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The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be holding a stakeholders’ forum on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ELTS).

Organizers say the session, slated to take place this August, will lay bare the opportunities that exist with the program and discuss how more Nigerian businesses can take advantage of its many benefits.

The LCCI stakeholders forum will be turning over the details of the scheme which brings fifteen African countries under a Common Customs Union, and removes customs duties, taxes, and other barriers of entry that exist between the economies of the countries involved.

The ELTS was established by West African Heads of State in 1979 with the aim of fostering cooperation and integration among ECOWAS member states.  But despite its obvious benefits for businesses intending to trade across the sub-region, records show that only about 777 Nigerian companies with about 2,000 products have signed up for it.

According to the LCCI, the gulf between local companies with sub-regional interests and the number of such enterprises that have taken to the ELTS may indicate a widespread lack of awareness of the positive impact the agreement could have on their business activities. They will be hoping to fill up the information gap by exploring the scheme in detail at the upcoming event.

In previous forums, the LCCI discussed the land use charge in Lagos, the electoral process, and the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, which Nigeria signed in July. These periodic forums and dialogues have yielded communiqué which are assented to by representatives of Lagos’s biggest industries

The LCCI Stakeholders Forum takes place on Wednesday, 28 August 2019, at the LCCI Conference Center, Alausa, Ikeja. It’s scheduled to begin at 10 AM. 

Established in 1881, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the principal representative body of private businesses in Lagos. It promotes and defends the interests of a commercial landscape that accounts for 60% of industrial output and 75% of financial services in Nigeria.

If you would like to register for the LCCI Stakeholders’ Forum, click here.

Featured Image Source: PM News Nigeria

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This article was first published on 20th August 2019

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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