The Honourable Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar has tasked the Zamfara Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ZACCIMA) to identify for her Ministry’s intervention, five Companies from which two or three can be selected to work to degrade the poverty situation in the State.
The Honourable Minister gave this directive to ZACCIMA when its delegate came to ask for the Minister’s intervention to save many of the moribund industries in the State from going into extinction.
Hajia Abubakar directed the visiting Chamber to identify only Companies that have the potentials to create jobs, and those that have the potentials to drive economic activities in Zamfara State, we will select and work with you and see how we can bring them back to life.
The Honourable Minister commended the visitors for “the first step of coming to the Ministry to tell us what your challenges are in Zamfara Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture.” She told the visitors that “We are also very lucky with this Administration which focuses on agriculture and we all know that Zamfara is one of the foremost agricultural States; we will work with you and try to identify the initiatives you are trying to promote and see how we can key in Govt interventions into them.”
Hajia Abubakar went further to note that “For the cotton, it is something that is very close to my heart.., we will work with you to bring back the cotton textile industries that we have., and again, Zamfara State has a history of cotton growing as well as your ginneries.. and I know that they are all lying fallow and so on.., these are things we really want to study, with your guidance, for us to understand what the challenges are..and how to encourage the farmers to go back to farm and to bring back to the cotton as well as the industries.”
The Minister later directed that the Zamfara Chambers of Commerce has to be a part of the African Cotton Association, and I know there is a conference coming up in March and I want ZACCIMA to be a part of that, so that will give you a kind of exposure..”
She specifically directed further that “For us to work properly with you, establish a relationship with Honourable Commissioner for Commerce and Industry in Zamfara State; help us identify maybe five Companies that you want us to work that will have an impact on the State of Zamfara; we will not be able to do everything at the same time, but out of these five, we will identify two or three and let us see the progress we can make, those that have the potential to impact upon the poverty situation; those that have the potentials to create jobs, and those that have the potentials to drive economic activities in Zamfara State, we will select and work with you and see how we can bring them back to life”, the Minister said.
Hajia Abubakar also remarked that Zamfara State has never attended our National Council of Industry, Trade and Investment, well, for the last two years. And this is something you should push your Honourable Commissioner to do because, whatever we are doing in this administration is always a public-private-partnership.., there you are always getting information on whatever Federal Government is doing.., when you hear, then you can come back to us and tell us you want to be part of A,B and C. That is more specific and more direct. It is very important that we have that relationship and you are always aware of what is going on
While the Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Edet Sunday Akpan was speaking at the meeting with the ZACCIMA, he said, “We are glad to welcome you and to listen some of the challenges confronting you; these are some of the things giving the Honourable Minister of State cause for concern; they are also some of the challenges confronting people from other parts of the country as well. When you talk of an industry that is employing over 45, 000 but now becoming virtually non-existent and you take statistics of every other ones like that.., these are what can cause a lot of security issues and that is because people are not engaged in what they are supposed to do, and that is because an idle hand can also create a lot of issues… But, I believe like the Minister will always say, the Government is not just sitting doing nothing,…”
He further said, “Like in this Ministry, we have quite a lot of programmes being put in place to address some of these problems… The assurance we can give you right now is that everything will be done to change the scenario.” The security first, which is a very big issue; we all know how it has affected very many other things. The industry has to do with power, if you don’t have power, and you have electricity generators enough to power all these industries, you won’t have much problems. The president is doing a lot to generate a lot of power in the country. There are some other areas where Government is trying to see that funds are channelled to have lots of people engage in one form of economic activity or the other. So, things will be done to make sure that your problems are solved.”
The Director, Investment, in the Ministry, Mrs. Olukemi Arodudu, on her own, advised the visiting Chambers to “Guide the Federal Government on how they can help you; follow the tasks given to you by the Honourable Minister.”
Signed: Olujimi Oyetomi
