New moves to resuscitate the Ghana-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce (GNCC) continue to receive the blessing of strategic stakeholders as well as leaders of various sectors of the economy, including Nigerian banks in Ghana.
At a recent separate pre-launch consultations with members of the GNCC’s steering committee, in Accra, Managing Directors of UBA Ghana Limited, Mr. Ime Isong; GTBank Ghana Limited, Mr. Thomas Atta John; Zenith Bank Ghana Limited, Mr. Henry Oroh and FBN Bank Ghana Limited, Mr. Gbenga Odeyemi have all geared up to bring back the defunct Chamber.
The Banks Bosses who were highly surprised that Ghana and Nigeria have no Chamber of Commerce despite their special and long diplomatic and trade relations assured that they will combine their energies to sustenance the current effort.
“It’s a good initiative. Anything that has to do with regional integration, with trade integration, with cultural integration, is very important. Because in all of these, there are economic opportunities in them. We will support you in terms of patronage, in terms of sponsorship. We can do all that,” Zenith Bank Ghana’s Managing Director Mr. Henry Oroh told the team during a visit in his office at the bank’s Ridge-Accra head office.
Also, FBN Bank Ghana’s Managing Director Gbenga Odeyemi assured the team from GNCC steering committee of FBN Ghana’s full support for the initiative to arrive.
“I am actually excited about this. This is something that we have been looking forward to. I am even surprised that we don’t have a chamber (Ghana-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce) up till now. When I was in South Africa, I was a member of the board of the South Africa-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce. Please keep us abreast of developments. You have our full support,” Odeyemi assured the GNCC steering committee team members at a meeting with them at his office.
The GNCC steering committee at its meeting in Accra in January had mandated the team of Martin-Luther C. King and Benjamin Haastrup Quornooh to identify and engage relevant and strategic stakeholders towards the re-launch of the chamber.
GNCC was registered with the Registrar-General’s Department in 2009, but had been in limbo due to some systemic constraints, including relocation from Ghana, as well as the demise, of some of its earlier directors.
Fortunately, those issues have now been resolved, steering committee member Martin-Luther C. King said, adding that the exigencies of current global economic realities also compels the need for the chamber now.
“Changes in today’s global landscape mean emerging markets must consider how they shape their own futures. Many countries in the developed world have focused their efforts and resources inwards as a result of challenging economic times. Ghana, Nigeria and other countries in West Africa urgently need to do same, too.
“And as West Africans, and ECOWAS citizens, the greatest opportunity for realizing our common growth potentials is to continuously increase our capacity to trade and do business with each other and among ourselves. This, the GNCC will work to actualize, stringently guided in its operations by international best practices,” King assured.
