With aim to position Calabar as a major trade hub and revive the Tinapa project, management of Tinapa Business Resort and CLIQIT, a business management/development company that runs an e-commerce platform, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Tinapa, Calabar in Cross-River State, to introduce a trade fair to the annual Calabar Carnival and Tinapa through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV); the Calabar International Trade Fair (CITF).
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| CLIQIT/CITF CEO Mr. Gerald Konwea and Cross River State Commissioner of Finance/MD Tinapa Mr. Asuquo Ekpenyong at the signing of the MoU in Tinapa, Calabar. |
Introducing the trade fair to the Calabar Carnival is expected to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state up to 5 billion naira, introduce up to 15, 000 jobs and 10, 000 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME’s) and empower people of Cross-River state with skill acquisition and go-to market strategies and ultimately contribute development of the state.
The Cross-River State Commissioner of Finance and Managing Director (MD) of Tinapa, Asuquo Ekpenyong, at the signing of the MoU, said that ‘where Tinapa is today is not the ideal when Tinapa was conceived’.
Mr. Ekpenyong, who has only been on the management of Tinapa for about a month said his team has identified most of the challenges that inhibited the full blossoming of Tinapa and are ready to tackle them.
“We have gone to the blueprints, we have identified those issues that prevented Tinapa from going where it should be and we are trying to tackle those issues with a fully detailed plan”.
“One of the ways we think we can do that is have an international trade fair, something that would be around the period when Cross-River would be at its peak in terms of travellers. That is the week of the Carnival in December”.
“We have chosen that date for obvious reasons in terms of the influx of people and Calabar which should be a major trade hub isn’t where it should be, so, we have partnered with Cliqit. They will be bringing their experience and capacity in driving trade traffic to Tinapa and we will provide the resources”.
The Tinapa MD, who also doubles as the state’s Commissioner of Finance asserted his faith in the success of the project, saying there is no infrastructural platform such as the Tinapa Business Resort in the whole of West Africa.
“This platform; Tinapa Business Resort has the capacity to host a lot of trade and businesses and we are trying to use this opportunity of the CITF to showcase the resources Tinapa has and I believe that come December 2016, we will put on a great show and something that will be worthy of repeat year-on-year”.
Gerald Konwea, founder/CEO of Cliqit, the brain behind the project, described the project as a history making venture which is why the Guinness World Records is involved.
“This is going to be arguably the biggest trade fair in the world. There are though big trade fairs in Germany with up to 7,000 vendors and there are even bigger trade fairs in China. Except the numbers are on Chinese websites, there are no numbers on Google or websites that reflect on Google to suggest otherwise.”
“To achieve this feat, we are partnering with the Guinness World Records to execute publicity internationally and prove the trade record we are trying to achieve.”
“We are partnering Red Media to handle our publicity locally and we hope to host the world as we have begun preliminary discussions with every other body and also on both State and Federal level to help us execute this project because this is a big project”.
According to statistics provided by Cliqit, the project is also expected to increase the IGR of the state significantly from N12.7 billion to N14.9 billion yearly by 2016 – 2019 and an additional N2 – 5 billion from 2020 onwards.
“This project will also provide gainful employment up to 7,000 and 15,000 by 2023. This can be achieved through skill acquisition programs, SME empowerment and support activities and instituting Calabar as a major trade hub in the region by reviving the Tinapa project”.
“Like I said, we are trying to host about 10,000 vendors with let us say at least one person to every vendor, or being modest, about 25,000 people and spectators expected to participate.”
The introduction of the project is coming at a time when there is much talk around the country about patronising made-in-Nigeria goods which Gerald said the trade fair would be hugely promoting.
“We are partnering with the organisers of the Made-in-Aba Trade Fair and we are looking to see a lot of Nigerian creativity in December 2016.”
The trade fair, expected to run from 20-31 December is the medium term plan of the project which the Commissioner further explained:
“We have phased out a plan on what we are doing with Tinapa. There is the short-term, which is the immediate for a period of one to three months, there is the medium-term, which is the trade fair and there is the long-term.
“Tinapa has components, there is the hotel, the shops, the games arcade, the water park and the studio. Each of these components are being reviewed. There are different phases and the trade fair is just a cut of the holistic picture and that picture will be revealed to the general public. It is a work-in-progress.”
In terms of security the commissioner said the present situation in the country doesn’t affect Calabar.
He said: “Calabar is one of the safest cities in Nigeria. We will be partnering with all the security agencies and with services from the Nigerian Police Force all the way to DSS to ensure that we provide the safe and secure environment for the hosting of this trade fair”.
Alongside the trade fair, a one kilometer red carpet will also play host to media bodies from around the world, journalists, celebrities and the government.
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