Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Thursday restated the administration's resolve to strengthen small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and make the environment more conducive for businesses to thrive.

The Governor spoke in Ilorin at the official opening of the second edition of the Muslimah Entrepreneurs Trade Affair, where a variety of locally made products and services are being displayed for patronage.

The programme, which was organized by the Muslimaprenuer Forum, and will last for three days, has started attracting buyers from nooks and crannies of the state.

“As you have seen so far, this administration has been supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the entire business community, and we will continue to do that. On our own, we have a lot of programmes coming up next year for women entrepreneurs and youths who are in the tech space, SMEs and so on,” he said while declaring open the Trade Affair.

AbdulRazaq, who was represented at the event by the state Commissioner for Business, Innovation and Technology Hon. Damilola Yusuf, said they would not have been able to come together for a trade exhibition if the government had not made the environment conducive for businesses to flourish.

He hailed their entrepreneurship spirit to market Kwara-made products for Nigeria and the world at large, urging the residents to troop out and patronize them.

“To be honest, we are very proud of Muslimah Entrepreneurs. They have come through, and have been able to market for each other. Honestly, they have the entrepreneurship spirit. And I have even seen a lot of products here that are made in Kwara for Nigeria. And I think they have a very big potential.

“I implore everybody to patronize them. I like how they are focused on natural products. I have seen some products that have NAFDAC numbers already, which are good for the body system. I can see that they are very focused on what they do. This, I believe, has been encouraged by the government which created an avenue for ease of doing business in the state,” he added.

Co-convener of the Trade Affair and CEO Baytu Tejmeel, Hajia Fatimah Saliu Adejumoke, in her remarks, said they came up with the second edition of the Affair to create ease and comfort for people, who she said are currently hit by inflated prices of goods and services in the markets.

She said at least forty vendors are participating in the exhibition, and that their goods and services are cheap and affordable.

“It has not been easy putting this together. We, as a profit making organization, came together to make this happen. We have seen that things are a bit on the high side in the markets. So, we want to try our best and make it easier for our customers and co-vendors,” she said, asking kwara residents to come out en masse for this opportunity.

“We have over forty vendors exhibiting here, and they all came with discounts and affordable goods services for everybody in Kwara state”.

Adejumoke said Muslimaprenuer Forum is open for partnership and has been working towards that, adding that they have offered such interest to some governmental agencies and relevant stakeholders.

“This is the second affair we are having. And we thank God Almighty. So far we have some turn up and we are very hopeful more people will come.

“We are open to collaboration with governmental agencies. This is an entrepreneurship platform. We are expecting them. We have gone to KWACCIMA (Kwara Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines & Agriculture) and several offices to achieve that,” she said.