Over 100 SMEs for Africa foods, products exhibition
Over 100 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are expected to exhibit at the African Foods and Products Exhibition scheduled for April.
The exhibition, which is organised by the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), will showcase SMEs across various sectors of the economy including health, manufacturing, agriculture, telecommunications, oil and gas, energy, renewables, among others.
With the Theme: African Food & Product Exhibition, Actualizing Sustainable Economic Growth, “Think Global, Be Local” is also expected to attract more than 3,000 attendees and participants.
The National President of the Chamber, Dame Adebola Williams who stated this at a media briefing in Lagos explained that the only thing that would improve the nation’s situation at this crucial moment is production.
According to her: “We need to become more productive and that is part of what we do here as the Chamber of Commerce. We encourage production and we have a committee and so many other committees that look after this aspect of our business”.
Williams said: “When you think global, whatever you are producing, you want to make it to a finished state, not something that is in a semi-state of exportation, we want to make sure that what we are exporting are finished products”.
According to her, that’s the only way that we can derive maximum value from what we export as Nigerians. “It is either to take a cocoa product for example, semi-finished, but if we can finish it up, finish the products and export, we find that we are going to derive and generate more revenue for our members, and for the country as a whole. That is people coming in, investors coming in to the exhibition, finding what is attractive to them, what they are looking for, and making deals with the exhibitors”, she explained.
On food insecurity: Williams said that food insecurity was one area that has taken front stage with the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce adding that every month that Chamber holds a breakfast meeting where it invites specialists in different areas of interest to the members and they come and talk to them on how to improve their businesses, what and what to do to get better yields of their agric-produce.
”There is a lot of work going on there; it’s an area we are very interested in. We collaborate with government in this area to ensure that what needs to be done and what value needs to be delivered to our members is attended to,” she stated.
The Acting Director-General of the Chamber, Wafai Samuel, while explaining the motive behind the African food and product exhibition said that Nigeria needed to maximise the impact of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA).
Yomi Kuti, Member of the African Foods & Products Exhibition Committee (AFPE), Yemisi Ogundipe – Vice Chairman of AFPE, Ayo Stuffman – Chairman of AFPE, Adebola Williams – President of NACC and Wofai Samuel, Acting Director-General of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce at the Briefing in, Lagos.
