THE Lagos International Trade Fair is the premier International Trade Fair in Nigeria. It is also reputed to be the largest business market in the whole of the West Africa sub-region, attracting thousands of visitors and investors from across the world.
The spectacular 10-day event usually begins on the first Friday in November of every year since 1981. The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which is the oldest and highly influential in Nigeria, took over the organisation of the fair in 1986 and has been staging the fair annually to date.
Within this period, the Lagos International Trade Fair has grown tremendously in popularity to become a leading forum for trade and business promotion in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
In recognition of its importance and usefulness, increasing numbers of exhibitors and visitors from all over Nigeria and the world at large continued to take keen interest in the Lagos International Trade Fair and as this continued to happen, the Tafawa Balewa Square venue of the fair became inadequate to accommodate the thousands of visitors coming for the event annually.
This gave rise to the vision of building an alternate international trade fair venue along the Lagos/Badagry expressway with an open space for exhibitions and lock up shops for traders, accommodating members of such groups as the Auto Spare Parts and Machinery Dealers Association (ASPAMDA); Association of Nigerian Tyre Marketers (ANTM); Tools and Hardware Dealers Association and Balogun Business Association, dealers in cosmetics, perfumes and diapers, among several others etc.
Over the years the trade fair complex has evolved in management, moving from one concessionaire to another. Just recently the management once again changed hands even as the trade fair event, the main reason for establishing the complex failed to come up last year. The expected income which the federal government also expected from its investment in the complex had failed to come.
The announcement of a change in management of the complex by the Federal Government from Aulic Nigeria Limited, the concessionaire which has been managing the complex for close to a decade, has been received with mixed feelings by industry watchers.
The takeover was announced last December by the Executive Director/CEO, LITFC Management Board, Mrs. Lucy Ajayi, who said the need arose as a result of the alleged breach of the agreement by the concessionaire, by not remitting N6 billion in lease fees to the Federal Government.
The Federal Government through the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had on August 23, 2017, terminated the concession agreement it signed with the concessionaire in 2007 for the alleged breach of the agreement.
Ajayi added that the contract was to be for 30 years, with the concessionaire paying N40 billion to the government in contract sum in incremental form.
According to her, trouble started when the concessionaire refused to honour the payment in the last three years. Besides, the LITFC boss who also said the concessionaire reneged in all the agreements on developing the facility and bringing it up to required standard regretted the parlous state of the multi-purpose complex.
Sunday Tribune learned that because the concessionaire failed to deliver, tenants at the complex have not been able to make maximum use of the facility, thus, hindering the free-flow of income for them and for the concessionaire.
“However, with the taking over of the complex by the LITFC Management, we expect a new turnaround of things in the complex. As an insider, it’s our candid opinion that with the cancellation of the contract with Aulic Nigeria Limited, which is in line with the government policy of ease of doing business, the facility will be turned round to support the various businesses going on in the complex,” said Mr. Cosmos Alphonso, an investment analyst, who has a big business interest at the complex.
“The stagnation witnessed here over the past 10 years as a result of the concessionaire’s failure to perform cannot be overemphasised,” he said, noting that traders have lost patronage as a result of the poor infrastructure provision, despite the strategic location of the complex in the gateway to the West African region and the South Eastern part of the country.
Dr Okeke asked the new management to speed up the infrastructure development to engender growth and commerce, noting that huge sum of money had been invested in the complex over the years.
An investor, Mr Noel Ndubuisi, who claimed to have participated at the annual international trade fair held at the complex in the past 15 years, also spoke on the continued importance of such a complex to business operations in the country.
“Historically, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which is the oldest and highly influential in Nigeria, took over the organisation of the trade fair in 1986 and has been staging it annually to date. Within this period, the Lagos International Trade Fair has grown tremendously in popularity to become a leading forum for trade and business promotion in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
“The chamber is uniquely aware of the high standards expected of an international trade fair, and it is, therefore, constantly striving to live up to this expectation. Thus, striving to get the best from the manager of LITFC, which wasn’t to be,” he said
It was also noted that in recognition of its importance and usefulness, increasing numbers of exhibitors and visitors from all over Nigeria and the world at large are taking the keen interest in, and patronising, the Lagos International Trade Fair.
In his comment, Chairman, Worldview Investment Company, Mr. James Oluseye, while expressing optimism over the taking over of the complex by the LITFC Management, noted that unless the ongoing reconstruction of Mile 2-Badagry Expressway is completed, nothing meaningful could be achieved.
“Ordinarily, time is money, as the old adage goes. One of the major problems affecting the trade fair is the deterioration of infrastructure along the axis.
“Although, the concessionaire may have its shortcomings, the truth of the matter is that Badagry expressway hosting the complex has been suffering from infrastructure neglect for a long time. So, we are waiting for the magic that the management will perform that would restore the old glory,” he said.
Mrs Lucy Adams, who operates a restaurant at the complex, also spoke on the complex and its major attraction which is the international trade fair.
“In the past, the fair had attracted both local and foreign exhibitors. Since 1986 when the organisation of the fair was taken over by LCCI, the participation of local and foreign exhibitors has been growing steadily.
“However, for reasons that couldn’t be detached from the notorious Nigerian factor, LITFC has been reduced to the activities of Alaba traders, instead of its international design, that heralded it right from the beginning,” she said,
However as the federal government makes the bold move to recover the trade fair complex from the concessionaire to reposition it on the path of profitability, the international trade fair complex represents many others of such properties lying waste across the country, rotting away and not fulfilling the purposes for which they were set up.
and then