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Tinapa loses $5million daily as Dubia moves for tighter hold on Nigerian market
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Currently, the country is losing an estimated $5 million or N590 million daily to Dubai, the capital of the United Arabs Emirate for imports from that country due to the continued delay in commencement of business at TINAPA.
Meanwhile, Dubia World Group’s Jafza has concluded deal to take over the Senegal port and build similar facilities worth about $800 million or N96- billion and another one in neighbouring Ghana in a plan viewed by stakeholders as an attempt to maintain its strangle hold on the Nigerian import market.
According to BusinessDay’s finding, the TINAPA Business resort which was commissioned by the Obasanjo administration in 2007 is more than 90 percent completed and would have commenced trading long ago but for the lack of operational guidelines for the gigantic project.
According to Bassey Ndem the managing director of the resort, the resort is “supposed to be a business and leisure resort where you can come and do your business in a relaxed atmosphere. The same quality of shopping and prices that you get in Dubai is what we are trying to replicate in Nigeria”.
Sadly, despite the readiness to commence trading, the huge project is yet to be put into use due to bureaucratic bottlenecks. Businessday gathered that the absence of an operational guideline for Africa’s premier business resort constitutes a hindrance for the operation of the resort.
But Ndem says despite the fact that Federal Ministries of Commerce and Finance, Management of the resort and all other stakeholders have finished work and submitted the guidelines to the federal government since October 2007, they were yet to get the approval to start trading.
Said he, “there is need for us to be given approval to commence trade but that is in the hands of the federal government, we don’t know what is holding it.
“We have procedures and guidelines for TINAPA which we have met. The ministry of commerce, in fact, it was that drove the process, but then we are aware that after they have finished their own work with us there is still a need for the federal government to approve and gazette our guidelines, that is what is keeping us.
“First of all, we participated in all the committees that were set up and as far back as October last year, we have finished our own part. But there is so much we can do, we have spoken to the individuals we believe are involved and they have given us assurances that as soon as possible it will be given attention by the federal government.
“Legislation issue concerns the Nigerian Export Processing Zone (NEPZ) and Free Trade Zone entirely. We as TINAPA cannot initiate a process independently that will result in changing the law that established NEPZ, what we can do is get TINAPA and its functioning approved and properly legislated by the federal government,” he added.
He lamented facilities at the resort already said to be the Dubai of Africa is wasting away without generating any income to the state government which planned the project as a major plank upon which it wants to rest, as it creates an autonomous economy for the state.
“TINAPA is a key component of that plan and that is why the state government has devoted so much energy and given TINAPA the kind of back up and environment that it has given so far”, Ndem stated.
According to him even though the state does not benefit directly from TINAPA, it benefits from the multiplier effects the project would throw up in the Canaan City. Some of these benefits, he listed, includes the taxes from the over 12,000 employees of the resort as well as the services that will be provided by its citizens to those people and to the shoppers who are expected to come in and to those who are seeking leisure and are carrying their money and coming into the state to spend it on transportation, hotels, services, etc.
He pointed out that the main beneficiary from the project is the federal government which he said would collect taxes, fees and custom duties from the ships that bring goods in. “It is the federal government the collects duties that are paid on the goods as they leave TINAPA. I mean all the statutory payments, registration, everything it is the federal government that benefits”, Ndem stressed.
On the reported move by Jafza to Senegal , he stated that the Dubai investors have seen the threat of TINAPA to their business and therefore rose to mitigate that by seeking alternatives that will give TINAPA a run for its money, size and facilities.
Dudai World Group’s Jafza subsidiary was recently reported to have sealed an $800-million deal to build and operate an economic zone in Senegal with the first phase of the project which is beginning this year to be completed in 2010.
The MD added that besides their plans to take over the Senegalese port the Dubai investors are also planning a replica of TINAPA in nearby Ghana all in an effort to ensure that they do not lose their Nigerian market.
