• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

NEPZA seeks partnership with Gulf of Guinea Commission to tackle insecurity

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The Managing Director of Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA), Adesoji Adesugbe has solicited for collaboration and corporation among the Gulf of Guinea States to help in tackling insecurity and criminal activities in the region.

Adesugbe made the appeal when a trade delegation from the Calabar Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture and the Gulf of Guinea Municipal Centre led by John Gaul Lebo visited him at the conference room of the Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ).

The NEPZA boss, who was represented by Godwin Ekpe, general manager of (CFTZ), said no serious business can thrive in an environment that is not safe and secured.

“We want to promote economic activities of the Gulf of Guinea and we are ready to partner with the Gulf of Guinea city project. Gulf of Guinea economy should be exploited maximally; we need more investment and we are ready,” he said.

Gulf of Guinea Commission was established by the treaty signed in Libreville, Gabon on July 2001 by Angola, Congo, Gabon, Nigeria and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Constituted in a permanent institutional framework for cooperation among the countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea in order to defend their common interest and promote peace and socio-economic activities.

Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo joined the Gulf of Guinea in 2008; membership is open to other states in the Gulf region.

The leader of the delegation and Special Envoy to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, John Gaul Lebo lauded the activities of the Calabar free trade Zone and NEPZA for promoting economic diversification through manufacturing.

Lebo, who is a former speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, disclosed that with a $450billion gross domestic product (GDP) portfolio of the Gulf countries doing business in Cross River such as Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, the state stands to benefit maximally.

“Our desire is to build a cluster of economic activities by creating an alternative economy that has a special purpose vehicle, so that the state becomes a warehouse for goods and services,” he further said.