Rwanda: Exhibitors lament loss during the 2020 International Trade Fair

 

Rwanda: Exhibitors in the 2020 exhibition have lamented the loss due to the fact that the exhibition took place at a time when the world and Rwanda are facing the Coronavirus epidemic and that has led to some companies being banned from exhibition as part of measures to avoid possible cases of Coronavirus contaminations.

This has left this year’s Fair as unpopular as it used to be, and traders said that there are some activities that have been prevented from exhibition while they were part of the reason to encourage people to attend in a big number.

They added that also the closing hours were unfavourable to business owners since they had to close earlier than during the previous exhibitions.

Kalisa Umri, a Rwandan who attended the 2020 Exhibition, where he was exhibiting jewellery, said that the scheduled hours to stop activities prevented his customers because their work hours didn’t allow them to come since the closing time was not favourable.

Some traders said they were even unable to harvest the amount of money they rented the exhibition stand.

Manirareba Theophile, who works for TECHNO, also said that the closure at 6:00 pm had reduced the number of clients.

“Overall the participation has been low but so far those who have been able to come and see what we are doing are still buying it. It didn’t go as well as it did last year, but we can’t say it went bad compared to the times we were in.” He said

He added that lack of some of the entertainment activities that attracted the participants was one of the reasons why it was not properly attended.

“Lack of entertainment or children’s games that caused the number to come were among the hindrances we faced” he said.

Although these vendors present a variety of challenges, they appreciate the efforts made to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus epidemic.

The 2020 Trade fair was attended by about 382 exhibitors, including 73 from abroad, and was held for the 23rd time. It ended on December 31, 2020 three weeks after its launch.