The public relations officer in charge of the forthcoming made-in-Nigeria products exhibition, Mrs Ngozi Okwuogu, has urged manufacturers in the country to use the exhibition to showcase their products.

Okwuogu made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday. She said the Federal Ministry of Information had allocated space to no fewer than 150 exhibitors to showcase their products at the two-day event.

The spokesperson urged manufacturers to take advantage of the 2014 exhibition to showcase their products. She said that this would be of great benefit to them and the country given the cosmopolitan nature of the nation’s capital.

A Nigerian inventor of a made-in-Nigeria food dehydrating machine and traffic light, Mr Reuben Sani, was at the location of the event at radio house, Sani expressed the hope to come in contact with entrepreneurs, who could partner with him in marketing his product.

“If I get marketers, I will have to train them on how to maintain the products,

“It’s actually a very good thing that the ministry is doing by bringing us out here to showcase Nigerian made product.

“I strongly believe that if it’s well organised, it will be a good platform for us and this will help Nigerians to see talents that abounds in our country and get to appreciate our hand made products,’’ Sani said.

An artist, Mrs Esther Doukia, who also spoke to NAN at the radio house, said she had been exploring opportunities for partnership.

Doukia, a researcher and an entrepreneur, said she had also been looking for partnership to harness the large deposits of clay available in the country.

“I have been able to make clay beads, and I am working on refractory stone, because I have seen that the metal `charcoal stone’ which we have in abundance can be refined.

“I am looking out for partners, looking at how to develop and sharpen my products to make them much better for marketing to the public. I see this as part of my effort to add value to the products.

“Very well I think it’s a well thought out idea, that the ministry is asking us to come out and showcase our product, it’s not new, it’s an exhibition that has been ongoing annual event.

“I think this one comes with a renewed vigour, and for me it’s interesting because this coincides with 100 years of Nigeria’s existence as the nation marks its centenary.

“As a person I felt within myself that if there is a made-in-Nigeria exhibition in this centenary year I’d like to participate, and I will want to see many people come out to see what we have as a nation to motivate our people, especially the youth.’’ (NAN)