The American Business Council (ABC) in Nigeria, an affiliate of the United States Chamber of Commerce, has admitted eight new corporate members into its council, pledging more advocacy for American businesses in Nigeria.
The new members were Aviat Networks Nigeria, Jumia Nigeria, Springrock Energy Group, and Cisco Nigeria. Others are Redstar Express, Verraki Partners, Africa Resource Center and U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC).
ABC is the voice of American businesses in Nigeria, protecting American businesses through advocacy and promoting trade and investment between both countries.
Claire Pierangelo, consul general of the U.S. in Lagos, said the council had brought together potential businesses in Nigeria and the US, which had helped to strengthen the commercial ties between both countries.
She pledged the support of the US government for productive discussions that would lead to mutual beneficial trade in seeing the US government and private sector work together.
“I give you my assurance of the American consulate general’s commitment to foster strong relationship with American Business Council and its members,” she assured, adding that the newly enlisted council members could count on the support of the consulate because the “mission to foster and promote US-Nigeria trade and investment is what we fully share and support.”
Margaret Olele, ABC chief executive officer, said that the council was working with partners to create an enabling environment for U.S. companies in Nigeria.
She said the council had always strove to advocate for US companies in Nigeria.
“In working with partners, we would help in creating enabling business environment, whether it is regulatory or policy issues,” she said.
On his part, Dipo Faulkner, president, ABC, said the council usually drove business advocacy for American companies in Nigeria, as well as trade and investment.
“We create a platform for them to speak about their problems. We not only listen to them, we also put them in front of the right audience throughout the conversation,” he said.
Looking forward this year, the council hopes to continue engaging government to fashion out best ways of boosting the ease of doing businesses, especially for American businesses present in Nigeria.
Olele reaffirmed the council’s commitment to supporting and collaborating with government in different areas in order to build the right capacity and capability to get things off the ground so as to be able to make businesses a lot seamless for US companies.
“As the environment gets more complex in term of advocacy issue, in term of easy of doing business, definitely, you will find us engaging government a lot more in trying to get things done,” Olele reiterated.
On her part, the US envoy said she looked forward to more robust trade partnership between Nigeria and US in the coming years.
She charged the US business community and potential investors to use the opportunity of the upcoming US Fair, in March, to showcase their businesses and deepen their partnership in Nigeria.
“Nigeria remains one of our largest trading partners in Africa and we are excited about the partnerships that will be coming up in 2020,” Pierangelo said.
Faulkner prayed that as the ABC intensified its efforts in playing its roles as the mouthpiece of American businesses in Nigeria, the efforts the Council made in 2019 and previous years would yield more results in 2020.
“Advocacy is not something that happens overnight. It is about process; it is about you staying on course about the discourse in bringing key stakeholders together to have discussions about issues affecting all of us,” Faulkner noted.
“We will continue the same trust of the company – advocacy. We speak as the voice of American businesses in Nigeria through advocacy. We do not do it alone, we do it with the US mission in Nigeria and other stakeholders,” he further said.
