October 2, (THEWILL) – The plans by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to open its smart City office in Bayelsa state have reached an advanced stage, and when operational Bayelsans stand to gain tremendously from the huge latent benefits derivable from being engaged in the culture of non-oil export promotion ventures.
The Regional South-South Co-ordinator of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Joe Itta, stated this while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a week-long Bayelsa Economic and Investment Summit themed, “Building towards a shared prosperity”, recently held in Yenagoa, which attracted participants from within and outside Nigeria.
According to him, in order to expand the mandate of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council regional offices were established in the six geo-political zones of the country and the idea behind the establishment of the smart City office in Yenagoa, was to extend its services to grassroots, being distanced, for the people to be involved in the culture of non-oil export business, which has the potentials of wealth creation, job generation, better living standards, production of quality and quantity, thereby leading to certification of the product. “Bayelsa is distant and to domicile, an office in Yenagoa will fill the gaps of involving the grassroots, that hitherto were denied the opportunities and this will further boost the mandate of the six regional offices.
“Bayelsans are bound to benefit tremendously in increased Internally generated revenue, improved quantity and quality of product leading to certification, a whole lot of attributes off non-export breakthrough, in fact the advantages of the smart City office to Bayelsans are so huge.”
On how Bayelsans will get the awareness and modus-operandi of the non-oil export business, he said the media is paramount and the agency will not relent in creating awareness through dissemination of its activities “media not restrictive, three weeks ago, about 300 Bayelsa youths were talked to about the importance of non-oil export business and when we come on board, we will embark on massive enlightenment.”
He disclosed that besides the ministry of Agriculture and natural resources, the Yenagoa chambers of Commerce and other organised private sectors “are already yearning for our presence and would help in sensitisation of the presence of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council.”
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