ACCI has made substantial progress despite paucity of fund-DG
By Peter Usman://
Director General, Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ACCI, Ms Victoria Akai has said despite paucity of funds and other challenges militating against the agency, significance progress has been recorded over the years.
Ms Akai pointed out that policy advocacy and capacity building programmes were organised for the Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs to enhance the knowledge of entrepreneurs, aimed at yielding maximum and profitable results that would boost the economy of the country.
The Director General, who spoke to Idealposts online in an exclusive interview during the weekend in her office along Airport road, Abuja also revealed that ACCI is working assiduously towards ensuring that the issue of multiple taxations was dealt with.
She further disclosed that ACCI has entered into partnership with local and international Chambers of Commerce, Embassies and Consular offices in the country to open up business opportunities within and outside Nigeria.
“We have entered into partnership with key agencies like Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, SMEDAN, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment among others for the purpose of promoting businesses in Nigeria” she said.
“What we do as a chamber of commerce is that, we try as much as possible to deliver the services that we can with or without funding.
“During COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to make significant stride because we do hold virtual meetings despite the lock down. We were able to continue some forms of business interactions within and outside Abuja and outside Nigeria. So we are trying as much as possible to surmount our challenges with the best possible solutions.
“We have a lot of national and international partnership. Currently, we have over one hundred partnership agreements and that is how we run our activities through these agreements. So we have agreement with local and international Chambers of Commerce.
“ACCI has currently been adopted by NACCIMA as national centre. We have gone into partnership with councils like Nigeria-Turkish business Council, the Nigeria-Qatar business council and several international chambers of commerce” the DG said.
On the issue of challenge, she said, “There are challenges of SMEs struggling with multiple taxation, electricity and security. We have numerous challenges, but however, for us at the chamber