maiden edition of Aba South Business Summit with the theme: Enhancing small-scale business opportunities and partnership between Nigeria and China in the COVID-19 Era.
The summit which was organized by Obinna Ichita, a member representing Aba South State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, had in attendance the cream of the Aba business community.
Oguh, who decried the enormous challenges Aba importers face in China, urged them to form synergy come together as one, and use a platform to their business,
To avoid been shortchanged by their business partners in China, he advised them not to use unregistered agencies or individuals to transfer money to China or any other country.
In his words “Use banks and register your company. These are legitimate ways in which if there is a problem you can complain and through legal means, it will be pursued and that is what Aba businessmen and women need now.
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“The World is moving fast and anybody, who is lagging behind will not catch up. Expand the horizon of your business knowledge, know what is obtainable in China or any country you are doing business in. Equally, when you go to China, visit the Nigerian mission and report your presence.
“If there is any fallout like you lost your money in course of your business trip to China, you can go to the embassy for intervention.
“Officials of the Nigeria embassy will follow it up and ensure that you get justice, as far as you reported to the embassy on arrival”, he advised.
Ichita in an interaction with BusinessDay explained that he convened the summit, because of the present reality in the world.
According to him, the reality is that a large number of Aba merchants import from China and another reality is that there are travel restrictions that made it a little bit difficult for them to travel to China, due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“Another reality is that it is no longer possible for them to conduct their pre-shipment assessment or inspection of their goods, consequently, most times they don’t get exactly what they ordered for”.
He also stated that most of them are been shortchanged, by people who do business within China.
“And it is against this backdrop that we decided to convene this summit to meet with the person, who will be representing us in China and make him come here and have a face-to-face interaction with our people.
“So that our people will ventilate their anger, their frustration and express how they feel and armed with this information, will now know how to tackle these problems, when he resumes in office.
He promised to sustain the summit by bringing other heads of missions of other countries, where Aba businessmen and women transact their businesses, to boost economic activities in the commercial city.
“Some of our people import from Europe and other parts of Asia. We will also invite ambassadors of such countries to come here and rob minds with our people to solve some of these problems”.
He urged Aba people to come together to solve their problems, nothing that the essence of the summit is to ensure that Aba business people get value for what they pay for.
