SCCI chairman elected on Comesa Business Council board of directors |01 December 2016
Wilson Nancy, chairman of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has been elected as a director on the board of directors of the Comesa Business Council (CBC).
The elections took place on November 25 during the tenth annual general meeting at the Comesa Business Council of the Comesa Secretariat in Lusaka, Zambia.
The new board of directors is led by chairperson Dr Amany Asfour of Egypt who has been re-elected on a second two-year term (December 2016 – December 2018) with eligibility to be re-elected for another term of two years. Azim Currimjee of Mauritius was elected first vice- chairperson and Flora Mutahi of Kenya, second vice-chairperson.
Other directors of the board are Solomon Afework from Ethiopia; Karl Chokotho from Malawi; Stephen Ruzibiza from Rwanda; Amna Mohammed Ibrahium Elnour from Sudan and Roseta Chabala from Zambia.
The AGM was attended by the CBC membership, including private and the public sector stakeholders from the nineteen Comesa countries as well as development partners such as USAID.
Apart from the elections, the meeting validated the key achievements of the institution during the period 2015-2016 and reviewed the roadmap towards 2017.
The AGM is mandated by the CBC Constitution which calls for an annual general meeting to be convened every year to review the Institutional Annual Report for the year and to approve the work plan for 2017, in this instance. It has the participation of people from the Comesa member countries; chambers of commerce; private sector associations, regional and national businesses from the Comesa member states.
The meeting was officially opened by the Guest of Honour, Lilian Bwayla, director in the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry of Zambia with other prominent members of the Comesa, CBC and private sectors.
In their opening statements they recognised the various contributions of the private sector to regional integration in Zambia and the rest of the Comesa region.
Highlighting the private sector inclusion in policy, public private partnerships in infrastructure and the public private dialogues as some of the key ways of engaging the private sector in trade, the statements also recognised the work that the CBC has been doing in representing the private sector at various policy platforms, including the Tripartite FTA negotiations and the Local Sourcing projects that seek to promote regional supply chains.
An award ceremony was also organised for three key buyers in recognition of their efforts in promoting local sourcing in the region as part of the Local Sourcing for Partnerships Project.
At the 36th Council of Ministers in October 2016, Madagascar, the CBC Local Sourcing Recognition Award was launched for the buyers in recognition of the support they have afforded to the Local Sourcing Project with the aim of reinforcing their commitment in practicing responsible procurement methods by sourcing locally produced products from their countries of operation. The Award intends to promote and encourage large corporates in the region to promote SMEs by entering into sustainable partnership relationship where they source from them.
The CBC is the recognised apex business member organisation in the region, and a private sector institution of Comesa. The CBC represents private sector interests at the highest levels of decision making in the region. The CBC provides key market driven services to its membership, namely, business advocacy, business support services, linkages, partnerships and market intelligence, and lastly membership development – technical and productive capacity building.