LAGOS- Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, President, Trade Promotion Board, on Sunday attributed the low turnout of foreign exhibitors at the 2014 Lagos International Trade Fair to fear of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
Olawale-Cole told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the organisation lost quite a large number of foreign exhibitors due to the fear.
NAN reports that Nigeria was certified free of EVD on Oct. 20 by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Olawale-Cole said, “It would have been a bigger fair if not for the Ebola scare.
Olawale-Cole said: “By the time the country was certified free of Ebola by WHO, it was too late for most of this countries to come.
“They (foreign exhibitors) will need a lot of preparation which will require a month or even three months.
“Thousands of people who would have come from China, Europe and even some African countries, out of fear, decided to stay away.’’
He said that the harm was done as soon as the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, imported the EVD into the country on July 20.
Olawale-Cole told NAN that LCCI released information weekly to prospective exhibitors about the Ebola-free status of the country.
NAN reports that some of the exhibitors at the trade fair had sanitisers at the entrance of their stalls for usage by prospective customers.
The fair will end on Nov. 16. (NAN)