He queried, “Who do you think they are doing it for? Is it the 12 million people in Senegal ? Of course they are targeting the Nigerians who are about 140 million people”, he stated.
Meanwhile, Dubia World Group’s Jafza has concluded deal to take over the Senegal port and build similar facilities worth about $800 million or N96- billion and another one in neighbouring Ghana in a plan viewed by stakeholders as an attempt to maintain its strangle hold on the Nigerian import market.
According to BusinessDay’s finding, the TINAPA Business resort which was commissioned by the Obasanjo administration in 2007 is more than 90 percent completed and would have commenced trading long ago but for the lack of operational guidelines for the gigantic project.
According to Bassey Ndem the managing director of the resort, the resort is “supposed to be a business and leisure resort where you can come and do your business in a relaxed atmosphere. The same quality of shopping and prices that you get in Dubai is what we are trying to replicate in Nigeria”.
Sadly, despite the readiness to commence trading, the huge project is yet to be put into use due to bureaucratic bottlenecks. Businessday gathered that the absence of an operational guideline for Africa’s premier business resort constitutes a hindrance for the operation of the resort.
But Ndem says despite the fact that Federal Ministries of Commerce and Finance, Management of the resort and all other stakeholders have finished work and submitted the guidelines to the federal government since October 2007, they were yet to get the approval to start trading.
Said he, “there is need for us to be given approval to commence trade but that is in the hands of the federal government, we don’t know what is holding it.
“We have procedures and guidelines for TINAPA which we have met. The ministry of commerce, in fact, it was that drove the process, but then we are aware that after they have finished their own work with us there is still a need for the federal government to approve and gazette our guidelines, that is what is keeping us.
“First of all, we participated in all the committees that were set up and as far back as October last year, we have finished our own part. But there is so much we can do, we have spoken to the individuals we believe are involved and they have given us assurances that as soon as possible it will be given attention by the federal government.
“Legislation issue concerns the Nigerian Export Processing Zone (NEPZ) and Free Trade Zone entirely. We as TINAPA cannot initiate a process independently that will result in changing the law that established NEPZ, what we can do is get TINAPA and its functioning approved and properly legislated by the federal government,” he added.
He lamented facilities at the resort already said to be the Dubai of Africa is wasting away without generating any income to the state government which planned the project as a major plank upon which it wants to rest, as it creates an autonomous economy for the state.
“TINAPA is a key component of that plan and that is why the state government has devoted so much energy and given TINAPA the kind of back up and environment that it has given so far”, Ndem stated.
According to him even though the state does not benefit directly from TINAPA, it benefits from the multiplier effects the project would throw up in the Canaan City. Some of these benefits, he listed, includes the taxes from the over 12,000 employees of the resort as well as the services that will be provided by its citizens to those people and to the shoppers who are expected to come in and to those who are seeking leisure and are carrying their money and coming into the state to spend it on transportation, hotels, services, etc.
He pointed out that the main beneficiary from the project is the federal government which he said would collect taxes, fees and custom duties from the ships that bring goods in. “It is the federal government the collects duties that are paid on the goods as they leave TINAPA. I mean all the statutory payments, registration, everything it is the federal government that benefits”, Ndem stressed.
On the reported move by Jafza to Senegal , he stated that the Dubai investors have seen the threat of TINAPA to their business and therefore rose to mitigate that by seeking alternatives that will give TINAPA a run for its money, size and facilities.
Dudai World Group’s Jafza subsidiary was recently reported to have sealed an $800-million deal to build and operate an economic zone in Senegal with the first phase of the project which is beginning this year to be completed in 2010.
The MD added that besides their plans to take over the Senegalese port the Dubai investors are also planning a replica of TINAPA in nearby Ghana all in an effort to ensure that they do not lose their Nigerian market.
He queried, “Who do you think they are doing it for? Is it the 12 million people in Senegal ? Of course they are targeting the Nigerians who are about 140 million people”, he stated.
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