Poor patronage mars construction fair

National Construction Industry Council (NCIC) expected most people building houses in Malawi’s commercial city, Blantyre, to turn up for a recent national construction fair but it was not the case.

NCIC training director Emmanuel Mjimapemba has, however, said the stakeholders meeting and cocktail had good patronage.

Looking forward, NCIC wants to woo international exhibitors to participate in the fair.

The fair, themed ‘Advancing Beyond Borders Through Efficiency and Innovation’, has also seen the number of exhibitors grow by over 100 percent from 14 last year to 30 this year.

Despite poor patronage, Chemspec Paints operations manager Mwayanjana Bolokonya said they interacted with many people they expect to do business with in future.

“We are relatively new on the market and the fair was our opportunity to make ourselves known on the market. We offer a wide range of products such as auto paints, industrial finishes, wood finishes and some decorative products,” he said.

Link Building Products sales executive Patrick Matemba said such fairs help to boost their sales.

“After such exhibitions, a lot of people come to our offices to buy our products. We are participating in the fair for the second year,” he said.

This is the third year NCIC has organised the fair.