Repositioning Aba Trade Fair to be truly international

Ms Success Iheduru appeared at the Aba International trade fair for the first time in 2014 to represent Beauty-Base Company Limited, a dealer in beauty accessories.

Her assessment and conviction that the fair’s planning, patronage and general outcome were poor after some days of attendance have become the hallmark of the Aba fair.

This is in spite of the best efforts of organisers say they are putting in to reposition in the Trade Fair.

“The patronage of the fair was poor, especially on weekdays. The Fair needs better planning, more publicity and increased awareness for Aba residents on its existence.

“With better awareness, there will be more patronage with benefits accruing to residents and participants,” she said.

Iheduru had no premonition that the Aba Trade Fair, after many years of existence, instead of rising in profile and performance, would rather slide further down the business lane of trade fairs in Nigeria.

The Aba International Trade Fair, the brainchild of the Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA), started in November 2012 and its second edition was in 2014.

Globally, trade fairs have purposes for which they are floated and these purposes form the basis for their assessment as either having succeeded or failed.

Experts say that trade fairs, as global trade instruments function to maintain customer relations, find new businesses, partners and personnel, test markets with new products, and research new markets or product acceptability.

The Association of German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) says that fairs also enable companies to improve their brand name “recognition, analyse competitive environments and prepare companies to sell products and services”.

With the desire to use this global instrument of trade to boost Aba’s manufacturing industries’ visibility, almost every leadership of ACCIMA since 2012 has tried to the keep the fair alive.

However, instead of the Aba trade fair to be growing into truly international status, it is still toddling with few manufacturing industries and business people within and outside the city.

This is unfortunate, because business people who need the fair’s influence to improve their brands and enhance recognition often fail to attend.

“The 2023 Aba International Trade Fair, which the past leadership of ACCIMA hosted, was a complete failure and didn’t improve on what the fair had done before.

“And because of that failure, the Abia State Government felt that the organisation of the fair was very poor and had brought shame instead of honour to the state and Aba.

“Therefore, the government decided to take over the fair in 2024,”a source at the Abia Government House said.

The takeover of the Aba Trade Fair by the state government, some experts say, may have some positive impacts on it and the state’s fortune.

How can the state improve the fair and Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global market are yet to be seen?

In a world where people from every nation need to play a role according to their comparative advantage competitiveness capacity is an important consideration required to make the Aba trade fair truly international.

According to experts, global competitiveness is “the ability of an individual, organization or country to produce and supply high-quality goods and services at a reasonable cost resulting in satisfactory returns”.

Mr Okechukwu Williams, immediate-past President, Leather Products Manufacturers Association of Abia State (LEPMAAS), said the trade fair preparations began late for an international event and may challenge its expected international status.

“I know that for a trade fair to be international, it has to engage local and international exhibitors on time and there should be an international platform to ensure the engagement of prospective institutions and individual participants.

“When a chamber like Aba chamber is planning an international trade fair, some federal ministries, such as the Ministry of Trade and Investment, Foreign Affairs, and Information, should be alerted and on time too.

“For instance, if it is an agricultural fair, the agricultural sector and ministry should all be involved”, Williams said.

Williams, who has been to international trade fairs outside Nigeria, said that the Aba International Trade Fair should also be showcasing a specific sector at a time.

“Meeting the standards for international trade fairs would mean that from the beginning, the chamber and the state would ensure that what the business community in Aba will be doing henceforth will be globally acceptable,” he said.

The Manager, Trade Fair Data, AUMA, Mr Ulrike Froeb, corroborating Willians, said that AUMA recognises three classifications of trade fairs – Regional, National and International.

“A regional fair must have 50 per cent of visitors come from 100 kilometres away from the venue.

“A national trade fair must have 50 per cent of visitors coming from 100 kilometres away and 20 per cent from 300 kilometres away.

“An international trade fair must have 50 per cent of visitors coming from 100 kilometres away and 20 per cent from 300 kilometres away.

“In addition to its distance visitors character, they must also have at least five per cent or not less than 100 foreign trade visitors with 10 per cent or at least 20 foreign exhibitors,” Froeb said.

Froeb’s views are in line with the idea that not every trade fair can be tagged an international trade fair.

This means that the Aba Chamber of commerce should begin to plan its trade fairs with a conscious effort to upgrade their product and service quality as well as packaging and presentation.

In line with increasing the fair to meet requirements for an international trade fair, the President, ACCIMA, Chief Geoffrey Uzoagbara, said the chamber was working hard to acquire a permanent trade fair site.

Uzoagbara said the chamber had made efforts to meet Gov. Alex Otti of Abia to enable the government to assist ACCIMA on the permanent site plan, but noted that the meeting has not materialised.

The Chairman, Aba International Trade Fair Planning Committee, Chief Nwaka Inem, said in preparation for the international trade fair, the committee had set certain rules for local exhibitors.

Inem, who is also the Special Adviser to Otti on Trade, Commerce and Industry, said no local exhibitor was expected to pass off its product as if it was from another producer or country.

“When you buy a booth to exhibit, we allow you because we expect that you are exhibiting your product,” he said.

Experts believe that the Aba trade fair is far from being an international one, although it can grow into a truly international trade fair.

They say that ACCIMA and the Abia government must collaboratively make conscious efforts to make the growth happen.