Posted by A staggering N450 million has been lost by the Kogi Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (KOCCIMA) in Kogi State.
At the Kogi Trade Fair’s 2023 closing ceremony in Lokoja, Femi Ajisafe, the President of KOCCIMA, revealed this.
According to agricultural economist Ajisafe, KOCCIMA has been losing N22.5 million a year in Kogi State for the past 20 years.
He declared, “Over the past 20 years, KOCCIMA has lost approximately N22.5 million (twenty-two million, five hundred thousand naira) annually. This is a sacrifice that KOCCIMA made out of patriotism, but the State has not fulfilled its end of the bargain.”
“The Kogi Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture has lost approximately N450 million (four hundred and fifty million naira) in total (not including the time value of money or potential interests).”
Chief Ajisafe urged Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello to rewrite the state’s trade and commerce history by compensating for the revenue losses accumulated and moving KOCCIMA to a new location that will serve as both a permanent trade fair site and a place for its offices that is at least twenty hectares in size.
In addition, he pushed for KOCCIMA to be included, like the other 19 northern states, as an item in the state’s annual budget.
Let me quickly tell you that as we are still training to take off again, performance cannot yet be measured. However, he continued, “I am convinced and confident that we will have a successful landing at our destination and a smooth takeoff with determination, spurred on by early strategic plans and implementation.”
According to information obtained by Janescope, the 2023 trade show intends to strengthen Kogi State’s economy through agreements, trade missions, synergistic associations, expositions, and exhibitions for the sustainable growth of both Kogi State and Nigeria as a whole.