…throws weight behind 2nd Kogi Trade Fair
22nd November, 2023
The Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt Honourable Aliyu Umar Yusuf has described trade fairs as an avenue capable of improving the socioeconomic development of the state.
A press statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Yabagi Mohammed and made available to the media quoted the speaker to have stated this on Tuesday in Lokoja when he received the Director General of Kogi State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KOCCIMA), Mr Samuel Enejoh in Lokoja.
The KOCCIMA Boss visited the speaker with his management team to intimate him of their level of preparedness towards the forthcoming 2nd Kogi State Trade Fair scheduled to take place between November and 3rd December at the Muhammadu Buhari Civic Centre in Lokoja.
The Speaker, who promised to mobilise other legislators to attend the fair, noted that the current lawmakers in the state were ready to embrace any initiative that would improve the economy of the state.
He expressed the necessity of encouraging the people of the state in areas that would put their initiative to use, rather than depending on white collar jobs.
Rt Honourable Umar who recalled with nostalgia, the amount of resources inflow into the state during the first Trade Fair in 1995, said if the concept was sustained, it would have taken Kogi to higher economic heights in the comity of states of Nigeria.
Earlier in his address, the Director General of Kogi State Chamber of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture (KOCCIMA), Mr Samuel Enejoh had highlighted the importance of the fair, and told the speaker that it was organised to attract further economic improvement to the state.
On his part, the member representing Ajaokuta State Constituency who is also a member of Kogi State Assembly House Standing Committee on Commerce, Hon Jibril Abu noted that the content of a trade fair is what gives it the name, and expressed optimism that the 2nd edition in the state would witness more than the expected success.
Hon Abu, who described the Speaker as an industrious man, noted that the head of the state lawmakers is a man that has invested and encouraged his colleagues to invest in agriculture, which he called on Rt Hon Umar to use the opportunity to showcase to exhibitors with his people in Lokoja Local Government Area.
Other speakers, including a consultant to KOCCIMA, Muhammed Adamu Abdullahi and KOCCIMA secretary in the state, Hajiya Husseina Adeiza, who spoke highly on the possibility of the trade fair in turning the economy of the state around for the better, praised the speaker for giving the committee audience, and appealed to him prevail on his colleagues to do same.