23/11/2021
INTRA AFRICAN TRADE CAN ONLY THRIVE IMPACTFULLY WHEN DOMESTIC AND REGIONAL TRADE FLOURISH, SAYS GOVERNOR AYADE.
This assertion was made by His Excellency Governor Ben Ayade at the just concluded Intra African Trade Fair 2021 in Durban, South Africa at a business meeting with the Managing Director Intra African Trade, Afreximbank, Ms Kanayo Awani.
Mrs RoseMary Archibong, the Commissioner for Commerce, who represented the Governor , solicited for the Bank’s urgent support in developing infrastructure for the Ecosystem in Cross River State regarding Regional Trade Consolidation into the Gulf of Guinea area.
She reiterated that the Governor, Prof Ayade has set up a plethora of industries and an Industrial Park in the State to enhance manufacturing; Calabar, the State Capital is the Municipal Capital of the Gulf of Guinea in Nigeria plus the fact that Cross River State is blessed with enormous agricultural, solid mineral and human resources as well as her geographical disposition of having closest access to the Gulf of Guinea Trade area- by land, sea and air.
The Commissioner also spoke about the challenges in local trade activities and export of commodities arising from the inability to meet international standards due to gaps in processing infrastructure, citing the cassava value chain as an example.
The Commissioner regretted that although Cross River State is the largest grower of Cassava in the world , not much is achieved with this commodity owing to low offtake , ineffective marketing linkages and inability by the farmers to acquire processing equipment.
The Commissioner observed that entrepreneural minded youths and farmers were not sufficiently informed about the laudable interventions the Bank was implementing and called for more intentional advocacy programs.
The meeting touched on other concerns pertaining to strengthening SME operations and the investment drive in Cross River State.
Very profitable decisions were arrived at which would be followed up on by the Cross River State team.