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36th Kaduna Trade Fair records low turnout

By Saxone Akhaine, Northern Bureau Chief
27 April 2015   |   5:27 am
FEW investors and business owners were present at the 36th Kaduna International Trade Fair, which started at the weekend.
Kaduna Trade Fair. Image source newsdiaryonline

Kaduna Trade Fair. Image source newsdiaryonline

FEW investors and business owners were present at the 36th Kaduna International Trade Fair, which started at the weekend.

Although they showcased their products and services, some of them ascribed the low turnout of participants for this year’s event to the menace of the Boko Harm insurgency and poor publicity by the organisers.

The 36th edition of the trade fair, which began on Friday, will end on May 3.

At the trade fair ground (along the Kaduna-Zaria Highway), Walid Jibrin, a former vice president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), spoke to The Guardian on the matter.

Jibrin, who once represented his constituency at the Senate, had a slightly different view; according to him, political gladiators and the electorate had envisaged election crises, which eventually turned out to be a victory for all.

Meanwhile, in his goodwill message, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, said government, through his ministry, was putting in efforts, aimed at reforming the Nigerian investment climate and improving the country’s investment atmosphere.

He added that the ministry has also embarked on a multi-focus trade strategy to tackle various challenges to domestic, regional and international trade in line with their peculiarities.

Aganga added that government has been in touch with the Kaduna Chamber’s programmes and other initiatives because it (the chamber) embraces the nation’s transformation agenda. Aganga pledged that government would continue to welcome constructive proposals from the chamber, especially if such proposals were based on experience and expert knowledge of commercial and industrial practice.

President of the Kaduna Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA), Dr. Abdul-Alimi Bello, said he was glad that the general elections, which made Nigerians and the world apprehensive, have come and gone peacefully.

He, however, called on the incoming administrations at all levels of governance, to invest heavily in macro-economy. He added that they should, as a priority, think of how to make the business environment more conducive.

Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is expected to be chairman of the trade fair seminar titled: Make it in Nigeria: promoting domestic production for national sustainable economic development, scheduled for today (Monday), April 27, 2015.

The theme for this year’s fair is: “Promoting Domestic Production for National Sustainable Economic Development.

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