Doris Uzoka-Anite Brings Renewed Hope Alive With Quality Delivery
Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, a highly cerebral, cosmopolitan, and suave individual, has brought a fresh gust of summer wind to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s team with her disruptive ideas that are changing the fortunes of Nigeria in terms of trade facilitation, Industrial Revolution and investment opportunities. As the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, she has used her magic wand to bring about quality delivery and amplify the Renewed Hope message to Nigerians. Her remarkable achievements since taking charge have been nothing short of outstanding, and her contributions have made a significant impact on the development of the country. OLADAPO SOFOWORA highlights her remarkable achievement since she assumed office as Minister.
AChinese Philosopher, Lao Tzu said in one of his popular quotes; “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step”, this has become the truism since the swearing-in of Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite as Nigeria’s Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last year. Dr. Uzoka-Anite immediately hit the ground running in her quest to further put Nigeria on the map as an investment destination of choice for foreign and local investors by also igniting seamless trade activities with policies to drive the ease of doing business in Nigeria and expunging all possible bottlenecks affecting trade activities.
With much gusto and seriousness, She has achieved a remarkable turnaround with just barely a year in charge of the ministry with impeccable deliverables that have sparked the economy to a blistering and boisterous level. As an avid team player, owning to her background as commissioner for Finance in Imo State and a seasoned banker with Zenith Bank, she maintained a purposeful symbiotic relationship and collaboration with the staff of the ministry by creating an atmosphere that is purpose-driven and also result-oriented in line with President Tinubu’s mandate of reviving the economy through trade, job creation and expunging all bottlenecks mitigating against the growth of the nation’s trade and investment sector.
When she came into office; she understudies all modes of operation while she also spoke to the staff on the need to key into her vision and mission in line with President Tinubu’s 8-Point Agenda where Trade, Industry and Investment play a pivotal role in its actualization. She started with the supervision and management of multilateral trade and investment negotiations that will help attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country to help create employment and also ensure more forex inflow with the establishment of a Trade Intelligence Unit in synergy with the Federal
Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, the Nigerian Customs Services, the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace and the Central Bank of Nigeria. The TIU is providing all trade-related data and information in Nigeria by integrating big data and artificial intelligence.
The Unit will use accumulated information to predict local and global economic trends, which will help Nigerian traders with invaluable insights to navigate potential global economic shocks and provide strategic guidance to enhance Nigeria’s economic growth. With her unwavering passion, she is helping Nigeria transit from the over-reliance on revenue from Oil and Gas to other sources of income through trade of other commodities via the export of finished products, talent export and a host of others. Dr. Uzoka-Anite has also initiated several plans to grow Nigeria’s economy via food production, processing and agricultural industrialization, food export business and improvement in the farming sector; enhancing self-sufficiency in feeding the nation with what it grows and also reducing the burden of importation of food and beverages, saving Nigeria billions of dollars annually.
While attending the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India last year, the Honorable Minister fostered a strategic partnership between Nigeria and India thereby strengthening the age-long trade relationship between both countries which saw the actualization of Nigeria’s quest to improve its technological strength and also understudy policies which saw Indian government elevate a vast majority of its population from the poverty line. Uzoka-Anite has studied the need for a total overhaul, upgrade and change in the mentality of Nigeria to ensure purchasing power with less liquidity as it is done in developed economies across the world. She developed the much-talked-about Consumer Credit system.
The goal is to increase consumer credit uptake to enable a sustainable credit system in line with global best practices and enhance supporting infrastructure to boost credit facilitation. Funds have been earmarked from the 2024 Appropriation bill to begin the process of establishing a viable Consumer Credit system for Nigeria. Uzoka-Anite created another policy and framework that will further set the country on the path of greatness with the Nigerian Trade Facilitation Committee’s relaunch to enhance the efficiency of Trade Facilitation and Liberalization. She strategically designed the merger of the TFL with the already existing Nigerian Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC) to be streamlined and relaunched as the NTFC. The relaunch of NTFC will be nimbler and more strategic in achieving the overall objective of improving trade facilitation in Nigeria. While still being applauded for this initiative; She integrated the Presidential Grant, Loan Scheme and Palliative Programme targeted to provide financial assistance to individuals and businesses due to the biting and dwindling economy. The Bank of Industry (BOI) has been charged with the administration and effective deployment of these funds, under the auspices of the Ministry which is currently being disbursed and Nigerians in their large numbers have thanked the administration for the funds.
To increase the chances of Artisans and the informal sector service providers in Nigeria; Uzoka-Anite disclosed that it is necessary to ensure Artisans are given the required certification which will not only avail them the opportunity in Nigeria it will also open doors of opportunity for talent exchange programmes with countries Nigeria is in partnership with. She berthed the idea of licensing and certification of Artisans under the Skill-UP Artisans (SUPA) initiative with the Industrial Training Funds ITF to improve artisan skills through licensing and certification to meet industry standards, boosting quality and consumer trust with the aim of 10 Million job creation, overall economic growth and talent export opportunities under the National Talent Exchange Programme (NATEP) which she launched in New York, United States of America alongside the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) during the 78th edition of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
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