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LCCI to host SMEs at trade fair

By on October 3, 2015

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has finalised arrangement to host the 29th edition of the Lagos International Trade Fair.

The Chamber has also announced that as part of the fair, it would host a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development forum for five days.

While disclosing this recently, the Chairman, Trade Promotion Board of LCCI, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, stated that the SMEs forum was a major innovation of the event which would receive support from the Guarantee Trust Bank for the next four years.

He said, “The need to support the development of entrepreneurship as well as the MSMEs in Nigeria cannot be overstressed, especially given the urgent need to create jobs and build an inclusive economy.

“Many small business owners have capacity deficit in various areas of their enterprise. This is one major reason for the failure of quite a number of them between their start-up year and the third year.

“One sure way of investing in the future of our economy is to increase the capacity of these entrepreneurs to create and manage businesses. This is what is done in all successful economies around the world.”

Also to encourage the development of the non-oil sector, the LCCI Trade Promotion Board chairman revealed that the chamber would host an investment conference during the fair with the theme, ‘Enhancing value addition in the non-oil economy.’

According to him, this year’s fair is billed to hold simultaneously in three venues; Tafawa Balewa Square which will be the venue of the business-to-customer general fair, Muson Centre which will host the business-to-business and corporate exhibition and the Freedom Park for the creative industry fair tagged ‘Eko Akete.’

He said, “In hosting this fair at these venues, the LCCI aims to hold an all-inclusive fair, which will accommodate all sectors of the economy and expose the potential of the Nigerian economy beyond oil.

“The 2015 Lagos International Trade Fair with the theme, “Enhancing value addition in the non-oil economy” has attracted numerous local and international companies and we already have confirmed bookings from China, Egypt, Japan, Ghana, India, European Union, Indonesia and Pakistan for participation in the fair.

“This is in addition to the hundreds of indigenous large, medium and small-sized businesses which have booked spaces to be part of the 2015 Lagos International Trade Fair.”

He added that in appreciation of the enormous potential of the creative industry, the fair had also been designed to focus on that rapidly growing segment of the Nigerian economy.

“It is for this reason that the LCCI has entered into partnership with the Committee for Relative Arts, organisers of the yearly Lagos Books and Arts Festival to use the platform of its yearly LABAF to jointly host the maiden edition of the Lagos Creative Industry Fair as adjunct to the 2015 Lagos International Trade Fair.

 

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