Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT) has released report indicating that Nigeria and other African nations are becoming major investment magnet.
It stated that it is as a result of new discoveries that the continent stands as a guarantor of energy security to emerging Asian nations.
Quoting secondary sources, it stated that Africa accounted for 8.8 per cent of the world’s oil production in 2019, while Nigeria was Africa’s top oil producer at 2.2 per cent; Algeria was next at 1.6 per cent; then Angola, 1.5 per cent while Libya’s production was 1.3 per cent.
The report released recently, indicated that Africa contributed 6 per cent to the world’s natural gas production in 2019, with Algeria ranking as the continent’s top gas producer at a global share of 2.2 per cent followed by Egypt, 1.6 per cent, and Nigeria, 1.2 per cent.
“Keen to add to its reserve base, Nigeria is preparing a new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), and the government has provisionally awarded tenders to develop 57 marginal oil fields, with $500 million in signature bonuses at stake.
“Nigeria is targeting marginal fields for the first time in 20 years as the country looks not only to boost its revenues but also to raise local participation in the oil sector from indigenous companies, which typically work these marginal fields.
“Involving more local participation to produce Nigeria’s oil riches may also help to tamp down the sabotage, theft, and security issues that Shell blames for the drop in its Nigerian production from 266,000 BOED in 2019 to 223,000 in 2020, according to its annual report,” the report stressed.
It stated that while Shell is scaling down its Nigerian oil assets, but it still continues to focus on gas and deep water, adding that in May 2020, Shell Gas declared it had reached a final investment decision to add a seventh train to Nigeria’s Bonny Island facility, adding 8 mtpa of future liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity.
In Angola, it stated that Last month, Angola’s National Oil, Gas, and Biofuel’s Agency kicked off a series of digital and in-person roadshows and technical presentations to promote blocks offered in the country’s 2020 ongoing bid round.
To attract investors, the report stated that Nigeria and Angola are having to navigate not only the pandemic’s effect on financial markets, but also stiff competition from frontier regions such as Guyana and Suriname which share West Africa’s fertile geology and are capturing current headlines.
Besides upping its investment in Nigeria LNG, it noted that Shell is also playing a role in the re-emergence of Egypt as a regional LNG supplier in the eastern Mediterranean.
Dubai CommerCity has revealed that e-commerce market in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia will grow at an annual rate of 18.4 per cent to $148.5 billion by next year.
This is an average growth of 16.6 per cent globally, Dubai CommerCity, the first dedicated e-commerce free zone in MEASA, showed.
The regional e-commerce sector is witnessing “significant growth, which is driven by the confidence of its business community and ecosystem”, Amna Lootah, assistant director general of Dubai Airport Freezone Authority and a board member at CommerCity, said.
“This has also been led by the continuously changing consumer behaviour and the adaptation of advanced technologies that played a key role in easing the overall consumer shopping experience.”
E-commerce transactions have boomed amid the coronavirus outbreak as movement restrictions to contain the pandemic prompted people to shop online.
The Gulf region alone registered a 214 per cent annual increase in cross-border online sales by June last year, CommerCity said.
The MEASA business-to-consumer products e-commerce market equates to about 2.5 per cent of the global B2C e-commerce market, it added.
South Asia represents the largest sub-regional e-commerce market, with India accounting for the bulk of sales in the MEASA region. The GCC is expected to register the highest growth between 2019 and 2022, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE – the Arab world’s largest economies – taking the lead at 39 per cent and 38 per cent annual growth, respectively.
“This report shows the potential growth expected to take place in the e-commerce sector. It will help local, regional and multinational companies to better understand the B2C product market in the MEASA region,” DeVere Forster, chief operating officer of Dubai CommerCity, said.
“It will also guide the regional government entities and industry bodies to explore potential developments that can better facilitate the e-commerce sector at a regional and global level.”
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has reported that the nation received $8.4b investment announcement inflows in the first quarter of 2021.
The Executive Secretary of NIPC, Yewande Sadoku, noted that although investment announcements are not investments, they indicate investors’ interest in Nigeria.
“We have been honest that the gap between announcement and actual investment demonstrate potential. We have also said that a more proactive approach across federal and state governments is required to convert more announcements to actual investments.
