Shimite Love, special adviser to Delta State Governor on Trade and Export (SPADTE), has said that one of the engagements of her office was to work with different embassies towards providing opportunities for all Deltans in line with the MORE agenda of the Sheriff Oborevwori’s administration in the state.
“We ensure they (Deltans) get the opportunities and also get educated. We do a lot of community engagements but for you to successfully trade, you need to do bulk production, even if it is agriculture,” she said.
Love made the disclosure in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay Sunday, in Asaba, Friday, saying that the focus is to lift the state from a monoeconomy of oil and gas.
“Now, I’m beginning to see some improvements in our figures when we look at what we do,” she said.
According to her, “My office and other ministries are coming together. Ministry of Agriculture is very critical to the success of trade and export.”
She however, noted that though the state may not meet up with local consumption of non-oil products, her primary assignment “is to ensure foreign exchange is earned from what we have – that we are not a mono-economy. That we have an economy beyond oil and gas.
“For this, we focus on who will give us foreign exchange and we have balance of trade.”
She disclosed that already, an interaction with the Kenyan Ambassador has commenced to link state governor with the government of Nairobi and two other African countries.
That interaction would soon begin to see how the countries can trade, she hinted.
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“From 1960 till date, we started at 10 percent but as at today, 62 years later, we are at 20 percent. That is not good. Africans don’t like trading with each other but we are selling to other continents,” she said.
Under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we are meeting with different African countries to see if we can increase trade – whether it is Ankara etc.
“Kenya has lovely teas and I’m drinking teas from that country. I am drinking Coffee from Ethiopia but we want to get more people embrace some of these things we are taking from some of the African countries. Unfortunately, our minds are not open to each other. Instead, everybody is using Chinese products.
“So, government is interested in my focusing on Intra-African Trade and that what I’m doing as well as the Middle East.”
Meanwhile, Love disclosed that the state government through her office would train 250 entrepreneurs in the state on how to attend Trade Fairs and maximise the opportunities.
The training, which would be done by experts at the oncoming Eco Action Summit 2025 in the state, would witness lot of the entrepreneurs profiled by her office in 2023 and 2024 participating.
A lot of the entrepreneurs have been attending trade fairs in different countries but some of them don’t know how to pitch their products, Love revealed.
“Now, we are going to look at the difference products and teach them how to sell their products in 60 seconds. A lot of them are really trying but they need some improvements in terms of sales pitch for their products.
“Those of them we appreciate have no funds to register their companies, we are going to pay for their Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) fees so they can get registered and open an account in their company’s name instead of using their personal names.
“We want them to get to the next level of trading. African Women Practitioners (AWP) would be on ground to look at some women entrepreneurs who they can help put their products in ShopRite, Next Cash and Carry etc. it is a multi-approach to set a standard here cos if you can put your products in places like Ebeano, you definitely put your product in anywhere in the world because these supermarkets have international standards. We go global even though we are still local,” Love declared.
