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EXPORT INFLOW AT LFZ TO HIT $6BILLION BY 2020 – AMBODE

Published

6 years ago

July 6, 2018

Sahara Weekly

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…Says Time For Nigeria To Broaden Export Products Beyond Oil

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…Advocates 25-Year National Policy On Export Promotion

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday said the export inflow at the Lekki Free Zone (LFZ) in Ibeju Lekki area of the State is projected to hit over $6billion (about N2.159trillion) by 2020, saying it was time for Nigeria to develop sustainable roadmap to rev up export with particular focus on multi-sector products far beyond oil.

Speaking at the 2nd National Committee Meeting on Export Promotion of the National Economic Council (NEC) held in Lagos, Governor Ambode said beyond oil, it was now important for the country to put in place infrastructure and other initiatives to support other sectors with the view to preparing them for export.

He said already, the Lagos State Government had keyed into several export-oriented initiatives such as One-State One-Product Initiative, adding that it was gratifying to note that tremendous progress had been made in that regard.

“Our efforts in this area include the development of Lekki Free Zone as a one-stop export processing zone and we are happy to report that we have made tremendous progress in this particular export zone and I hope participants would have the time to see what it is that is actually going on in that place.

“Just to give you a clearer picture of what we are saying. At the end of 2020 when the investment of the Dangote Industries and other Deep Seaport that we are putting in that place will fully come on stream, the export inflows that we are projecting for that place is over $6billion and that is just the way to go,” Governor Ambode said.

He said through the export initiatives being spearheaded and monitored by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the State Government had identified and commenced the process of developing three key commodities in which the State has comparative and competitive advantage including Coconut, Fish and Vegetables.

“We plan to facilitate the development of these commodities into exportable products. Our export promotion initiatives also include export aggregators designed to boost production capacities of our indigenous micro small and medium industries. The objective is to create locally made products and services that not only satisfy local market but meet competitive export demand.

“We have also developed enterprise zone, small scale industrial estate and light industrial parks in different parts of this State to provide business accommodation and also factory spaces, support made-in-Lagos campaign and to also enhance market access for our MSMEs,” the Governor said.

He said the initiatives were some of the programmes of the State Government to support the Zero Oil plan of the Federal Government, just as he urged participants at the meeting to come up with a viable and sustainable agenda that would at the end of the day help in achieving Nigeria’s economic rebirth without reliance on oil.

While alluding to the visit of French President, Mr Emmanuel Macron to Afrika Shrine in Ikeja, the Governor said the development signposts the need for the country to develop other sectors of the economy especially the creative industry, among others.

“For me, the visit is clear that Afrobeat is a product that we can export but not only that, what about other things such as intellectual property and others that we need to harness to create a final product of our export policy. What about fashion? What about arts? There are lots of export products that we can export beyond Agriculture.

“However, before we can do that, we must put in place the infrastructure and the framework to support these industries and that is the core of this whole story. The message here is that let us expand the scope of our export considerations and increase the wealth of our nation.

“If one of the most powerful men in the world is a lover of our music and culture, then we must look inwards and find ways to export this. Our State is big on arts and entertainment and we believe strongly that this is a very lucrative avenue to create wealth and employment for our people,” Governor Ambode said.

According to the Governor, the economic indicators of the country were such that reliance on oil without planning for the future was dangerous, and so something urgent must be done to promote other sectors.

“For all the years, if you say oil is 90 per cent of what our economy is all about, if there is a flip in the price of oil, what happens to 190 million people on just one product? Who does that? So, the idea is this, if in 2050, Nigeria is targeted to be the third largest country in the world with 400million people and then maybe Lagos population by then will be about 50million people, then there is going to be a problem if by now we are not thinking about other products.

“And then, who cares about oil anyway when there are people using vehicles without oil and so something must be wrong if we are not thinking 2050 in 2018. We have been speaking about this and it is almost sounding like a broken record but if something goes wrong with oil, what are we doing,” he queried.