“If we convert 10 per cent or 20 per cent of investment announcements it will make a material change but you cannot get to the point of conversion if you do not know what you are looking for.”
The suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman, has denied awarding a coastline terminal contract to a proxy firm of Dangote Group.
Bala-Usman in a statement in Lagos on Sunday said that the report published was not true.
“My attention has been drawn to a report published by Sahara Reporters alleging that I, Hadiza Bala Usman “was involved in a clandestine ploy to shortchange a company in favour of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.
“This report is false, without any foundation and a figment of some wild imagination of the news platform.
“To start with, the NPA has an executive management team, which always considers and takes business decisions on all assets of the Authority in the best interest of Nigeria.
“To claim that I singlehandedly awarded a contract in my capacity as Managing Director, is therefore, irresponsible, mischievous, and defamatory,” she said.
She noted that the report also mischievously lumped the now expired service boat contract between the NPA and the Integrated Logistics Services’ (INTELs), which took off in 2007 with a review of a ten-year extension in 2011 to culminate in an expiration in August 2020 with the lease under discussion.
She pointed out that the service boat contract expired through the effluxion of time and the authority initiated a procurement process in which INTELs participated in line with all extant laws.
She said that concerning Onne berths 9, 10 and 11, which the report alleged was “clandestinely” taken from INTELs. Here is the true position:
“The Authority offered these berths to INTELs in 2013 without any contractual agreement even though the offer letter required that the company should pay rent to the Authority for the use of the berths.
“In 2018, the Authority realised that INTELs had neither been making these payments for five years nor putting the berths to optimal use.
“The Authority then wrote INTELs to request for the payment of the arrears of monies that were unpaid and expand the utilisation of the facility.
“With the continued under-utilisation of the facility, the fact that there was no contractual agreement with INTELs from the outset and the urgent need to decongest the ports in Lagos, the Authority offered the berths to an internationally renowned container handling company.
“Messers International Container Terminal Nigerian Limited (ICTNL) was offered the use of the berths for container cargo discharging.
“ICTNL has signed a contract for the lease of the berths with the Authority and has commenced the installation of container handling equipment when INTELS instituted a court action challenging the withdrawal of the offer. That case is still in court!,” she said.
Bala-Usman said that according to reports in the media, ICTNL had refuted allegations that it had connections with Alhaji Aliko Dangote. This exposes another disgraceful fabrication by Sahara Reporters.
“I also note the insinuation of a non-existent monetary transfer between Alhaji Dangote and I during the 2015 elections. As I told People’s Gazette when I was approached about this story, no such transaction occurred.
“Having gone through the trouble to give this explanation, I demand that Sahara Reporters publish this rebuttal and give it the same measure of prominence given to the false story, which runs against all known ethics of journalism,” she said.
The Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) on Sunday urged the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu to dissolve the committee in charge of removal of abandoned vehicle in the state.
Mr Remi Ogungbemi, Chairman, of AMATO in a statement noted that their activities had become a day light and night robbery of truckers.
“It has becomes expedient for us to draw your attention to the unsavoury activities of the above mentioned Committee.
“Their activities have become a day light and night robbery of truckers, they move around in company of military personnel and thugs armed with bottles, cutlasses, guns and other dangerous weapons.
“They attack various empty container depots and garages in order to assault drivers, forcefully hijack and drive away their trucks and later booked the trucks as been towed and slam outrageous bills ranging between 150,000 – 250,000. ,
“All these deliberate act of impunity, lawlessness, abuse of power and barbaric manner of operation by members of the committee is not only destroying the good intention of their establishment by the government but also portraying the government in a bad light,” he said.
Ogungbemi noted that they had written several letters to the governor without any response.
He said that they are therefore, using this medium to let the governor and the public know the travail truckers are passing through in the hands of Abandon Committee.
He said that this formed part of the reasons why most of their trucks are in a rickety and dilapidated conditions.
“The money we ought to have used to maintain these trucks are being forcefully and unlawfully collected from us by members of Abandon Committee without issuance receipt,” he said.
