Port Harcourt business community wait for PHCCIMA on offtake in trade fair site

THE BUSINESS COM MUNITY in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil hub, is now anxiously waiting for the current executive and council members of the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA) led by Emi Membere-Otaji, to quickly seize the current euphoria of acquiring a permanent site, to begin the building of a befitting trade fair ground for the city’s chamber of commerce. It took at least 61 years for PHCCIMA to secure land from the Rivers government for a trade fair site.

PHCCIMA is by far Nigeria’s second largest city chamber of commerce after Lagos. It is said to have a registered membership of over 1,000, from more than 4,000 registered business outfits in the city.

Since 1957, when the chamber of commerce was established, it has largely operated its annual trade exhibitions on make-shift structures on the Isaac Boro Park, a public park. The wood-based huts are usually dreamed up just weeks to each year’s trade fair. But now, a permanent fair ground with the latest information and communication technology (ICT) equipment deployed to ease exhibitors’ participation is required.

What the business community in the Rivers oil capital prefers is for PHCCIMA to liaise with the state government, international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the country, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and development partners, and draw the trade fair’s complex, pool resources and begin actual construction, with the aim of completing it in record time. Time to act, they said, is now.

Information about a land donated for a fair ground by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State came during the just-concluded third quarterly council meeting of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the parent body of organised chambers of commerce in the country. The meeting was hosted by PHCCIMA, which has been described as a grand outing by Port Harcourt.

The trade fair land donation is a promise kept by Governor Wike; whereas it is a dream realised by PHCCIMA, laying to rest its over 60 years’ quest for a permanent trade fair site, to bring it up to level with its peers in Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, among others. The trade fair ground would be sited at the upand-coming Greater Port Harcourt City (GPH).

According to him, his government has managed to achieve a tax harmonization system, to end a hydra-headed double taxation in the state, quick issuance of certificate of occupancy (C of O) and provi- sion of massive infrastructure, especially roads, bridges and general aesthetics of the Port Harcourt city; adding that all these have ramped up the state’s attraction to foreign direct investment.

Some economic analysts are indicating that, by donating the trade fair ground complete with C of O, the state government has demonstrated a clear commitment to stimulating the state economy. However, they quickly point to the government to do more than donating land to helping PHCCIMA to build a credible trade fair site. With a gross domestic product economy of over $23 billion, Rivers is said to have barely scratched the surface of an economy far more than Sao Tome & Principe and perhaps other countries within the Gulf of Guinea region.

Meanwhile, Alaba Lawson, the first female national president of NACCIMA and its 19th president, after receiving a document for the new fair ground, spoke of inherent benefits in the fair ground. While lauding the Rivers government for allocating the land, in a strategic location at the Greater Port Harcourt City; she said, when fully operation, the area would stimulate the state economy and attract investors.

Some economic analysts are indicating that, by donating the trade fair ground complete with C of O, the state government has demonstrated a clear commitment to stimulating the state economy