The Port Harcourt City Chamber and the body of journalists in Rivers State have agreed to work together to attract businesses and promote the tourism industry. This is as Chinyere Nwoga, President of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), has tasked news writers in Rivers State to sustain efforts towards projecting the state in a positive light via shifting the narrative in the state from perception to reality.
The PHCCIMA boss noted that journalists play a huge role in attracting or discouraging investors and prospective businesses with the quality of stories they put out in the public space.
Nwoga stated this when the newly elected Executive Committee of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Rivers State Council paid her a courtesy call at the PHCCIMA corporate office in Port Harcourt.
She commended the chairman for an earlier presentation, saying it showed that some of the Rivers NUJ objectives of integrity, accountability, and strict adherence to global best practices, including projecting the state in a good light to attract investors, align with PHCCIMA’s position as a chamber of Commerce.
According to her, if journalists were to keep sending out updates that say there is a world war all the time, investors and prospective businesses would run away and there would be job losses and economic downturns. She added that the Rivers NUJ must begin to tell the state’s stories in such a way to portray physical realities that the state is safe, development-based, and conducive for business.
This, she stated, is to help the state, especially people in the business community, to build more external confidence, and get people aligned to coming to Port Harcourt, live in Port Harcourt, and do business in Port Harcourt.
Speaking about Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, the PHCCIMA boss noted that a firm doesn’t have to be a blue-chip company to join, saying there were categories for enterprises, and there is also the women’s wing. According to her, the women wing is a national movement of the chamber that allows space for women to feel free, talk about their problems, discuss their accomplishments, inspire other women, and marshal out ways to enhance their potentials.
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Hear her: “Within that space, we strive to make available some affordable funding, grants, and loans for them. There is also a chapter for the youth, the young directors, where they tell us their needs and we come up with ways to help nurture and mentor them.
“We also have incubation and mentoring programmes, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups, providing business support, training, and capacity-building, etc. using our members as facilitators. We believe that when they grow, the chamber grows.”
She also said the PHCCIMA visits embassies to showcase their investment potentials and they also show PHCCIMA theirs too because the relationship with them is symbiotic. “A recommendation from the City Chamber makes visa obligation and other matters a lot easier.”
Nwoga also explained that PHCCIMA organizes trade fairs, which provide opportunities to showcase businesses, products, and services of members and others, including the business potentials of the state.
“Mr. Chairman, you mentioned tourism, we will introduce you to the President of Beach Harcourt Club who is doing a great job but he is under-reported. This is the value you can bring in to showcase our tourism potential to the world”.
She concluded by saying that this and lots more form part of the core objective of the chamber, expressing confidence that with the Rivers NUJ partnership, PHCCIMA shall be better understood as a city chamber, creating more opportunities for people to hear and have first-hand knowledge into what they do and the benefits they are creating for them when they join this chamber.
Earlier on, Paul Bazia, the new NUJ chairman, said the new EXCO came to congratulate the PHCCIMA President following her emergence as the first female President of the Chamber since it was founded in 1957 and to explore areas of collaboration with the City Chamber which has been a frontline organization in the creation of favourable conditions for the Organized Private Sector (OPS) in the state.
He described the state as rich with tourism potentials, saying Rivers State has plenty of untapped resources including the 20 kilometers of all-white sand beach along Ngo town and Oyorokoto parts of Andoni Local Government Area of the state.
Bazia highlighted the interest of the union in joining forces to harness these potentials and available resources in the state for the creation of employment opportunities and better economic and investment conditions for both the private and public sectors in the state.