The AMATO chairman said the creation of committee on the removal of abandon truck in Lagos State in the presence of a more civilized, organized and well trained traffic agency like Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) was duplication of function and waste of Lagos state Government resources.
“LASTMA is more qualified and competent to handle better what Committee on Abandon Truck was established to do.
“The modus operandi of Comm ittee on the Removal of Abandon Truck is contrary to the philosophy of any government that seeks to promote respect for human rights, peace of the public and rule of law.
“To this end therefore, we urge LASG to listen to our cries and do the needful dissolution of the committee in order to save truckers from their banditry in the interest of peace, our business, human rights and rule of law,” he said.
The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has in Lagos that its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2021, would hold as a Hybrid Events on May 15.
Mr Nelson Olagundoye, Head, Corporate Communication and External Relations, said in a statement that the event would hold at Ijewere Hall, Bankers House, Victoria Island, Lagos; and would be a mix of live and online zoom.
He said that the meeting would be presided over by the President/Chairman of Council, Dr Bayo Olugbemi, and hosted by Mr Seye Awojobi, Registrar/Chief Executive .
According to him, the meeting is expected to be attended by top bankers and other distinguished dignitaries from other sectors of the economy.
Dignitaries expected are: Chairmen of banks; MD/Chief Executives of banks, Past Presidents of the Institute, Presidents of other professional bodies, top Government functionaries, Fellows, Honourary Senior Members, Associates, Microfinance Certified and among others.
He said that the meeting would consider the Annual Reports, Accounts, Auditor’s report, adoption of the minutes of last year’s Annual General Meeting and other important matters affecting the Institute and the welfare of members.
” It is expected that members of the Institute all over the world will join via zoom and youtube platforms as well as participate actively at the discussions for the interest of the banking profession and industry in the country”, he said.
Fayus Group in collaboration with Shine Bridge Global (SBG) and Africa Global Schaffer (AfGS) have invested $159 million in Nigeria’s oil palm and cassava value chains over three years.
The Chairman of Fayus Group, Alhaji Fatai Yusufu made this known in a statement issued on Sunday after a virtual meeting to launch the companies’ $159 million oil palm and cassava industrialisation investments.
Yusufu said that Fayus has committed an additional $44 million in cassava processing to bring the total investment commitment in the sector to $159 million.
“Fayus Nigeria Limited and Fayus, Inc. (U.S) are also working with U.S.-based food and agro-allied services companies, Shine Bridge Global (SBG) and Africa Global Schaffer (AfGS) to co-invest in the cassava value chain in Nigeria.
“Fayus has committed an additional $44 million investment towards the cassava industrialisation program for a total investment of $159 million in oil palm and cassava value chains over three years,’’ he said.
Yusufu explained that Fayus’ investments in Edo include a 200 hectares pilot oil palm plantation, two nurseries, dams, roads, irrigation systems, and other infrastructure assets totaling over $15 million.
He said that Fayus had committed to catalyzing an additional $100 million in Edo along other investors under the `Edo State Oil Palm Program’ (ESOPP) to establish 46,000 hectares of oil palm plantations over the next five years.
“This is why at Fayus, we have partnered with the best of the best innovators from Malaysia to ensure the achievement of 60 tonnes per day milling capacity in addition to refining and fractionation of crude palm oil into high-value consumer and industrial products.
“By working together, I believe we can accomplish this within three years, as we are aggregating and integrating smallholder farmers into our plantation establishment scheme to not only increase farmers’ income, but to create wealth and entrepreneurial opportunities for the youths and women,” Yusufu said.
Yusufu commended Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo, describing him as a governor who understands the needs of the private sector to enable foreign direct investment.
He said that Obaseki had stepped up the underpinning to enable land acquisition for Fayus’ oil palm investments in the state saying that the governor is a real understanding professional.
“We need to continue the collaboration with Federal and State governments to plant 800,000 seedlings in 2021 while we also work on the establishment of a new oil palm nursery in the newly allocated 5,000 hectares in Edo.
“Government needs to collaborate with the private sector on land acquisition and complete security infrastructure as investors prepare for milling operations in three years and we are prepared to collaborate with other oil palm investors to sell our high- performance seedlings to others across Nigeria,’’ he added.
