Nigeria Content Online

The minister of
state for commerce and industry, Josephine Tapgun, has urged the Common
Fund for Commodities, an international financial institution
established by the United Nations, to pay more attention to rubber
projects in Nigeria.

She said this on
Tuesday when the organisation’s managing director paid her a courtesy
visit at her office in Abuja. Ms. Tapgun said that the Nigerian
government pays special attention to the organisation activities in
providing support to small scale enterprises and value addition to
commodities in Nigeria.

Ali Mchumo, CFC
managing director, said Nigeria is strategic to CFC programme
actualisation, and that Nigeria has shown political will and was the
only country among members of CFC from Africa that is making
contribution to the fund. Mr. Mchumo added that he hoped that Nigeria
would continue to play an important role in the institution’s
activities.

The courtesy call
was preparatory to the 22nd governing council meeting of CFC, holding
in Abuja. The governing council is the highest decision-making body
within the institution structure of the Amsterdam-based Common Fund,
which finances commodity development projects for small and medium
sized enterprises in commodity production, processing, and trade, in
developing and least developed countries.

The minister, who
also represented vice president, Namadi Sambo, at the opening of the
governing council meeting, expressed concern over the volatility and
instability of commodity markets with less than three percent of total
Official Development Assistance (ODA) to agricultural commodity sector.

She lamented the
continued restriction to market access of commodities from developing
countries to developed countries, and called for the abolition of such
practice. She challenged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to remain
committed to development, as enunciated in the DOHA Round, with special
attention to the peculiar circumstances on developing and least
developed countries, and adopt an approach that would be fair and
transparent, with respect to trade in agricultural commodities.

The federal
government also promised to assist the CFC and strengthen its future
collaboration, as well as give both moral and financial support to the
organisation. Ms. Tapgun further said that recent economic and
political reforms embarked on by the government have drastically
improved the corporate governance and political climate of the country,
adding that it is not taking for granted the undeniable attraction of
the country to investors, and it is making efforts and striving hard to
improve the economic environment and introduce new incentives.

“We are taking
drastic measure to rebuild, overhaul, and considerably improve our
infrastructure, particularly power supply and transportation, in order
to increase the efficiency of our national economy and decrease the
cost of doing business. We have invested heavily in the provision of
steady power and have launched a road map on power.

“However, to
achieve quick and sustainable results, we are, among other measures,
privatising the provision of power and transport infrastructure,” she
stated.