Nigeria Tells Abuja Trade Fair Exhibitors to Close Deals, Not Just Display

Nigeria · TRADE

Nigeria’s trade minister wants exhibitions to end in signed orders, while India says two-way trade is recovering towards its old peak.

Nigeria used the opening of the 21st Abuja International Trade Fair on Tuesday to press a simple message: exhibitions must produce deals. Jumoke Oduwole, the minister of industry, trade and investment, told exhibitors that displays alone will not grow the economy.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, still earns most of its export income from oil.

The government wants small firms to sell across borders. This fair in the capital, Abuja, is one showcase for that drive.

“A trade fair must ultimately be about transactions”

Oduwole said a fair “must connect businesses to buyers” and “manufacturers to markets”. It must also link entrepreneurs to finance and investors, she said, according to ThisDay and Voice of Nigeria, the state broadcaster.

She challenged organisers to make sure the event generated real commercial opportunities. The success of an exhibition, she argued, lies in the business it produces after the stands come down.

The minister tied the message to President Bola Tinubu’s goal of a US$1 trillion economy. “We cannot build the one trillion-dollar economy … from government offices alone,” she said.

She also pointed to the African Continental Free Trade Area, a pact to cut barriers to trade between African states. Firms must meet standards and understand target markets to use it, she said.

What businesses told the government

The fair is organised by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), the capital’s main business lobby. Its president, Emeka Obegolu, said the event drew more than 500 exhibitors.

Obegolu called for taxes, rates, fees and levies to be harmonised across the Federal Capital Territory. Firms there complain of paying several overlapping charges to different layers of government.

He also listed infrastructure gaps, costly credit and slow port procedures as brakes on business. Resilience, he said, should not mean firms absorbing the full weight of a difficult operating environment.

The national business federation, known as NACCIMA, cited official statistics showing growth of 3.89 percent in the first quarter of 2026. It said non-oil activity made up 96.08 percent of real output in that quarter.

India’s pitch: make in Nigeria

The most concrete figure came from India’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhishek Singh. He said India–Nigeria trade had rebounded to US$9.2 billion in 2025/26, ThisDay reported.

Singh’s office supplied similar figures two weeks earlier, when Vice President Kashim Shettima met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. A statement from Shettima’s office then put 2025/26 trade at about US$9 billion.

That statement said trade peaked at US$14.95 billion in 2021/22. It fell to US$7.13 billion in 2024/25 as India bought less Nigerian crude.

Both governments now say they want to return to about US$15 billion.

Both figures trace back to the Indian mission rather than separately published customs data. They could not be independently confirmed against official Indian or Nigerian trade statistics.

Singh said India wanted to go beyond selling medicines to Nigeria. “We also want to make in Nigeria along with make in India,” he said, naming health, technology, critical minerals and start-ups.

The invoice plan behind the finance promise

The fair follows a separate step aimed at the cash squeeze facing small Nigerian firms. On Thursday 17 September, Oduwole inaugurated a steering committee for a national digital invoicing and financing strategy.

The idea is to let exporters, manufacturers and suppliers borrow against verified digital invoices. Money tied up in unpaid bills could then become working capital, the minister said at the launch.

Tinubu approved the strategy, ThisDay reported, and the committee is co-chaired by business leader Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and tax chief Zacch Adedeji. Oduwole asked officials to design a controlled 90-day pilot with selected exporters.

That pilot has been requested, not launched, and no public start date has been set. Until it runs, the plan is a design rather than a working credit channel.

What it means for foreign business

The message to foreign companies is that Nigeria wants partners who produce locally. Exporters eyeing a large consumer market are only part of the pitch.

Obegolu made the same appeal to diplomats at the opening.

Envoys and representatives from India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Namibia, Cuba, Iran and several other countries attended, according to ThisDay. The organisers scheduled the fair to run until 6 October.

The obstacles business groups named at the fair are familiar to anyone who trades with Nigeria. Overlapping local taxes, weak infrastructure and expensive credit remain the main complaints.

What to watch next

The first test is whether the Abuja International Trade Fair produces signed orders, as the minister demanded. Organisers have not said how deals will be counted or reported.

The second is the invoice-finance pilot, and whether banks price the new credit affordably. The third is India’s request for renewed crude purchases, which would move the trade figure fastest.

Oduwole also invited businesses to the CANEX Weekend creative-economy event, backed by the African Export-Import Bank, in Lagos in November. It will be another occasion to judge whether talk is turning into transactions.

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