Dr. Tony Bello, the Chairman of Shine Bridge Global, a U.S.-based food and agro-allied services company, said his company is engaging local and U.S.- based investors to attract investments into Nigeria.
Bello said that the aim is to create industrial food ingredients for both the domestic and global export markets in manufacturing of consumer-packaged goods (CPGs) in Nigeria.
“The goal is to co-invest $250 million to $500 million in oil palm and cassava processing and consumer- packaged foods in partnership with African Development Bank’s Special Agro Processing Zones (AfDB-SAPZ) in FCT-Abuja, Ogun, and Cross-River states among others states.
“We are innovating consumer packaged foods such as crackers, wraps, pizza crusts and snacks food products that are similar to “Pringles and Lays Stax” brands of potato crisps but this time, made from Cassava Instant Tapioca Flakes and Granules.”
“We are driving an industrial cassava manufacturing program in Nigeria at scale and at high-speed to market through the Project BOLT strategic partnership platform with the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment (FMITI) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Agric for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP).
“We are leveraging the reapplication of proven food science and technology to transform cassava into high-value food ingredients and CPGs,” Bello said.
The Chairman of AfricaGlobal Schaffer Dr. Mima Nedelcovych, said the U.S. is a huge export market opportunity for high-value cassava and oil palm products.
Nedelcovych who moderated the meeting also serves as board member of the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative (NDPI), the foreign partner to Partnership Initiatives for the Niger Delta – (PIND).
U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms Mary Leonard praised Yusufu for his business success in Sacramento, California.
She said that the business had placed the “Ola Ola ‘’ brand of Instant Yam Flour, for making “Poundo Fufu,” as a leading staple for the diaspora communities across five continents.
Leonard who was represented by the Senior Commercial Officer, Ms Jennifer Woods, said that Fayus has eight distribution centers in the U.S. alone.
“A rising tide lifts all boats and United States state-of-the-art technology in food processing will no doubt be deployed alongside the Fayus trade and investment launch in Nigeria,’’ she said.
In his remarks, Obaseki said he was again delighted by the support and commitment of the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and for her support of Fayus’ investments in the oil palm and cassava value chains in Edo.
According to him, we are easing security challenges and designing new incentives to attract private sector investments in oil palm and cassava value chain development in Edo.
He said that for oil palm, the state is promoting compliance to the high standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in partnership with the private sector investors.
The suspension of the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, came as a surprise to many stakeholders, who are in the dark on what really forced President Muhammadu Buhari to approve the sanction and subsequent probe of the Authority.
Leadership newspaper, has an insight into the crisis.
A former director of finance in the agency, Muhammad Koko, has been asked to oversee the affairs of the agency in acting capacity pending the outcome of the investigation.
Usman’s abrupt suspension has continued to elicit reactions, with different conspiracy theories doing the rounds on why the president took the decision.
The unhealthy scheming and power play within the seat of power arising from muscle flexing between Hadiza and the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, were part of the reasons why the NPA boss was axed.
An impeccable presidency source confirmed to our correspondent that the embattled NPA boss was suspended following the questionable manner in which her tenure was extended.
It was gathered that Hadiza’s tenure was extended six months ahead of the expiration without the recommendation from the supervising minister, Amaechi, in direct contravention of the NPA Act.
The tenure extension, according findings further revealed, was engineered by some power brokers in the presidential villa who allegedly approached the chief of staff and lobbied him to raise a memo to the president asking for her tenure to be extended.
“The NPA Act and, indeed, other extant rules provide that the renewal of her tenure can only be done on the recommendation of the minister. And so when the minister was sidelined, he felt slighted.
“Clearly, by not getting the minister’s recommendation, the purported tenure extension granted her was illegally done and, hence, is a breach of the NPA Act,” our source who did not want his name in print hinted.
It was learnt that Amaechi, obviously as a way of getting back at the minister, refused to forward some of the major contracts, which the Hadiza-led management of NPA had wanted to award, to the federal executive council (FEC) for approval.
The source said that Hadiza had outlined some major contracts that needed FEC’s approval for execution, but when memos for the contract were sent to the Ministry of Transportation, the minister did not table the same before the FEC for deliberations and approval.
