Before now, Nigerians who could afford it, flew to Dubai for shopping or business. With the coming on stream of a sprawling shopping mall at the Tinapa Business Leisure Resort (TBLR), this traffic abroad will reduce. And it is not just an advantage only Nigerians will enjoy; the entire West African region will also tap in.
Tinapa was designed to offer Nigerians who cannot afford the fare to Dubai an opportunity to pick up quality goods right at home. Former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke initiated the scheme setting up one of the largest supermarkets in the world at one of the emporiums the size of four football pitches put together. It is called T-Mart Duty Free Shop. It provides the right ambience for shopping in a relaxed and comfortable environment.
Products displayed at T-mart Duty Free Shop are sourced from reputable manufacturer’s representatives around the globe. They include men and women clothing, shoes, ties, etc.
Presently T-mart is enlarging its product base to electronics and is in partnership with major marketing representatives. The traffic of customers has increased in recent times and with every conference taking place at Tinapa, T-mart is getting off to a great start. Students on excursion who are considered to be at the low end of the market chain have become T-mart brand ambassadors as they are allowed discount and encouraged to take photographs. With a staff strength of over 100, trained in crowd control and the T-marts management mission of "working to showcase the best products that add value to daily living," there is a promising future.
Recently, Interswitch, a leading provider of e-payment platforms, was at Tinapa for a workshop. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mr Bassey Ndem, Managing Director of the TBRL said "The Tinapa Retail pay card" has an overriding objective of enhancing voluntary compliance with the operational guidelines regarding customers on the importation of goods into Nigeria. It is a home-grown solution that has the blessing of customers and it is programmed to work from providing answers to peculiar problems to actually solving them with the latest technology in the market internationally.
Mr Mitchel Elegbe, Managing Director of Interswitch, confirmed that the proposed "Tinapa card" will check fraud, provide proprietary information, maintain security of transaction and confidentially.
Mr Bassey Ndem, the Assistant General Manager, Operations, explained that the deliberate absence of a port in Tinapa was to avoid the distortion of the ambience and serenity of the business environment. According to him, Tinapa is a development that is meant to conserve foreign exchange and is an attempt to give Nigerians some dignity by stemming the massive flow of citizens to other parts of the world in the name of shopping. Tinapa is an attempt to change the way business is done in Nigeria and turn the nation into a trading hub for neighbouring African countries to visit Nigeria and invest here.
Highlighting the challenges facing Tinapa, Ekom mentioned the need for the Federal Government to rehabilitate the existing road network around the Niger Delta states.
He suggested that the Federal Government should concession the roads after rehabilitation to generate revenue. Electricity is crucial as the present I. P. P. arrangement is impacting negatively on the profitability projections at Tinapa.
Mr Val Usijoh challenged the state Governor Senator Liyel Imoke to provide an aggressive forward-looking leadership for Tinapa as a "dry port" since Tinapa is the greatest investment in the state.
He suggested that the state government should work in concert with other state governors and businessmen within the zone to ensure that there are cluster industries that will operate in Calabar to encourage shipping companies to utilise Calabar seaport for their activities. An eight-man delegation that visited Tinapa took a guided tour around the business resort and departed after taking time out to shop.
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