By Miriam Humbe
Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Owan Enoh on Thursday, identified the importance of enhanced performance with direct impact on the lives of the Nigerian people as critical to the implementation of the core mandate of agencies within the Industrial sector of the Ministry.
Diana-Mary Nsan, the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of State disclosed this in a statement signed on Thursday.
Senator Enoh was speaking when the top management of NEPZA led by the Managing Director/CEO, Dr. Olufemi Ogunyemi paid him a visit in his office.
NEPZA was visiting to deliver a progress report on the activities of the authority.
The Minister of State charged the management of NEPZA to pay greater attention on delivering enhanced performance with focus on industrial matters that will impact the Nigerian people in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present administration.
While expressing his readiness to work closely with the leadership of the authority to achieve this objective, he called for continued engagement with the management of NEPZA to achieve this shared objective.
Presenting his progress report to the Minister of State, Dr. Ogunyemi said that NEPZA was committed to repositioning itself through various initiatives to ensure continued growth and excellence.
He said that in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present administration, the agency had expanded the Free Trade Zones and clusters to 55 across the nation and generated 13,720 jobs in the process
Within the year under review, the authority also registered 39 new enterprises, registered three new trade zones, facilitated the establishment of the Lekki Deep Sea Port development within the Lagos Free Trade Zone in record time and brought in significant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow into the country’s economy.
Also within the period under review, the Managing Director informed the Minister that the work of the authority has led to the inflow of $1 billion worth of investment into the country from the trade zones.
This, in addition to the sum of N425 billion, the trade zones paid as customs duty to the Nigeria Customs.
He said NEPZA was engaging with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NGX), and other stakeholders to draft regulations for listing Free Zone Enterprises on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
He said the listing will enable free zone entities, to access additional finance through the Nigerian capital market, create a framework for Free Zone Entities to contribute to the growth of the capital market and enhance NEPZA’s regulatory oversight of listed Free Zone Entities.
Ogunyemi appealed for the support of the Minister to enable the authority to overcome current challenges.
These include: Outdated legal and regulatory frameworks, limited understanding of the Free Trade Zone concept, multiple taxation by revenue agencies, limited access to foreign exchange, and inadequate infrastructure, among others.
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