By; Juliana Katung.
The low turn out of exhibitors at the on-going 37th edition of the Kaduna International Trade Fair has been attributed to economy meltdown and hardship being faced by the masses.
Four days into the fair, much pavilions of states, foreign and private companies as well as medium scale businesses, are still empty except for the heavy present of primary and secondary school pupils and students from various schools across the state at the fair.
A representative of Ministry of Commerce Taraba State, Mrs. D. B. Bala described the fair as the poorest. She said she has attended over the years, as exhibitors present are mostly private companies from across the country and even at that, the turn out of the home based companies is low.
According to her, the foreign companies and most of the states as well as the federal goverment are very few, hence, their present are no yet felt at the fair.
“One can attribute it to the economy crises. Money is the must important things in this issue and is hard to see nowadays, and even the government ministries, especially the Federal Government has to go through different processes before fund can be approved with the single account system.
“This proces usually take a long period of time, which may have made impossible for some of them to be present at the fair, resulted to poor attendance” she noted.
Mrs Bala who therefore called both federal government to find a way of enhancing the economy to enable busineses trive as well attract more investors to the country also lamented over the low turn out of buyers which she said was also as a result of lackof money.
Representative of a Non Govermental Oganization (NGO), Women Economy Emancipation Initiative (WEEI), Christy Samuel said the trade fair was interesting but the low turn out which is as a result of lack of fund
is a thing of concern.
Christy who said her NGO focuses on empowering women and youths, noted that the trade fair provide an avenue for people to learn other culture and ideas, especially from people of other State and country.
She however called on the various state Government to provide a condusive enviroment as well as finance for it to participate during any trade fair.
One Mr Daniel Moses, who owns a stand at the fair and deals in kitchen utensils, said the turnout of buyers compared to the previous trade fair was poor.
“Although some people are used to the ideal of coming to buy things when the fair is coming to an end, a lot of people will want to use the last opportunity to shop and bring their kids to see the fair” he added.
According to Daniel, the trade fair ground is some how empty now but “We pray that it will change as the fair progresses”. He added that the low turnout witnessed at the beginning of the fair could be due to poor
publicity and the economy crises facing the country, where every body
is trying to survive.
He advised the organisers to improve on the preparations in other to achieve better patronage.
A civil servant, who only gave his name as Ahmed called on the present administration at all levels to invest heavily in macro-economy.
He said government should think of how to make the business environment more conducive for more people to come into the states, and country to invest in order to avoid the repeat of a trade fair empty pavilion as the Kaduna case may be.
