BREAKING NEWS, Business

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Participation in trade fairs whenever they are held has helped Chinese firms to reach out and make useful contacts for their businesses

|  By Maureen Chigbo  |  Jul. 8, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

A KEY reason Chinese firms are everywhere in the economic sector of Africa is their penchant for taking advantage of trade fairs. According to Isamaf Adebayo, the managing director of BASCO Motors Nigeria Limited, the average Chinese firm can spend its last money to participate in a trade fair knowing that even if it does not smile to the bank immediately, the contacts and trade that will be generated thereafter will see the company smiling to the bank before long.

“China is a country that knows the value of trade fairs and that is why the Chinese are seen to be taking over everywhere today,” Adebayo, a prominent dealer in automobiles, said and advised Nigerian firms not to shy away from trade fairs if they are to be exposed to the right markets.

Speaking in Ibadan, when the Central Working Committee of Oyo Mega Trade Fair 2013 paid him a courtesy visit in his office, Adebayo urged Nigerian business concerns to copy and adopt the Chinese attitude to trade fairs. Adebayo, whose company is a major distributor of JAC trucks in Nigeria, said the Oyo Mega Trade Fair team did not need to expend much energy marketing the trade fair to his company.  “We know the value of trade fairs, so we cannot afford to be left out of this big event,” he said.

Earlier, the president of Oyo Mega Trade Fair, Delight Owoyemi, said this year’s trade fair would be far bigger than that of last year, adding that strategically, the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN, had been brought into it as a partner.

Rotimi Adeyeye, NIMN president, explained the reason behind the involvement of his institute in the trade fair. He said that since his members were the arrowheads of the marketing drives in most of the organisations in both the public and private sectors of the economy, it was a welcome idea to be part of it to ensure a hitch-free and well-packaged fair. He said all exhibitors would be able to sleep with two eyes closed during the event as adequate security measures had been put in place, adding that traffic control would be near-perfect to prevent traffic hiccups.

The Oyo Mega Trade Fair 2013 delegation included Moses Adebisi Gbadegesin, council member of NIMN, and Toye Fawole, director of communications for Oyo mega Trade Fair. The 10-day fair, which will start August 9, at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan, would attract more than 1,000 exhibitors and more than 300,000 visitors.

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