Onitsha Chamber of Commerce deplores rising poverty level

Says inflation rate is almost 18%

By Nwabueze Okonkwo

ONITSHA —The Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, ONICCIMA, yesterday, deplored what it termed the poor state of national economy and rising poverty level in the country.

ONICCIMA said a situation where poverty level has been aggravating, with 67.1 per cent of the population living below a US dollar per day, with power generation still a nightmare and electricity tariffs soaring higher and distribution companies, DISCOs,  blatantly refusing customers’ access to pre-paid meters, is highly worrisome.

Out-going President of ONICCIMA, Uchenna Apakama, who made the observation in his farewell address during their 29th Annual General Meeting, AGM, in Onitsha, said the current  recession in the country, coupled with other macro economic challenges, has continued to pose a strong threat to the Organised Private Sector, OPS.

According to Apakama, the Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, is still pegged at a higher rate of 14 per cent since July 2016, with lending rate of between 20-30 per cent remaining unattractive to the OPS, while the rate of inflation is almost 18 per cent, just as 130 million Nigerians lack adequate sanitation, with 57 million lacking access to safe drinking water, leading to the death of some 45,000 children annually due to diarrhoea.

He said: “Unemployment rate across the land is high, hovering at 42.24 per cent in 2016, with thousands of graduates joining the labour market every year. Corruption, insecurity and crime, including armed robbery, kidnapping, Boko Haram, and  herdsmen attacks are assuming pervasive and horrendous dimensions now more than ever.”

He, therefore, called on the governments at all levels to continue taking proactive measures to reduce the high incidence of poverty in the land, even as he welcomed the initiative of the Federal Government  in establishing the ‘Ease of Doing Business Commission’ headed by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

Earlier, Chairman of Association of Anambra Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, AACCIMA, Mr. Humphery Ngonadi, who represented the National President of National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Mrs. Iyadole Alaba Lawson, urged the Federal Government to involve OPS in the annual budgetary preparations and allocations.

He also urged the OPS to identify with the chamber in the South-East, rather than clustering around Abuja and Lagos chambers because according to him, most of those who made Abuja and Lagos chambers to bubble are mainly from South-East, thus forgetting the adage which says “Charity begins at home.”

He commended the out-going President of ONICCIMA and his lieutnants for a job well done by seeing the need to make sacrifices to the chamber and urged the newly elected officers to emulate them.

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