Obviously enraged by the fact that her requests for contracts never went beyond the minister’s table, Hadiza reportedly approached the president directly to complain about Amaechi who she accused of sabotaging her efforts to implement the Buhari administration’s agenda at the ports.
Also confirming the development, another presidency source said the president directed her to make a formal complaint, which she did.
“Her memo, which was sent directly to the president, raised weighty allegations against the minister. Of course, the president directed the minister to respond,” the source told our correspondent.
In his response, Amaechi was said to have raised weighty allegations against Hadiza, backing them up with a series of petitions written against her by some stakeholders in the industry.
Our source said Amaechi, while responding to the allegations levelled against him, also drew the president’s attention to the fact that Hadiza’s purported tenure extension was illegal.
It was further gathered that after receiving Amaechi’s memo and seeing the enormity of the issues raised by the minister, he promptly ordered Hadiza’s suspension and a probe to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of all the allegations raised against her.
Among Hadiza’s many sins is the fact that she was also opposed to the bill to set up the National Transport Commission, because she was aware the commission would have been a super-quasi regulator.
The president had directed the attorney-general of the federation to work on the bill and resubmit it, but Usman was said to have approached the minister and discouraged the bill, a factor that also contributed to her ouster.
According to sources, Usman and Amaechi have been at loggerheads in the past few months over the procurement procedures for at least two multimillion-dollar contracts at the NPA.
The NPA had gone into different Joint Venture (JV) contracts with some of them expected to expire this year.
The source who craved anonymity informed LEADERSHIP Weekend that the minister had wanted contractors handling the Joint Venture retained but Usman insisted on a competitive tendering process in line with the Public Procurement Act 2004.
Aside contracts, the minister also accused the NPA management of low revenue remittances to the country’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and demanded an audit but Usman denied the allegation, saying the agency had remitted funds to the government in line with its budget and as detailed in its audited financial statement.
In a document made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend and dated March 4, 2021, with file number FMT/ Ref/No:A/OMP/1/01, entitled ‘Remittance of Operating Surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account (CRF) by the NPA from 2016-date’, the minister alleged that the ports’ remittances from 2016 to 2020 were in deficit to the tune of N165, 320, 962,697.
The minister, in the letter personally signed by him and addressed to President Buhari, called for an audit of the NPA account for the period stated above to ascertain the true financial position of port revenue and the outstanding unremitted balance.
The letter reads, “It has been observed from the records submitted by the Budget Office of the Federation that the yearly remittance of operating surpluses by the NPA from year 2016 to 2020 have been far short of the amount due for actual remittance. I wish to suggest that the financial account of the activities of the NPA be investigated from the period of 2016-2020.”
The minister, however, urged the president to allow for an audit of the account and remittances of the authority to ascertain the level of shortfall.
“Approve that the account and remittances of NPA in the period of 2016-2020 be audited to account for the gross shortfall of remitted public funds,” he wrote.
However, in her response to the chief of staff to the president, Ibrahim Gambari, dated 5th May, 2021, a copy of which was made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend, the suspended managing director, in the letter with reference number MD/17/MF/Vol/XX/541, said the figures so provided by the Budget Office of the Federation as the operating surplus for the respective years on which basis they arrived at the shortfall were derived from submission of budgetary provision, and not the actual amounts derived following the statutory audit of the authority’s financial statements.
According to her, NPA’s audited financial statements for the period 2017 and 2018 provide operating surpluses of N76.782 billion and N71.480 billion for 2017 and 2018 respectively, contrary to the sums of N133.084 billion and N88.79 billion arrived at from the budgetary submission.
Usman’s response reads, “The attention of the Authority has been drawn to a letter conveying Mr. President’s approval for the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMoT) to conduct an audit of the accounts of the Authority and its remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CFR). This arose from a correspondence between the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) and the Federal Ministry of Transportation where the Budget Office of the Federation conveyed to the FMoT an observed shortfall of the Authority’s remittances to the CFR.
“We wish to state that the Authority’s basis for arriving at the Operating Surplus on which basis the amount due for remittance to the CFR is guided by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, as amended, and further based on the statutory mandate Part 1, S.3(1) (b) &(d) whereby the Fiscal Responsibility Commission issued a template for the computation of Operating Surplus for the purpose of calculating amount due for remittance to the CRF.”
