Felix Otaru, Lokoja
Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Umar Yusuf has described trade fair as an avenue capable of improving the socio-economic development of any state.
Yusuf stated this when he received the Director-General, Kogi State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KOCCIMA), Mr Samuel Enejoh in Lokoja.
The Speaker, who promised to mobilise other legislators to attend the fair, noted that the current lawmakers in the state are ready to embrace any initiative that would improve the economy of the state.
He expressed the importance of encouraging the people of the state in areas that would put their initiative to use, rather than depending on white collar jobs.
Yusuf who recalled with nostalgia, the amount of resource 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 in Nigeria.
Earlier in his address, the Director-General, Kogi State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KOCCIMA), Mr Samuel Enejoh highlighted the importance of the trade fair, noting that it was being organised to attract further economic improvement to the state.
On his part, the member representing Ajaokuta State Constituency who is also a member, House Standing Committee on Commerce, 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 tremendous success.
Jibril, who described the Speaker as an industrious man, noted that he has invested in various businesses and encouraged his colleagues to invest in agriculture.
In their separate remarks, a consultant to KOCCIMA, Muhammed Adamu Abdullahi and KOCCIMA Secretary, Hajiya Husseina Adeiza, spoke highly of the possibility of the trade fair in turning the economy of the state around for the better, praising the Speaker for giving the committee audience, and appealed to him to prevail on his colleagues to do same.
The KOCCIMA Boss was accompanied on the visit by his management team to intimate the Speaker on their level of preparedness towards the forthcoming 2nd Kogi State Trade Fair scheduled to take place between November 20th and 3rd December at the Muhammadu Buhari Civic Centre in Lokoja.
