How exhibitions raise Nigeria’s profile as investment destination —Pearson

By Jonah NwokpokuRegional Director, West Africa, Afrocet Montgomery, George Pearson has said that trade exhibitions held in Nigeria provide a veritable platform to raise Nigeria's profile as an investment destination.

He stated this during a press conference at the opening of a three day Propak West Africa International Exhibition held in Lagos.

Regional Director, West Africa, Afrocet Montgomery, George Pearson

He said: "The exhibition provides huge foreign investment opportunities for Nigeria. Propak West Africa is the biggest international exhibition of its kind within the processing and packaging industry. We are bringing interests from thirty different countries bringing over 70 different exhibitors. What we want to do is to raise the profile of Nigerian industry in particular and hopefully we can bring in those countries in to focus on the Nigerian market."

According to Pearson, "This printing and packaging exhibition is even more important now that we are looking at where the oil prices are and the Federal Government and the states in Nigeria have to look at non-oil products. Even more so, if you look at Nigeria as an agricultural country, the whole agricultural, food processing and manufacturing industry elements in Nigeria are becoming crucial in terms of economy and in terms of growth and the population in terms of moving forward."

Also speaking, Managing Director of Angus Montgomery, Damion Angus, a partner on the exhibition, said: "Exhibition allows foreign companies to come in and it is a very cost effective way of getting a taste of what the market entails. And so in one place within one to three days, you can see over 2,500 people, whereas if they came on their own or on a mission, they would not be able to have that same intensity and walk away with a very good idea of what the industry entails and what opportunities exist. And we have international companies which come here and they find distributors, partners and this provides them a very good springboard to set up a business. So exhibitions globally are fantastic methods of putting together buyers and sellers and informing people of what is going on. And we very much hope that Propak will be the platform (for foreign investors to come in)."

The international exhibition which focused on the packaging, processing and printing industry drew participants from 15 countries including participants from Nigeria and China, India, Taiwan, France, United Kingdom, Germany etc, and over 70 industries as exhibitors.

Propak is a brand of shows. It was launched in South Africa, many years ago and has expanded between East and West Africa.Pearson said Propak is leveraging Nigeria as a commercial hub of West Africa and the most important commercial capital of West Africa to promote trade shows in other parts of West Africa with Lagos as a base.

Source: How exhibitions raise Nigeria's profile as investment destination —Pearson