Speeches

5th Surulere Trade Fair Organised By The City Post Newspaper

Nov 7, 2008 - Trade fairs remain one of the most effective ways to promote the growth and development of the potentials in a developing economy such as ours. They provide local producers and other participants the avenue to exhibit their products and thereby foster and stimulate entrepreneurship and the activities of industrialists, especially in a State like Lagos which is the manufacturing hub of the country as well as the largest consumer market in the ECOWAS sub-region.

That is why I am delighted to be here today to attend the 5th edition of the Surulere trade fair organized by Riveroaks Venture Limited, publisher of City Post Newspaper, a community newspaper covering the Lagos Central Senatorial District.

By organizing a fair at the grassroots, you are opening the door of opportunity for business and enterprise to thrive and contribute from a position of strength for the overall development of the State.

Your organization could not have captured the essence of this event in a better way than in its adopted theme, “Enhancing Economic Development at the Grassroots,”. The theme aptly captures the essence of the state government’s programme to stimulate growth and development of the economy through offering financial and infrastructural support to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the State.

The small scale entrepreneurs which are the target audience of your trade fair have been found to be the engine of economic growth in the developing world where large scale industries and capital intensive projects are still lacking because of the low level of capital formation.

Let me therefore commend the publisher and management of City Post Newspaper for organizing this fair designed to showcase locally made goods and services. Your consistent choice of Surulere for this fair is also praiseworthy because Surulere has a healthy mixture of well marked industrial, commercial and residential areas existing side by side which makes it suitable for small scale cottage industries across the locality to maintain a symbiotic relationship with industrial concerns located around Eric Moore and Iganmu areas.

I wish to note that the Lagos State government has demonstrated its belief in the growth potential of Small and Medium Scale Industry by giving out financial assistance worth N500 million to small and medium scale businesses in the state under our Microfinance scheme. Many of them have been offered logistics and exposure to international and local exhibitions through the Enterprises Registration and Identification Agency, ENTRIDA.

The improved security in the State enabled by a joint police, army and navy patrol teams and a special police squad, the Rapid Response Squad, (RRS), well funded by the Security Trust Fund, the general social and economic infrastructural renewal has made Lagos State a destination for investment in the West African sub-region.

In conclusion, I wish to assure you of the State government’s support for the sustenance of this noble programme and urge other stakeholders to rise up to the challenge of partnering with the government in building Lagos as the Mega-City of our dream.

Once more, I congratulate the management of Riveroaks Ventures Limited for organizing this trade fair and the organizing committee, headed by Hon. Adetokunbo Odutola for a peaceful and successful fair.

I thank you all for listening and God bless.

“Eko O ni baje!”

Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, (SAN)
Governor of Lagos State