The director general of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Shola Obadimu has said, Nigeria remains a strong market for sales of goods and services, and the destination for investors and manufacturers.
Speaking shortly after declaring open the sale and exhibition of beauty products held at Victoria Island, Lagos which had in attendance over 200 companies and over 5000 exhibitors. tagged ‘Beauty West Africa,’ he said, the exhibition has proved to the world that Nigeria, can hold a world class exhibition anywhere across the country successfully.
“It also signifies that Nigeria still remains a strong market. There is an indication that Nigeria is a strong market with a lot of demand for her products and services.
“What I would like more is to see some of these companies investing in local industries and opening more manufacturing outlets to complement government efforts on employment creation. This is a good story for us. It shows we are a great country. We can host international exhibitions,” he said.
Obadimu, who went round to inspect the various outlets and different products exhibited in company of the exhibition manager, Ken Baber, explained that, many of the exhibitors are visiting Nigeria for the first time,while some of them have been doing businesses across the West Africa sub-region. “If we can get them to run this kind of event a few more times, the confidence would come.
“This exhibition is an opportunity for many of the exhibitors who have not visited Nigeria or West Africa to see that Nigeria is a safe place that is ready to host the world. With all the facilities that are available, Nigeria is an exhibition managers’ delight. This is a well organised event. It shows that the world is free to come to Nigeria to organise such an event because Nigeria is a strong market with over 200 million people,”Obadimu explained.
According to Baber, Nigerian markets are growing with so many potentials for West Africa and the world.
He said: “We are encouraging Nigerians. We have exhibitors from across the world under one roof here in Nigeria. This shows that Nigeria is the heart of exhibitions. The market is growing and there is so much potential in West Africa, particularly Nigeria.”
In the words of Jamie Hill, the managing director of B and B event,organiser of the exhibition, he noted that, the takeaway from this year’s exhibition is that it is the largest edition they have ever organised, “it is the largest edition we have ever had till date. It places significance on the importance of the Nigerian and the West African markets. The beauty market here in Nigeria has reached $5.28 million.
The first vice president, Republic Benin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Agbofoun Leonard, said: “We are here in Nigeria to learn how things are done. We are here to learn how to organise exhibitions. We have been organising exhibitions in our country but not in this magnitude. So we are here to have first-hand experience of how it is done, so that when we get back to our country, there will be an improvement in our exhibitions.
“We are happy with what we have seen. When we were coming to Nigeria, we informed our president but he was sceptical about our safety. But we are one and the same mother.
“We told our president to allow us to visit Nigeria and since we arrived at the border, Nigerians are friendly people. We have called our president to say that we are in safe hands and that we will arrive safely.”
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