The ongoing 2022 national convention of the governing party, the All Progressives Congress, ( APC) has offered great marketing opportunity to food vendors, hoteliers and retailers of edible food and soft drinks as delegates scramble for the items.
However, the presence of large number of delegates estimated at about 7000 with their vehicles have compounded the current plight of Abuja motor owners due to the scarcity of petroleum products.
The vicinity of Eagle square venue of the convention witnessed large crowd made up of delegates, and thousands of supporters of aspirants to various party offices. Even those campaigning for 2023 election brought their supporters to the venue.
As expected these people would have need for accommodation, water, food , soft drinks, biscuits, bread and other edible commodities which the vendors readily offered for sale outside the venue.
Salamatu Ibrahim, a food vendor told BusinessDay that between 9am and 4pm today she sold 3 coolers of rice and was dishing out from the 4th cooler.
When BusinessDay correspondent visited Ben Aden, who opened a temporary kiosk in front of western gate, said he had sold about N135,000 worth of associated items ranging from biscuits, bread, cigarettes, kolanut and soft drinks.
He described the convention as a blessing to him. He said on a good day he used to gross about N50,000 a day in Zuba where he has his store.
Also speaking, Maria Odeh a water seller said she had sold 13 packets of bottled water and 50 packs of pure water. She said she would wish the convention would last one week whike expressing joy and thanking God for the opportunity which she described as rare. ”
” My brother I’m so happy today. It was my husband who told me about this party thing. I had to borrow money from my club to buy water and minerals for sale. In fact, I am very happy and I thank God because I didn’t make mistake by coming here” she said
In the same vein, hotel owners are enjoying huge patronage with many of their rooms fully booked ahead of the convention.
Emeka Okeke, General manager of Top Rank hotel Utako told BusinessDay that all their rooms and function suites were booked two weeks ago. The story was the same at Sheraton, Transcorp, Protea and other hotels visited.
Even lowly rated hotels located in the Abuja suburbs were not left out as they were taken up by delegates to the convention.
However, the story was not the same for vehicle owners who had a hectic time getting fuel at the filling stations.
The situation it was gathered was compounded by the presence of a large number of delegates with their vehicles from other parts of the country to Abuja for the convention
A visit to some filling stations showed a long stretch of vehicles at various filling stations waiting for fuel. Some motorists told BusinessDay that they witnessed the surge since last night.
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