Lagos Int’l Trade Fair targets 500,000 visitors

… Headline partner, UBA, to give loan, facilitate cross-currency payments at fair
Omobayo Azeez

Organisers of the 2019 edition of Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) have said their target this year is to welcome over 500,000 visitors that will be patronising 2,000 exhibitors from all over Africa and beyond.

Lagos State Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), alongside other partners topped by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) as the headline partner, disclosed this on Tuesday at a conference to intimate all stakeholders with the forthcoming biggest trade fair in Nigeria and the West and Central African –sub-regions.

Speaking at the conference, Gabriel Idahosa, chairman, Trade Promotion Board and vice president of the LCCI, noted that the fair, which is the 33rd edition, would showcase brands of more than 2,000 exhibitors with over 200 of them coming from about 16 countries.

He said: “As you are aware, the 2019 Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) will hold from Friday 1st to Sunday, 10th of November 2019 at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos.”

He said that preparations by the organisers are on top gear to facilitate the convenient and safe participation at the fair to take place on a space of about 40,000 square metres.

Idahosa, who said that the planning has been thorough, said that the United Bank for Africa (UBA) as the headline partner, has been planning part of the process.

“The two big brands, LCCI and UBA, will be working together to give exciting services to visitors and exhibitors at the fair.

“UBA is a foremost Pan African financial institution operating in 21 African countries, the United Kingdom, the USA and France. UBA will be offering its service to the participants at the fair,” Idahosa said.

Jude Anele, group head, consumer and retail banking, who represented UBA at the event, also highlighted the many roles that the bank would play at the 10-days fair.

He said UBA would have a mini branch at the venue of the fair, where it would provide basic banking services such as account opening, money transfers, advisory services, among others.

He also said the bank would offer more services such as receiving and processing immediately loan requests from individual participants, and register loan requests from business entities for later processing.

He said, “When it comes to loan, we can take request for loans there but it will not be processed instantly especially for businesses. But if it is for individuals, there is no problem. But for businesses, loan appraisal is not usually instant because there are a lot of things a bank must look at because it is a regulated industry.

“We can get loan request that will be fulfilled afterwards as you go back. All our branches that we have across African countries, 21 of them, will also be represented at the fair because their own customers from these countries are also going to be participating in the fair.

“They will be present so that if there are any loan requests from foreign participants, they can easily take them back to their countries.

“Basically, what we would be providing are the basic banking services at the fair; whether it is ATM services, PoS services, cash payment services and other pittance services,” Anele said.

In addition to this, he said the bank would facilitate payments across various currencies using its debit card that has been configured to work on different currencies without hassle.