American-Chinese business to invest in disability community

Dr Ankeli and General Lonsdale Adeoye…at the visit

*African-American and Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry visits Nigeria

*We require Information, Communication Technology (ICT) equipment that are disability friendly.

By Oluwole Francis

Persons with disability (PWD) have been given a new fillip of hope with the visit by a foreign delegation of Chinese and American businessmen who have taken to invest in different sectors of the nation’s economy but with a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and interest to support indigent members of the society.

Engineer Mathew Adoyi, Nans Zhang and Ma Linchong

According to the leader of the foreign delegation, Mr Kazeem Bello, a US-based Nigerian, “the African-American and Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry sees the Nigerian economy as too strategic to be ignored. We have come into the country to see the feasibility of investing in different sectors of the economy.”

“We have a population of businessmen and women who have interest in the various sectors of the Nigerian economy. In the whole of Africa, Sino-American interests are firmly rooted in the Nigerian system.

“I am very sure of one thing. Our partners and business friends will definitely do all we can to support the structures we have identified, do our business to achieve our objectives and make our host community the best in the world.”

Barrister Yusuf Iyodo, Monday Emoghavwe, Irene Patrick-Ogbogu and Alhaji Musa Mohammed Tata

Welcoming the delegation to his office, Dr Samuel Ankeli, the Senior Special Assistant on Disability told the team that, “the disability community in Nigeria require support structures to create employment and job opportunities that will give us inclusion. We require Information, Communication Technology (ICT) equipment that are disability friendly.”

Ankeli commended the nation’s paralympians who have always made Nigeria proud in international sports. “Your outing in Rio Olympics made us proud. I urge you to intensify efforts to continue to excel in the fields you have chosen. You are a beacon of the inner strength that lies in the persons with disability.

Ankeli advised the African-American and Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to also consider direct engagement and investment in shoe plants in each of the nation’s six geopolitical zones with setting up small processing plants.”

“As we are today, we have 50 hectares of land for agricultural purposes with modern machineries to engage our folks, provide them with new and improved sustainable development opportunities. Some of these structures will help us have, maintain and continuously update the database of persons with disability in the country.

Brigadier General Lonsdale Adeoye (Retired) who coordinated the private sector initiatives to fund and support para sports in the country, thanked Dr. Ankeli for his renewed efforts to bring the activities of persons with disability for enduring resolutions.

Adeoye tasked the Federal Government to expeditiously pass the Disability Bill before the National Assembly so as to facilitate the environment of the living and support for the disability community.

In the delegation that visited Dr Ankeli include the Country Representative of the African-American and Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Babatunde Jones, President of the Paralympic Committee of Nigeria Mr Monday Emoghavwe, Secretary General of the Para-Shooting Federation of Nigeria Irene Patrick-Ogbogu.

Others include Hans Zhang, Ma Linchong, Chris Agoawuike, Engineer Matthew Odoh Adoyi, Barrister Eustace Nwaozuzu, Barrister Yusuf Iyodo who is the President of the Para-Shooting Federation of Nigeria and the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Olympic Fund, Mr Olajide Fashikun and Alhaji Musa Mohammed Tata.

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