ComBIT-08 gets October date

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has announced that its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) expo, ComBIT 2008, will hold in October this year.

President ATCON, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, made this disclosure at a media conference last weekend in Lagos and said all is now set for the 2008 edition of ComBIT scheduled to hold at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre, Onikan-Lagos.

Ekuwem who was joined at the media conference by the Publicity secretary of ATCON and chairman, Planning Committee, Mr. David Roberts, coordinator, ATCON sub-group on Training and Consultancy, Mr. Chrysantus Okon, and ATCON exco member, Mr. Macdanielles Igheoosa, said, “Lagos State, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria will in October 2008 play host to the world as we present ComBIT 2008 Expo – an annual international exhibition and conference designed for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector takes off.”

He also said that the ComBIT Expo billed for October 20 through 22, is a product of ATCON’s strategic re-branding of NICOMM Exhibitions & Conferences organised annually by the group in collaboration with the Ministry of Information & Communications, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as well as other industry stakeholders since 1995.

According to him, worried by the absence of an all-encompassing global ICT event in the country, despite the current revolution in the ICT market, ATCON as the umbrella ICT industry association decided to re-strategize, partner with relevant local and international industry players and stakeholders to float a mega ICT expo that will attract global and regional ICT operators and experts to Nigeria every year.

“The plan of ATCON and its collaborators is to grow ComBIT expo into a flagship and globally recognized ICT event in Nigeria and Africa with a view to further stimulate the development of our ICT industry through more local and foreign direct investment into the sector,” he said.

Ekuwem, equally said that ComBIT expo has been designed to provide a veritable platform for cultivating commercial partnerships between foreign principals and local representatives, dealers, distributors and resellers of ICT and allied products and services in the country.

“It will further offer ample opportunities for investors to explore and exploit the abundant market opportunities in the very vibrant ICT sector in Nigeria and Africa,” he said.

ATCON boss further described ComBIT as a good platform for advanced markets to display its cutting edge technologies, especially in the mobile communications sector to the African market which is expected within a long time, present the highest market potentials for new technologies.

Ekuwem noted that ATCON has taken cognizance of the fact that ICT has a pivotal role to play in the actualization of Vision 2010 which the Federal Government in Nigeria has set out to achieve.

ATCON, he said, believes that through the yearly ComBIT expo, huge foreign investments would continue to flow into the nation’s economy.


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