The Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA) has assured local and international participants that this year’s international trade fair, scheduled to hold between February 21 and March 2, 2014, will bring extraordinary dividends.
According to the chamber, the trade fair will incorporate serious brainstorming on transformation of the agricultural sector, with a view to resuscitating the manufacturing/industrial sector that makes Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution of only 4 percent.
Awwalu M. Markafi, first deputy president of the chamber and chairman of fair main organising committee, said the theme of this year’s trade fair, “Agricultural Transformation for Industrial Development: Public Private Partnership (PPP) Approach,” was meant to reflect the current realities, given that agriculture and industry were two key sectors the country could look up to at this point when crude oil was beginning to fail the economy.
“In arriving at the choice of this year’s theme, we have considered the expressed concerns and discussions on our over-dependence on oil as more or less the only source of revenue sustaining our economy, despite enormous potentials available in other areas, particularly agriculture. It is therefore the position of the Chamber that focus should shift to agriculture and industrialisation,” he said, while addressing journalists at the corporate head office of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in Lagos recently.
The fair will be a 10-day event beginning with the fourth edition of secondary schools quiz from the 19 Northern states. This is expected to take place at noon of Saturday, February 22, and will be chaired by Bello Mahmud, registrar-general, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
There will be a one-day seminar on the theme of the trade fair on Monday, February 24; an event that will be chaired by Theophilus Danjuma, former Nigeria’s defence minister, while Ango Abdullahi, an adviser to a former president, will be the guest speaker.
Saturday, March 1, will be a farewell dinner in honour of exhibitors. The event will be held at Hamdala Hotel, Kaduna, at 8pm. Special guest will be Zainab Ahmed, executive secretary, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
Markafi seized the opportunity to call on the private sector, including local manufacturers, to participate, adding that security situation had improved tremendously in the state.
“I am happy to tell participants that Kaduna is safe. So many security agencies are working with us. So, we thank God for improved security,” he said, adding that the chamber had already registered participants from Ukraine, Egypt, Czech Republic, Algeria, Turkey, India, and Niger Republic.
