By Audrey Lotechukwu
FRI, 04 DEC, 2020-theGBJournal- This was during the 132nd Annual General Meeting 2020 Thursday, in which the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Toki Mabogunje highlighted the activities of the Chamber during the year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Mrs Mabogunje used the moment of her address to stakeholders to highlight the Chamber’s unique position in the marketplace after 132 years in existence as well as the progress on Brand Refresh Project which was commenced in the course of 2020 to give the Chamber a contemporary outlook without changing its fundamental identities.
‘’Our Chamber was founded in 1888 and this makes us a heritage brand,’’ she said.
‘’As a heritage brand, the LCCI, as with other heritage brands around the world, in order to stay relevant and avoid becoming a relic, engage in brand refresh from time to time. This allows the organization to highlight its unique position in the marketplace, reinforce its value and gain a new perspective for what lies ahead.’’
According to Mrs Mabogunje ‘’we have refreshed the logo after due consultation with the Council, the Board of Trustees, and the Executive Committee of the Chamber. It was quite an inclusive process.’’
The refreshed logo was unveiled at the end of the Business session of this AGM.
Mrs Mabogunje has reason also to speak glowingly of the digital transformation of the Chamber’s secretariat. She alongside the Director General, Dr. Muda Yusuf, were the driving force behind the transformation of the Secretariat’s operations throughout the year despite the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic and the recent #EndSARS protests across the country.
The digitisation combined with its ISO processes and intense staff training on process and procedures improved the Chamber’s activities significantly in scope and impact.
‘’We rose to the challenges of Covid 19 by moving our meetings, management interactions, team meetings, training, webinars, trade-fair and all other governance and operational meetings to digital platforms,’’ Mrs Mabogunje said.
‘’The results have been amazing. Participation by the business community has been phenomenal both in number and quality. In some sense, we could say that the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise as it forced the rapid digitisation of our operations. It took less than a month from the lockdown to be fully digital. Increasingly, the activities of our secretariat have been technology driven.’’
The Chamber’s presence on social media is the game changer that dramatically improved its global presence, drawing it to a younger generation of businesses as well as older businesses that before now should have joined the Chamber.
‘’We were constantly present in the news, making LCCI over the period of the pandemic lockdowns the No.1 Voice of Business. Attendance at our virtual events soared as for example we had over 5,000 participants from around the globe at our webinar “Exploring Agribusiness Opportunities in South West Nigeria.” the President said.
But the backdrop to the changes inside the LCCI was the changing economy landscape. All through the year, the world economy, including Nigeria, battled with the health and economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic caused disruption to global supply chains and threw almost every economy across the globe into an unprecedented economic crisis.
Nigeria, in particular, was confronted with a myriad of challenges, including weakening oil price, revenue pressure from oil and non-oil sources, budget disruption, foreign exchange illiquidity, disruption to business and commercial activities, reduced disposable income, escalation in poverty and unemployment rates, as well as reduced investor confidence.
Mrs Mabogunje commended the fiscal and monetary authorities, as well as members of the private sector, for their efforts in mitigating the adverse effect of this public health crisis on the economic and business environment.
She also commiserated with families of those who lost their lives to the pandemic whiole noting the downward trend in the number of confirmed cases of covid-19 and gradual recovery in business activities following the relaxation of the imposed lockdown.
‘’Let me emphasize that the shock propelled the fiscal authorities to take bold steps in implementing key reforms the organized private sector has been advocating for over the years. Notable among these reforms are the removal of fuel subsidy, transference of price determination power to oil marketing companies, cost-reflective tariff in the power sector (currently suspended due to agitations by organized labour) and transmission of the Petroleum Industry Bill to the National Assembly.’’
She also highlighted the Chamber’s role in promoting investment friendly policies that support private sector development, as the leading advocacy voice of the organized private sector
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