LITF to promote diversification, targets 500,000 visitors

With over 500,000 visitors expected at this year’s Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF), the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( LCCI) has stated that the yearly trade show will further explore alternatives to the oil economy through other sectors.

Scheduled to hold from Friday 4th of November to Sunday, 13th November, 2016‎, the chamber noted that the fair is expected to draw attention of the federal government on the need to intensify its efforts aimed at diversifying the economy  away from hydrocarbon resources.

‎The Chairman, Trade Promotion Board, Sola Oyetayo, explained that the economy is already diversified to a certain level, but stressed the need to inject sufficient dose of sustainability into the nation’s economic strategies.

He maintained that economic diversification is urgently required with a political will to pull Nigeria out of the current economic recession.

Oyetayo, while unveiling plans on the 2016 LITF, said nations of the world are generally experiencing economic turmoil, particularly in the wake of continuous drop in ‎oil price, saying that the Nigerian economy has been worse hit largely because of the lip service paid to other sectors of the economy while depending only on oil for earnings over the years.

In his words: “It is worthwhile to note that oil price shock, volatility in foreign exchange, burst of ‘rent seekers’ phenomenon in the oil sector, fiscal rascality, sloganeered ‘diversified’ economy, neglect of manufacturing sector, energy crisis, growing unemployment rate, lull in capital market, lack of adequate pla‎nning, inertia in decision making process just to mention a few resulted in the present economic recession; all without solution based response, demand that government needs to declare emergencies in some critical sectors to revive the Nigeria’s prostrate economy.”
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“For us at the LCCI, we shall continue to use all avenues to support the government and call attention to possible intervention that can give us workable solution.”

Giving details of the event, he said over 500,000 visitors are expected to attend the fair over the ten-day period, adding that the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) hosting the general consumer fair has an average ‎exhibition space of 40,000 square metres.