Visa concludes successful hosting of third BT Africa West Africa Expo and Conference

Visa, global electronic payments company, together with its event partners, Future Group and Tradeblazers Limited, celebrated a successful hosting of the third BT Africa West Africa Expo and Conference, in Lagos.

The event was in association with Future Group’s Business Traveller Africa magazine and consisted of a networking cocktail function on Wednesday, followed by a full-day conference at the Federal Palace, along with an exhibition element for both buyers and sellers of West African business travel. Exhibitors included representatives from financial services, aviation, travel management, tourism and online travel booking, with the likes of Visa, Arik Air, South African Tourism, HRG Nigeria, Travelstart, ExecuJet Africa, Delta Air Lines and Gullivers Travel Associates all displaying their products and inviting delegates to engage with them.

The conference consisted of four panel discussions, featuring a number of industry experts, and the day kicked off with a look at the role that financial services play in effective business travel, specific to West Africa and its current trends. It ultimately encouraged the most robust debate of the day, with the panellists – Ade Ashaye (Visa), Laura Suwa (IATA), Henry Obike (United Bank for Africa) and Michael Otubu(BCD Travel Nigeria) – first debating the most pressing issues, before engaging with the audience and discussing the way forward, focusing on safe, secure business travel-related card payments, and the move towards a cashless economy in Nigeria.

“The conference was very successful in gathering the key industry players together to debate the challenges we face in business travel, especially in the area of financial services,” said Ashaye. “We, as Visa, are committed to helping move Nigeria to a cashless economy and hope that through this debate we were able to share some of the benefits of secure electronic payments within the industry.”