Traders
By Uchenna Eletuo
Lagos, April 17, 2018 (NAN) Mrs Lucy Ajayi, the Executive Director, Lagos Trade Fair Complex Management, on Tuesday in Lagos urged traders to invest in an industrial park being proposed by the complex.
Ajayi said the establishment of cottage industries in the complex would further bolster the local economy as against capital flight occasioned by importation.
The executive director, while speaking on her plans for the complex, said if latent resources were harnessed, the complex could be the industrial hub of the country.
The administrator, who marked her first year in office on April 13, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that she was counting on the traders to achieve her set mandate.
“It will serve a dual purpose if the traders will convince their international partners and those manufacturing companies they import goods from to come and establish cottage firms here.
“It will create more jobs for our teeming youths, halt capital flight and above all bolster the local economy.
“We have over 2,000 importers in every of the three markets domiciled in the trade fair complex. Therefore you can imagine what will happen if these businessmen decide to open cottage industries here,” Ajayi said.
According to her, one of the cardinal objectives of the Muhammadu Buhari administration is industrial development.
She said it, therefore, behooves on stakeholders to think out of the box to achieve that objective.
She said the traders would have the support of the management and the Nigeria Export Promotion Commission, which was represented in the Complex Management Board.
“The space is there on lease or other farvourable conditions for stakeholders to exploit and considering the Executive Order of Ease of doing Business, and other good deals we have to offer.’’ (NAN)
EUC/SA/EEE
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Edited by Salif Atojoko/Ese E. Ekama