•NEPZA Solicits Collaboration with Gulf Of Guinea Commission to Fight Insecurity

The Managing Director of Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA), Adesoji Adesugbe says he is seeking for collaboration and corporation among the Gulf of Guinea States to tackle insecurity and criminal activities in the region.

He made the appeal when a trade delegation from the Calabar Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture and the Gulf of Guinea Municipal Centre led by John Gaul Lebo visited him at the conference room of the Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ).

Adesugbe who was represented by Godwin Ekpe, the General Manager (CFTZ) said that no serious business can thrive in an unsafe and in secured environment.

Hear him “We want to promote economic activities in the Gulf of Guinea and we are ready to partner with the Gulf of Guinea city project, gulf of guinea economy should be exploited maximally, we need more investment and we are ready”

It would be recalled that the Gulf of Guinea Commission was established by the treaty signed in Libreville, Gabon on July 2001 by Angola, Congo, Gabon, Nigeria, Sao tome and Principe.  And in 2008, Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) joined the Commission. The membership of the body is open to other countries in the Gulf region.

Lens was informed that the Commission was constituted in a permanent institutional framework for cooperation among the countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea in order to defend their common interest and promote peace and socio economic activities.

The leader of the trade delegation and special envoy to Governor Ben Ayade, Rt. Hon. John Gaul Lebo lauded the activities of the Calabar Free Trade Zone and NEPZA for promoting economic diversification.

Hon. Lebo who is a former Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly disclosed that with a $450b dollar gross domestic product (GDP) portfolio of the gulf countries, Cross River State stand to benefit economically.

He said, “Our desire is to build a cluster of economic activities by creating an alternative economy that has a special purpose vehicle so that the State become a warehoused for goods and services”