The federal ministry of industry, trade and Investment, has set up a committee to begin concessionary arrangements of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex on Mile-2 Badagry expressway in Lagos.
The move, according to the ministry, is to revitalize the Trade Fair Complex after failed attempts to concession the facility in 2017.
The Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, who stated this when he paid an official visit to the complex, explained that over the years, the infrastructure within the complex had declined, assuring that the Ministry would not only revitalize the complex, but develop it into a world trade center.
He said: “The process is on, but there are some things that need to be done before we can proceed with the process and part of the things to be done is my visit to the complex to see exactly for myself what the situation is and based on the report that I am expecting from the committee that has been set up, the Ministry will sit down with the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) to see what can be done and how the concession will be carried out.
“We also intend to know how much government land has been taken away and we intend to get the government land back with a view to decide which part of the government land would be concessioned, but any land that has been encroached upon would be recovered. We are also in discussions with the State government with regards to the concessioning.”
He said the ministry is determined to ensure that the thousands of traders in the complex would be supported to make their goods available to their customers at a fair price while also assuring that the encroached land of the trade fair would be fully reclaimed.
“This is a challenging time worldwide and things are not easy for the common man. The Ministry is determined to ensure that the thousands of traders here have what is needed to be able to make goods available to their customers at a fair price. We are also aware that over time Trade Fair land has been encroached upon. We are working hard to ensure that everything the Trade Fair has lost is fully reclaimed,” he added.
He said traders are the backbone of the society, saying that no nation can survive as a nation without their contribution to the economy and the goods that they provide while assuring that the ministry would ensure that their rights would be fully protected.
Earlier, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Lagos International Trade Fair Complex Management Board, Charles Okoye, pledged that the entire management team is determined and positioned to do all that is within its capacities to improve on the state of the facility to boost revenue generation and remittances to the federal government.
He also stated that his management has set up a road maintenance taskforce with the mandate to fix and maintain all road networks within the complex to improve the free flow of traffic into and out of the complex.