The Governor said though the Federal Government had shown leadership and good examples about rice production, but that it was important to come up with a national policy on export to create a roadmap to engender sustainable promotion of export.

“Beyond agric product and others, this is one singular opportunity for us to create a roadmap of an export policy that will be known as the National Policy on Export for the next 25 years which each State will key into and follow. The whole message is that we need to be broader in our approach. I believe strongly that the export policy strategy is another way to put Nigeria on the global map and that is the only way we can continue to bring ourselves together to promote export,” he said.

Besides, Governor Ambode advocated synergy among all the Federal Government agencies and State Governments to promote export, while also calling on Nigeria to immediately ratify the agreement on African Continental Free Trade Area which had already been signed by 49 out of 55 countries, adding: “Nigeria must show leadership because the whole of Africa is waiting for us to show leadership and we must drive the economy of the continent.”

Earlier, Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of NEPC, Mr Olusegun Awolowo called on State Governments to seriously consider bringing export products in their respective States for the Committee on Export Promotion to look at, saying such was important going forward.

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Business

Dangote crashes Diesel price to N1,000 per litre

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Sahara Weekly

Dangote reacts to EFCC’s visit to its Headquarters

Dangote crashes Diesel price to N1,000 per litre

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In an unprecedented move, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced a further reduction of the price of diesel from 1200 to 1,000 naira per litre.

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While rolling out the products, the refinery supplied at a substantially reduced price of N1,200 per litre three weeks ago, representing over 30 per cent reduction from the previous market price of about N1,600 per litre.

This significant reduction in the price of diesel, at Dangote Petroleum Refinery, is expected to positively affect all the spheres of the economy and ultimately reduce the high inflation rate in the country.

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Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance, Others Are Purveyors of falsehood Says AAS Legal Team As Jesam Micheal Exposes Their Sponsors (Video)

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Sahara Weekly

Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance, Others Are Purveyors of falsehood Says AAS Legal Team As Jesam Micheal Exposes Their Sponsors (Video)

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The lawyers of Afriq Arbitrage System, Barr. Obeten and Barr. Henry have called out the Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance led by Comrade Okpanachi Jacob as Purveyors of falsehood.

This is not unconnected to their ungodly collaboration with individuals like Prince Humble Eteng, Michael Okoh, Okoi Daniels, Engineer Awajioma who have been slammed with a ten million dollar Lawsuit for nefarious activities to injure the longstanding reputation the organisation has maintained on charges bothering on cyber bullying, attempt to life and property, lies and unlawful incitement and instigation against the CEO of the company , Jesam Micheal, his family and organisation.

In a global conference on Tuesday, April 16th, 2024, the legal representatives described their actions as inappropriate, unfounded and a campaign of calumny to malign the integrity of the organisation and management.

According to Barr. Obeten the matter is in court and the security agencies have picked Abayomi Olusesan who has admitted to committing the heinous crime of stealing investors funds to the tune of $87m. So why accuse the CEO, Jesam Micheal of defrauding the company of the said amount?

Speaking further, Barr Henry reiterated their stand to take legal actions against the group for being biassed despite knowing the truth and for misleading the general public by allowing themselves to be used by agents of falsehood.

In conclusion, the CEO of Afriq Arbitrage System, Jesam Micheal wondered why a reputable group like CCSGG could be used by Prince Humble Eteng, Michael Okoh and others. He showcased the official court documents which confirmed that Abayomi admitted stealing the investors fund to the tune of $87m which he said was also captured in video evidence. He revealed that some of the properties he bought with part of the money has been collected, remaining the main money which he promised to return to the company. However, after being granted bail, he reneged on his promises and was picked up again by the relevant authorities.

Sadly, his cohorts, Prince Humble who is not even an investors connived with MICHEAL OKOH, PRINCE HUMBLE ETENG,OKOI DENOCK, TOCHUKWU NWOYE, DINGCHI YARLING, Engineer Awajioma and Others to fabricate all sorts of lies against Jesam and AAS.

