Is the Northern Trade Fair losing its lustre?
Chakalisa Dube | Monday June 6, 2022 06:00
When the business lobby group established the fair in 1994, the rationale was to provide exhibitors with a platform to actively promote their businesses and network amongst each other.
During its formative years, the fair served as a platform for quality engagement among participants from the private sector and helped them remain connected with each other. Key players in the private sector regularly featured at the event.
However, for some time, the event has been struggling to maintain its role of being a platform for face-to-face conversation for various key private sector players to understand the challenges of their respective challenges, opportunities, and overall market sentiments.
There is no argument that the private sector is on a recovery path (from the impact of COVID-19) something that could have weighed heavily on the success of the event. But even prior to the pandemic it was evident that the attractiveness of the fair was waning.
For example, at the 2018 event BB president Gobusamang Keebine conceded that the event was losing its spark. At that time, he expressed concern that 80 percent of the exhibitors were government entities and parastatals. Other exhibitors were mainly private tertiary institutions and a handful of small businesses. He also emphasised that the fair needs transformation in order to attract more exhibitors particularly from the private sector.
“My main aim is to make sure that BBNTF becomes what it was some years ago,” Keebine said at the time.
“I want to improve stakeholder engagement and bring back members who have been walking away from Business Botswana and the trade fair.
“If many private companies can constantly attend the fair in large numbers that is when we can say we have made it as Business Botswana.”
However, the lower levels of participation and lack of diversified delegates at the fair has increasingly become magnified.
For Francistown, this year’s event was more crucial than ever. The city is still struggling to shrug off the effects of COVID-19 which shuttered its economy and led to the closure of some businesses.
However, even before the pandemic, Francistown’s economy has been stagnant largely due to the closure of Tati Nickel in 2016, a key driver of activity and employment for the northern city.
For this reason, the fair was expected to be a platform to lay the path or boost momentum towards the city’s economic recovery. In short it could have been a suitable stage for the private sector to engage and come up with suggestions that could enable them to wither the COVID-19 storm.
What is even more worrying is that at this year’s event, school-going children were the key spectators, a clear sign that the trade fair is slowly becoming a shadow of its former self.
“Children do not have any buying power and they go to the fair for amusement purposes,” an exhibitor said on condition of anonymity.
“As such businesses that exhibit at the event might not earn value for their money.”
Apart from the low participation of those in the private sector, the level of interactions at the event were surprisingly weak. Critics say it appears as if the event has now become a way of ticking the box in the BB calendar of events.
Others say the event is not well marketed there are views that exhibitors are shifting their attention to other marketing and customer outreach programmes.
This week BB CEO, Norman Moleele partly conceded that the fair must be improved. He however said that there are several reasons why some businesses shy away from being part of the annual event.
According to him some businesses believe that they have outgrown the event while others are facing financial challenges owing to the current economic climate.
Moleele also pointed out that BB does not have a problem with having many exhibitors from the government and parastatals.
“Yes, we need more of the private sector, but government and parastatals entities are also important. It is vital for them to continue being part of the event and showcasing their services as well as products.”
He added: “I do agree that we need to come up with new tactics of bringing exhibitors and spectators on board. It is all about continuous improvement.
“We will not hide and say that there is no need for improvement.”
It remains to be seen whether the business lobby group’s efforts will return the trade fair to its previous position as go-to business platform for the country’s northern half.