No fewer than 100 hundred event vendors across the SouthWest region will converge in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital for an exhibition tagged: “My Grand Eventp”.

My Grand Event is an exhibition platform for all event vendors to leverage in evaluating and diagnosing the ailments plaguing their businesses, while getting solutions from industry experts.

The convener of the event, Taiyese Ebunlomo while briefing journalists on the 4th edition of the exhibition in Abeokuta, disclosed that, caterers, event planners, makeup artists, bands, decorators and DJs among others across the SouthWest region are billed to attend the event.

Taiyese noted that the event will also feature an exhibition of products and services by hundreds of vendors from across the State.

“My grand event is an exhibition set up to showcase array of vendors in the event industry in Ogun State as well as serve as a veritable platform for attendees to interact and network and do business.
The event, themed: “My Grand Event Season 4.0: The Rebirth”, will also feature an exhibition of products and Services by hundreds of vendors from across the State.

“My grand event was conceived out of the curiosity to bring value to event vendors in Ogun State as well as build small scale enterprises in order to compete favourably with their counterparts in Lagos, Oyo State and across Nigeria.

“As players in the informal sector, we believe the informal sector is essential for economic growth. It is a key provider of jobs and income in emerging economies. But the crisis caused by the pandemic has had a significant impact on these economies.

“The informal sector does act as a safety net for the formal economy, thus allowing the unemployed and unemployable to find work or start their own businesses, boosting income and alleviating poverty.
“The informal economy has witnessed a massive expansion in the last two decades in Ogun State and by extension Nigeria and the root causes of this include elements relating to the economic context in the country, decreasing levels of market regulation, weak policy frameworks and socio-demographic drivers such as population growth, urbanisation, rise in unemployment, widening inequality between the rich and poor, low-level education, including poverty.

“To achieve an efficient informal sector where vendors in Ogun State can thrive, there is a need for government to embark on series of measures, interventions and support, such as grants, soft loans with less interest to encourage the formalization of our businesses to sustain economic growth and development.

“We dare say the informal sector is too large and important to be ignored, concerted effort to identify and protect them is crucial for sustainability and economic development”, Taiyese said.