Product exhibitors at the ongoing Port Harcourt Trade Fair have identified lack of patronage as a major challenge facing the fair.
The participants revealed this during an interview with our correspondent, yesterday.
Speaking to The Tide, at the Trade Fair, Mrs Bumi Oladimeji, stated that since about a week she sampled her products, the patronage had been low.
The Tide reports that Isaac Boro Park, the venue of the trade fair that used to be filled with foreign and indigenous firms as well as individual traders in previous years was scanty with few participants in this year’s fair.
The Tide observed that this may be responsible for the low patronage as not much attractive goods were exhibited to attract customers to the fair.
An electronic merchant, Mr John Ibe, who spoke to our correspondent blamed the economic hardship occasioned by poor state of the nation’s economy on the low patronage.
He also noted that lack of adequate publicity of the trade fair by the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), the organisers of the fair in Rivers State contributed to the low turnout.
He maintained that if adequate jingles were throughout the media made before and during the trade fair, a lot of customers would have flooded the venue as was always experienced in the past, adding that the exercise this year was in low key.
Another participants, Mr Onyegbule Nwama blamed PHCCIMA for not lobbying both foreign and indigenous manufacturing companies and other trading merchants to boost the trade fair with their wares.
Nwama debunked the insinuation that Rivers State was unsafe, saying that Port Harcourt remained done of the safest cities in the country.

Kinika Mpi