Some Nigeria exhibitors complain of low attendance

Accra, March 2, GNA - A week after the 10th Ghana International Trade Fair opened, some of the exhibitors said they were worried about the poor patronage.

More than 800 local and foreign exhibitors are displaying various goods and services at the Fair.

Ms Celestina Amadi, a Nigeria Exhibitor, told the Ghana News Agency: "In fact this year's fair has been generally dull and poor." She said her company brought in a lot of consignment hoping to make good sales but as things stood now, she did not know whether she should go and clear some of their goods still at the Port. Ms Amadi said: "Our participation in the next fair will depend on the expenditure and income in this present trade exhibition." Comparing the fair to other international fairs, Ms Amadi said it had been different and beset with power outages, which had posed problems for them.

For Emeka Okolo, another Nigerian, the fair was good in terms of organisation but it appeared to have received little publicity hence the low patronage.

"We understand that the few visitors that come usually visit the pavilions that were close to the main entrance putting those of us far away at a disadvantage," he said.

Ms Esther Adu, a Ghanaian exhibitor, described the fair as very good saying it was an interesting opportunity to promote trade and business especially within the West Africa Sub-Region. She said trade and business in the Sub-Regional was very low and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was not doing enough but if individual countries could organise such fairs on regular basis the future would be promising.