THE Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of COK Best Limited, Abuja, Lady Vera Afam-Aguiyi, has called on the Federal Government to assist existing small scale businesses in the country with a discounted electricity tariff and ensure adequate security to enable them to stay afloat.
Afam-Aguiyi stated this last weekend while speaking with journalists, shortly after the opening of COK Mall and the Lounge, in Kubwa, a satellite city in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The mall, which has already employed 65 people with state-of-the-art facilities and solar-powered also provides fitness facilities for residents of Kubwa and its environs.
She said, “To keep businesses afloat is to protect jobs and as well to create more jobs. Government can assist in so many different ways. For instance, even with the fact that we decided to go green by using 80 percent solar energy in our business, we are still battling with energy and power supply. Government can make energy affordable to small skill businesses like ours by given a different tariff; a tariff that will encourage people to establish more businesses like ours.
“If government, as part of its effort to ensuring ease of doing business, provide a discounted tariff to businesses, investors from outside the country and within will be willing to establish more businesses, factories and even production companies, jobs will be protected and more jobs will be created.
“Also, security is very key. If government provides security, it will encourage people to come and invest in our country. Our diasporan brothers and sisters will be willing to come back to invest. When you go abroad and mention coming to invest even in Abuja, they will say how can I use my hard earned money to come and invest in a place where there is no security. Electricity tariff and security are to key areas. Then you can talk about other facilities. Road network within the cities and street lights can encourage someone to build or startup a business in an area the person may ordinarily not want to.
“There are a lot of infrastructures and facilities the government can put in place within the cities of each state that will drive investments. Government really needs to seriously look into facilities and provision of infrastructures in the interest of job creation and economic growth of the country.”
Lady Afam-Aguiyi added that the business outfit was part of her contribution to creating jobs and reducing social unrest, especially with the Kubwa area of Abuja.
“We were motivated because we want to create employment, we want to touch lives, we want to touch the less privilege, especially considering the location.
“This is Kubwa and most people like to invest mostly in the city centre. But one thing you should know about Abuja is that the real people that need to be touched are not staying in those city centres. They stay in these satellite towns and the suburbs and people invest more in the city centre. Meanwhile, 90 percent of the people who go to work at the city centre retire back home here in Kubwa and other satellite towns.”
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