United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have assured small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that the 2019 Lagos International Trade Fair will bring far reaching benefits that will help transform their businesses and take them to the next level.

UBA’s Head Group, Consumer Retail Business, Mr. Jude Anele, gave the assurance on Tuesday at a press conference to officially herald the 2019 Lagos International Trade Fair as well as unveil sponsors of the fair. He said that UBA, otherwise known as Africa’s global bank, has put in place various service offerings to guarantee that this year’s fair provides a veritable platform to catalyse businesses to new highs.

Anele explained that the 33rd edition of Lagos International Trade Fair scheduled to commence on November 1, 2019 is expected to provide an avenue for networking, trade and investment bound to boost business activities in Africa’s largest economy and by extension, Africa.

While ensuring that SMEs maximise their presence at the fair, Anele explained that UBA would provide uninterrupted banking services during the two-week event, and also providing advisory services to the small and medium entrepreneurs, fundamental to achieving their business goals.

He said: “Worthy of mention is that merchants and entrepreneurs from other African countries and abroad would be able to conduct their transactions seamlessly without currency exchange hassles, using the extensive reach of UBA as a pan African bank with presence in key commercial capitals in the world.

“We have realised that critical to the success of SMEs in Africa is not necessarily access to finance, but their understanding of business and accounting mechanisms, process and procedures critical to their growth and existence especially on e-commerce, tax management, and bookkeeping and access to funding, and these are issues which we are trying to address.” Speaking on the ease of payment during the event, especially with African companies from outside Nigeria, Anele disclosed that UBA has successfully put in place solutions that would see ease of payment within Africa. “UBA will be deploying state-of-art Point of Terminals (POS) configured towards ensuring merchants receive immediate values in currencies of their choice,” he assured.

He noted that in line with its unflinching support to the growth of SMEs, UBA has reached an agreement with the organisers of the fair to give 20% discount to its SME customers who register to showcase their products and services at the fair.

A key activity at this year’s fair is the Africa Special Day, to be organised by UBA to promote Intra-African Trade. “At UBA, we believe that Africans must grow trade and investment amongst themselves. In pursuits of that goal, Africa Special Day will seek for the promotion of trade and investment among African countries,” Anele said.

Also speaking, the Chairman, Trade Promotion Board, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa, promised that this year’s edition of West Africa’s flagship fair would bring utmost value to entrepreneurs and businesses in Nigeria and beyond.

“At UBA, we have chosen a suitable partner with extensive reach on the continent with capacity to engineer a seamless financial transactions expected of international trade fair of this magnitude,” he said.

Speaking further on the partnership with UBA, Idahosa said: “LCCI and UBA have partnered to give exciting services to visitors and exhibitors at the fair. UBA is a foremost Pan-African financial institution operating in 20 African countries, the United Kingdom and the USA and France, thus offering unique services to the delight of visitors and exhibitors during the fair.”

According to Idahosa, 40,000 square metres of exhibition spaces are available with over 2,000 exhibitors from 16 African countries and 200 foreign exhibitors expected in Lagos.

•PHOTO: R-L; Group Head, Consumer and Retail Banking, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Mr. Jude Anele; Chairman, Trade Promotion Board and Vice-President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr Gabriel Idahosa; and Head, SME Sales, Airtel Nigeria, Toyin Seriki, at the Press Conference organised by LCCI, the headline partner, UBA Plc with other partners, on the upcoming Lagos International Trade Fair 2019 in Lagos on Tuesday.

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