” We will not take the laws into our hands but they should be ready to face the wrath of the law of the land. These are the same people who dragged us to the security agencies and when we got there with facts they ran away and became fugitives, Out of frustrations, they devised a kangaroo world press conference to disseminate all manners of fabricated lies and deceits”

Watch

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Afriq Arbitrage System Slams $10 million Lawsuit Against Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble Eteng, Hajj Ibrahim, Engineer Awajioma and Others (Video)

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Sahara Weekly

Jesam Micheal, the Rise of the Moon Among Stars, A Game Changer By Femi Oyewale

Afriq Arbitrage System Slams $10 million Lawsuit Against Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble Eteng, Hajj Ibrahim, Engineer Awajioma and Others (Video)

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The board of directors of Afriq Arbitrage Systems after an emergency meeting condemned in strong terms the attitudes of Prince Humble Eteng, Michael Okoh, Okoi Daniels, Engineer Awajioma and others about their nefarious activities to injure the longstanding reputation the organisation has maintained and in a final resolution, resolved that the above parties be sued for defamation and has slammed a ten million dollar lawsuit with a suit number w/2011/2024 against them at the High court of the Federal capital territory in the Abuja judicial division on Monday, April 15th, 2024 on charges bothering on cyber bullying, attempt to life and property, lies and unlawful incitement and instigation against the CEO of the company , Jesam Micheal, his family and organisation.

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In the lawsuit through the legal representation of Jesam Michael and AAS by Barrister Ovat the service required the defendants to appear In court within 14 days, else judgement will be issued against them in absentia.

It would be recalled that few days after series of cyber bullying against the CEO of Afriq Arbitrage System, Jesam Micheal and his Family by MICHEAL OKOH, PRINCE HUMBLE ETENG,OKOI DENOCK in collaboration with one TOCHUKWU NWOYE, DINGCHI YARLING, Godwin, Benjamin Uwanga and Findins, Jesam escaped assassination attempt as gunmen numbering over ten, armed with sophisticated weapons invaded his lounge in Lagos seeking for him.

Information available to us revealed that when the hardened criminals invaded the lounge on Friday, April 5th, 2024 where Jesam was billed to address his workers, they were demanding for him and when they learnt he couldn’t make the meeting as expected, they descended on the staff and customers threatening to kill them in his stead. They also went away with the company’s properties such as laptops, equipment and gadgets of staffers and customers.

Micheal Okoh who has been ranting on Social media against the CEO of Afriq Arbiritage System has been exposed along with Prince Humble Eteng, Okoi Denock as partners in crime with Abayomi oluwasesan who is in prison for defrauding the financial platform to the tune of $87 million dollars

According to reports, Micheal Okoh is an investor in AAS who has benefited from the scheme and has withdrawn over three thousand dollars which he never disclosed to his gullible followers until the evidence was uncovered and exposed to the community.

Aside from that, information revealed that Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble And Okoi Denock have been working in tandem with Abayomi in plotting the loot from AAS and threatening the life of Jesam Michael and his family. In a series of life threatening messages the plotters swear to eliminate him and his family for standing on the path of truth, justice and for arresting Abayomi in recovering the loot. Also, these revelations are not unconnected to the fact that these people engineered Abayomi not to return investors money back to the community.

However, the long arm of the law will soon reach them as Abayomi who has willingly confessed to the heinous crime he committed to the company is arrested and taken to court where he is Remanded and Micheal Okoh and his cohorts we learnt are also on the radar of the security operatives for collaboration and cyber bullying.

Sadly, the threat to life of the CEO and his family by these people should not be taken lightly as just as Mr Micheal Okoh said in his video that he will bring him down, same day, gunmen were sent to invade AAS lounge on the same day he was to address his workers for the year.

According to the security officer of the company, the ugly incident has never happened before on any of their investments until this brazen threats from Mr Okoh and others.

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