Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has lauded the much-anticipated Lagos Shopping Festival, which was rounded off at the iconic Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, at 4am on Boxing Day.
The governor, who was full of praise for the organisers, one of Africa’s leading Public Relations Consulting firms, Chain Reactions Africa, commended them for giving the state another pillar upon which a solid festival economy is being erected.
Sanwo-Olu said: “We are gradually building a festival economy for our great state. This idea of a 72-hour shopping festival is another strategic pillar on which the full edifice of a festival economy at Yuletide can rest”.
The governor noted with satisfaction how thousands of young people were gainfully engaged within the event management and commercial value chain of the event around design, set-up of the stage set, sound system, lighting system, crowd control, volunteer network, ambience branding, and exhibition booth installation, among others.
He thanked officials of Lagos Traffic Management Authority, the security and safety agencies who worked round the clock at the first-of-its-kind festival in Africa, pointing out that the fact that the 72-hour non-stop shopping and entertainment event was concluded without any hitch or medical emergency was a testament to the excellent skills of the organisers and the roles of the state agencies as enablers.
Sanwo-Olu said that the maiden edition was about strategic scaling and optimisation of small businesses, connecting shoppers with Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises.
He also thanked some of the leading brands – Tolaram Group, Guinness Nigeria, Zenith Bank, and First Bank – for rallying corporate sponsorship for the successful hosting of the maiden edition of the festival.
