Trade fairs are important marketing in
strument in almost every part of the world. Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHACCIMA) has not failed to organise international trade fair annually for the people of Niger Delta region and beyond.
As the 10th edition of the trade fair gets underway simultaneously with Port Harcourt Discount Market this christmas season, our Chief Correspondent, Calista Ezeaku and Photographer, Ken Donatus went round the city to find out the effect of these markets on the populace.
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Mr. Femi Dayo – Medical Practitioner
I want to start by saying that the idea of organizing trade fairs and discount markets is to offer customers a wide range of products at a reduced price and at the same time affording the participants or businessmen and women the opportunity to make more sales and more contacts for future businesses.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this year’s Port Harcourt trade fair can serve this purpose at all. Just look around the arena, how many companies or stands are here? They are very few and buyers are not even coming to patronise the few of us that are here. I took part in last year’s trade fair and the one before that and I can say that this year’s trade fair is nothing compared with the previous ones.
A lot of people complain that there is no money this year. A lot of people would have loved to come and patronise us but the money is not there in their pockets. All the same, we thank God. I want to advise the organisers to reach out to more organisations and companies next year so that we will have more products and that will attract more customers.
Miss Precious Amadi: – Student
This trade fair comes up once a year and if you come here and buy any product, you are sure of the durability. Their products are cheap and they last long. They have genuine products and they are cheaper than what you see at the regular markets. There is much discount on the products here than what you buy outside.
So in effect, trade fair and discount markets particularly at this time of the year helps people to buy more things with their little resources. There is much difference from buying outside and here. Trade fair enables people to save more money. For instance if I buy something here and want to sell it outside, I will make my own profit. Traders in regular markets do go to trade fair and discount markets to make bulk purchases for sell. They make a lot of money through that. It is definitely cheaper and better than going to Aba or Onitsha to buy goods. Even the cost of transportation and the risks on the road is reduced. You know we are in ‘Ember’ month and the rate of accidents and dangers on the road increase. But all that is taken care of when you purchase goods at discount market or trade fair.
I just want to plead that with the organisers to ensure that during the next edition, the goods will be cheaper. They should make things cheaper for us.
The organisers should also monitor the traders properly to make sure that what they say in their advertisement is what they have. Sometimes the product they advertise on the television is not what you see here. They should also do away with tickets to encourage most people to go to discount market and trade fair to make purchase.
Chinyere Amadi
The prices of goods are cheaper here than in the market. The only problem with this year’s trade fair is that we don’t have many companies participating. So I will advise the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce to do a more thorough work next time. They should invite more companies so that we will have variety of products to buy.
I think it is a very good thing that we have trade fair and discount market during this festive period as the reduced prices they offer will enable everybody particularly the poor to buy what they need for the Christmas and New Year Celebrations.
Kosisochukwu Obaze – LG Sales Representative
Actually, this is our first time of participating in Port Harcourt Trade Fair. We heard about it during the Lagos Trade Fair. Port Harcourt Trade Fair is nothing like Lagos Trade Fair at all. Lagos Trade Fair is well organised but this Port Harcourt Trade Fair is not organised at all, starting from the entrance. Instead of keeping well packaged and responsible people at the gate that will attend to our customers, we have touts at the gates. And these touts are discouraging customers from coming to patronise us. The way they talk to people that come to patronise us, the way to talk to visitors that come to know what is going on here is very embarrassing and discouraging. They are not polite at all.
We are not making any sales at all. We regret coming to this trade fair and you can see it is impacting negatively on our company because we are losing instead of gaining. This is not what we expected. The only  positive effect I can talk about is that it gives us opportunity to create awareness about our new products. We are not making any sales. People are not coming and when they eventually come they will just look around and go. They will tell you “I’m coming back,” but they will not come back.
And it seems people down here do not know the importance of trade fair. When you come to trade fair, you will see some things that you have not seen before. You buy things at reduced prices. We sell our products cheaper during trade fairs. We also use the opportunity to explain to people the functions of our products. Some people have LG Smart TVs in their homes but they don’t know how to make use of that smart functions. You can actually use smart functions to browse and do some things on the internet but some people just use it as an ordinary TV. So that’s part of the things we do in trade fair – explaining to people how to use our products.
Mr. Aberepikima – Public Servant
What I wanted the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce to do is to do a thorough work, invite a lot of companies, so that we will see good things here. But it appears they did not cover a lot of grounds that is why traders did not turn up in their numbers with attractive goods. We want to see a lot of IT communications equipment.
It is a nice thing that we are experiencing trade fair and discount market here. But what I am trying to say is that they should invite more viable companies. For instance, I am interested in precious stone and all that. Two, three years ago, some participants came with these wares. But this time around, there is no such thing. That is why I am saying that the organisers did not do their works properly. If they come with things like precious stones here, people can pick them here instead of going to the north to buy them.
Mr. Taribo Chinedu – Business man
I have been participating in Port Harcourt trade fair for the past five years. There is a big difference between the previous ones and this year’s trade fair. Many companies are not here. The market is not moving. People are complaining there is no money, that civil servants have not been paid and all that. People are complaining that due to politics, there is no money in circulation. But I will encourage people to come to the trade air and discount market because things are cheaper here. It will enable them utilize their meager resources very well and also save some money.
But even though people are complaining of lack of money, if enough publicity about the trade fair was done by the organisers, we would have had more customers here. So, subsequent trade fairs should be well publicised, using the media and all forms of publicity.