Business owners in Cross River State bemoaned the state’s slowing economic growth and said that recent government policies and inattention have caused them to suffer large losses.
At the Town Hall Meeting for the Calabar Business and Community Initiative, which was attended by the PDP candidate for governor, they voiced their grievances.
The organizer of the Calabar business community, Dr. Francis Effiom, gave an explanation of the event’s justification, saying: “We thought it necessary at this point that beyond the political party rallies, we, the businessmen, should be able to interface and interact with the candidates so that our input will matter in the policy direction of the incoming administration. That’s how the Town Hall Meeting was informed.
Even though MSMEs employ more than 86% of the state’s labor force, Mr. Ken Asim, speaking on behalf of the Calabar Chamber of Commerce, lamented the unfavorable business climate in the state.
He stated: “Our business environment has continued to nosedive; between 2014 and 2021, there has been [a] backward slide in the business environment.”
Theodore Ebuta, speaking on behalf of the Association of Non-Bank Micro-Finance Association, praised the occasion as a first-of-its-kind opportunity for gubernatorial candidates to network with the private sector.
“Governments, over time, have rolled out intervention funds for those in this sector and several times politicians used the funds for their cronies, loyalists, political sons and daughters and at the end of it, those in this sector which the fund was meant for end up benefitting nothing,” he lamented.
Speaking on behalf of the Timber Dealers Association, Chief Effiong Ewa Ebani charged negligence on the part of the Cross River State Forestry Commission.
“Today, for those of us who come from villages, we heard that timber is banned, yet our forests are being destroyed. The Forestry Commission has failed to live up to its responsibilities,” he alleged.
He further begged the PDP candidate, if he wins the upcoming election, to assist landlords of forest communities in saving the forest from extinction.
Speaking on behalf of Sandy Onor, the PDP candidate for governor, deputy governor candidate Lady Emana-Duke Ambrose Amawhe bemoaned the current administration’s lack of political will to carry out its own policies, which she claimed was to blame for the declining fortune of small scale businesses in the state.
She assured the neighborhood that the business climate was favorable, saying: “The Senator Sandy Onor’s administration which I would be deputizing by God’s grace is willing and has the political will to implement policies that would be favourable to the business community in the state.”
