By Abdullah Oladejo

For some vendors, the University of Ibadan Students’ Union Trade Fair has been a chance to move products, meet new customers and put their businesses in front of the university community. While for others the event has raised a familiar question: are enough students actually aware that the market is happening?

As vendors gathered for this year’s Students’ Union Trade Fair, experiences varied. While some sellers reported strong sales and expressed satisfaction with the market, others told IndyPress that inadequate publicity, poor visibility of stands and aspects of the organisation of the fair limited their ability to reach potential buyers.

For Maryam Bilesanmi, a final-year student of Arabic and Islamic Studies and owner of Ojebewaji Luxe Creation, the Trade Fair offered an opportunity to showcase Adire materials, perfumes and high tops.

“I paid the sum of 20,000 naira for the stand which comes with two chairs and a table. I also came along with two extra chairs for her two sisters that came to help her from Lagos,” she said.

But while participating in the event, Bilesanmi expressed concerns about the level of publicity surrounding it.

According to her, the publicity was not enough to ensure that a significant number of students knew about the Trade Fair. She also raised concerns about the way the sound system was being used to attract people to the market.

 

“The music which is used to attract people is staged at a particular part of the trade fair venue which is supposed to move to come from a far,” she noted.

Bilesanmi also suggested that future editions should consider separating clothing vendors from food vendors, arguing that the smell and activities associated with cooking could affect clothing materials displayed by sellers.

“I would advise that in planning the future trade fair the clothes vendors should be separated from the food vendors, because the smell from food cooking usually has stains on the clothes materials. Considering the convenience of the seller, since they want more buyers to come for the trade fair,” she said.

Another student, Miracle Abioye, a 300-level student of Communication and Language Arts and owner of Glamur Beauty, also raised concerns about publicity.

Abioye paid ₦20,000 for her stand, which came with one table and two chairs. She subsequently paid another ₦18,000 for an additional table and two chairs, bringing her stated expenditure to ₦38,000.

Although she said people were still coming around the Trade Fair, she believed the official publicity had not done enough to bring students to the market.

“This year publicity is very low, although People are still coming around based on my personal publicity.”

This concern was also featured in previous IndyPress coverage. In the December 2024 market survey, some vendors similarly complained that their individual businesses did not receive sufficient promotional support, while one vendor said some classmates were unaware that the Trade Fair was taking place.

Related: Market Survey: How Fair Was the Students Union Trade Fair Program?

Not every vendor interviewed described the Trade Fair as disappointing.

Tosin Oshin, a jewellery seller and student of Guidance and Counselling, said the market was going well.

“I have sold almost everything we brought on Monday,” she said.

For Oshin, the problem was not primarily the ability to make sales but the visibility of her stand.

She complained that the location of her stand did not provide enough visibility for her to properly showcase her products.

Her experience demonstrates the mixed nature of the market: a vendor may still record good sales while believing that the physical arrangement of the Trade Fair could have been better.

While allocation of spaces and the location of a stand could affect the number of potential customers who saw their products as stated by some vendors. One vendor specifically said she had been moved from a crowded location where another seller offered similar products to another space.

For Dolapo, a non-student vendor who works at Sweet Shop and sells ice cream at the Trade Fair, the experience has been more positive.

She described the market as fine and compared it with the previous edition, suggesting that she found this year’s experience satisfactory.

“This year’s market is still fine compared to the one organized in the previous years.”

Her assessment provides a different perspective from the concerns raised by other vendors.

For Fagbola Racheal, a non-student  vendora who is gel aesthetics seller, publicity is one of the major shortcomings of the fair.

Racheal said she discovered the Trade Fair through an online advertisement and paid ₦25,000 for her stand, which came with one table and two chairs, among other provisions.

Her concern, however, was directed particularly at awareness among students.

According to her, the organisers did not do enough to publicise the event to the student community.

“They don’t make enough publicity for the students, some of them aren’t aware, some of them aren’t buying while the goods have been discounted,” she said.

Her observation raises a central question about the purpose of a student-oriented Trade Fair: if vendors have brought products and even reduced prices, how effective is the market if a significant portion of the intended student audience does not know about it?

What the recurring reports show is that awareness remains an issue that vendors continue to discuss when assessing the Trade Fair. This year, the concern is being expressed alongside another recurring issue: visibility.

Effort to obtain a comment from the student Union Vice president, Glory Salawu on the concerns raised by tbe vendors proved abortive as she noted that

“It would be nice if at least union week is done before this [inquiry].”

A vendor can pay for a stand, bring products to the market and still struggle to reach customers if the stand is poorly positioned or if potential buyers do not know the Trade Fair is taking place.

The Students’ Union Trade Fair has remained a recurring feature of Union Week, serving as a platform for student entrepreneurs and other vendors to display their products while giving members of the university community an opportunity to buy.

As the Trade Fair closes another chapter, the experiences of its vendors provide the Students’ Union with another set of perspectives to consider before the next edition.

And if the history of the Trade Fair is anything to go by, the question will remain: how can the next market bring more students through the gates while giving the vendors who paid to be there a fair opportunity to reach them?