Head of Mission of the Nigerian Consulate in Shanghai, China, Ambassador Chimezie Oguh has advised importers in Aba who do business in China to always follow the proper channels while engaging in any transaction.
News Echo reports that Oguh gave this advice yesterday during the maiden edition of Aba South Constituency Summit. With the theme: “Enhancing small scale business opportunities and partnership between Nigeria and China in the COVID-19 era”, importers had the opportunity to ventilate their problems with Chinese business partners.
The summit which was organized by the member representing Aba South State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Obinna Ichita, had in attendance the cream of Aba business society.
Speaking to journalists after the summit, Oguh said that the entire complaints he got were all about fallout of business trust. He therefore advised that there is need for a proper change in the manner the Aba businessmen do their businesses.
In his words, “All of us agreed that Aba businessmen have to change the way they do their businesses. Come together as one, use a platform to do your business. Don’t do your business anyhow. Use registered agents to transmit money.
“Use banks, register your companies. These are legitimate ways you can operate so that if there’s any fallout, you can go and complain and legally it’ll be pursued. The world is moving fast and anybody who is lagging behind can’t catch up. You have to expand the horizon of your business. You have to know what’s happening in that country.
“When you get to China, go to the Nigerian mission and report your presence so that if there’s any fallout, the embassy will intervene. There are some things you cannot solve as an individual in a foreign land of which your embassy can play a huge role.”
Oguh however assured that all their complaints as regards to other issues like visas and shortchanging after payment for goods will be properly looked into.
The organizer of the summit, Hon. Obinna Ichita said he convened the summit because of the present realities that Aba businessmen complained about which they are calling for solutions.
According to him, “The realities are that preponderance of the businessmen in Aba import from China. Another reality is that there are travel restrictions that made it a little bit difficult for them to go to China.
“The reality is also that there is no longer possibility for them to conduct pre-shipment assessment or inspection of their goods. It is also a reality that most times, they don’t seem to be delivered with what they ordered for. Again, most of them are shortchanged by the people they conduct business with in China.
“And it’s based on this that we decided that the best thing is to get the person who’s representing us in China to come down here and have a face to face interaction with our people so that our people can ventilate their frustrations and express themselves fully.”
Ichita said that the summit has armed the Head of Mission of the Nigerian Consulate in Shanghai with information he can work on upon resumption of duties and know how to tackle the listed challenges from businessmen.
He said the summit will not end with China; as there are still other countries where Aba businessmen still have issues they need to bring to the knowledge of authorities.
“We’ll not stop here. Like I said, preponderance of people import from China, some others import from Europe, especially spare parts. And you know how they do it in Europe. A policy in one country reflects in the other 27 European countries. So, we’re going to get an Ambassador to represent Europe or even Ambassador of that particular where our people buy from who’s here in Nigeria or our own representative there.
“But definitely we’re going to have another career diplomat not just a political ambassador, but a career diplomat who’ll come here, to rob minds and find a solution to some of these problems.”
News Echo reports that aside Nigeria’s consulate general in Shanghai, where Oguh heads, Nigeria also has two other representations in China which includes: an embassy in Beijing and a consulate general.