The NPA MD further stated in the letter to the president’s chief of staff that the Fiscal Responsibility Commission that accessible operating surplus of the Authority stands at N51.09 billion and N42.51 billion for 2017 and 2018 respectively and not N133.084 billion and N88.79 billion in the years under review.
“Accordingly, the figures so provided by the Budget Office of the Federation as the operating surplus for the respective years on which basis they arrived at the shortfall are derived from the submission of budgetary provision, not the actual amounts derived following the statutory audit of the Authority’s financial statements.
“Audited Financial Statements of the Authority for the period 2017 and 2018 provide operating surpluses of N76.782 billion and N71.480 billion for 2017 and 2018 respectively, contrary to the sums of N133.084 billion and N88.79 billion arrived at by your office from the budgetary submission.
Mr Giandomenico Massari, Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Cross River and Akwa Ibom Branch, has said a productive manufacturing sector still remained the catalyst for the growth of any country’s economy.
Massari made the assertion in Calabar, saying revival of the manufacturing sector was what Nigeria required to move to the next level.
Speaking on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the association, the branch chairman said that more attention and support from the government in terms of policies was necessary to speed up industrialization of the economy.
According to him, although the association is celebrating its 50 years of existence in the country, manufacturing in Nigeria is not yet where it ought to be.
“We are still striving to get more attention and support from the government in terms of policies that will be favourable to manufacturing in the country and enable us move to the next level.
“The government and every citizen of Nigeria need to know that it is manufacturing that can help us create more jobs, enhance the capacity of Nigerians and bring a lot of benefits vital to the economy of the nation, ” he said.
Massari also appealed to Nigerians to have a change of mindset and start patronising its locally manufactured goods, many of which were of very good quality.
In his remarks, the Secretary of the association, Mr Klinton Offiong said it had faced peculiar challenges in both states, which were surmountable only if the government intervened.
According to Offiong, government should pay more attention to the manufacturers and assist them because they help in absorbing a large number of the unemployed in society.
“Government at all levels should make the operating environment comfortable for manufacturers by ensuing that there is a harmonised tax system where every tax payer knows what he has to pay annually and not suffer multiple taxation.
“Also the road linking Cross River and Akwa Ibom is in a very terrible state and a lot of losses are incurred by manufacturers daily, on account of the deplorable state of that road. We need government assistance there too,” he said.
Mr Osidipe Oluwasegun, Director Research and Advocacy Support, MAN, said poor electricity, congestion of the ports and inability to access Forex as and when due had been some of the major challenges for manufacturers in Nigeria
Oluwasegun said that all the challenges put together affect the capacity utilisation of any manufacturer, making manufacturing more difficult.
According to him, the resilience of its members in spite of the challenging economic climate in the country was laudable.
The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, says the presence of the North-Central zonal office complex of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) in Jos would create more job opportunities in Plateau and Nigeria in general.
Amaechi spoke at the inauguration of the office complex in Jos on Friday, where he also commended the council on the achievement.
He said the presence of the office complex further showed the effective management of scarce resources by the council.
“This project is timely and I wish to congratulate the NSC for achieving this feat.
“What you are doing here is the proper management of our common wealth.
“This will no doubt create jobs, and so doing, it will address current security challenges such as banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity facing the nation,” the minister said.
Amaechi thanked the government and people of Plateau for creating an enabling environment for the council to operate.
On his part, Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau thanked the council for siting the office in the state, saying it would add value to its economic fortunes.
He said with the abundant natural and human resources in the state, the council stands a better chance to thrive.
“We want to thank the council for siting this office here. This will no doubt add value and boost the economic fortunes of this state.
“This is coming at a time that the federal government is making frantic efforts to revive the rail lines in the country.
“I want to assure you of our support at all times. Our administration will continue to work for total peace to return to the state for its overall development,” he said.
In his address of welcome, Mr Hassan Bello, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Council, said the presence of the office would attract more business opportunities to the state.
He said the office was dedicated to international shipping trade in the country.