From Dormant to Delivering: How Shelze Professional Services Helped Revive the Nigeria International Trade Fair

For over 14 years, the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex sat largely silent. Once a vibrant hub of commerce and culture, the facility had fallen into disrepair, its flagship trade fair suspended, its assets underutilized, and its revenue systems fragmented. When the current Lagos International Trade Fair Management Board took office, they inherited not just a complex in need of repair, but an institution in need of direction.

That is where Shelze Professional Services came in.

Engaged as consultants to the Board under an organized private sector donor framework, we worked alongside management to rebuild systems, strengthen governance, and revive an event that many had written off. Three years later, the results speak for themselves.

Rebuilding the Foundation

Before any fair could be organized, the basics had to be fixed. Under our consultation, the Board undertook a full operational turnaround, including:

• Consolidated, structured, and systemized revenue collection: replacing informal and inconsistent processes with proper, auditable systems.
• Proper inventory and asset management: accounting for facilities and assets that had sat dormant for over a decade.
• Improved lease agreements: ensuring previously underutilized assets began generating sustainable, well-documented income for the Board.
• A dedicated Task Force, set up to enforce compliance with management and environmental regulations, bringing order and accountability to the day-to-day running of the complex.

These weren’t glamorous wins, but they were the essential groundwork every subsequent milestone was built on.

Bringing the Fair Back to Life

The Board had never organized and run a trade fair on its own before. Under our consultation, that changed.

We supported the launch of the Commercial and Industrial Trade Fair (CITF) 2024 with a formal launch event at Eko Hotel, attended by dignitaries and their representatives. It was the first signal that the trade fair was back in business. This was followed by the successful staging of CITF 2024 itself, and later the fair’s evolution into the Nigeria International Trade Fair (NITF) 2025.

Both editions drew:

• Over 150 exhibitors
• More than 1,000 attendees across the run of each fair
• Dignitaries and public figures at opening ceremonies and during the fairs
• Celebrity appearances that helped raise the profile of the events

Delivering fairs of this scale also meant building the machinery behind the scenes. We led the engagement of partners and sponsors whose backing helped fund and elevate both editions, and we coordinated the subcontractors responsible for the practical, on-ground work of building and running the fairs, from setup to execution.

For a facility that had gone over a decade without hosting an organized fair, these were historic milestones.

Supporting Physical Improvements

A stronger event benefited from a better-kept venue. Our consultation guided the renovation and refurbishment of select previously neglected facilities and internal road networks, improving the experience for exhibitors and visitors alike. We also consulted on the construction of an official entrance gate, a small but symbolic marker of the progress underway.

Strengthening Governance and Accountability

Beyond events and infrastructure, we took on the reporting and documentation backbone of the Board’s operations, including:

• Quarterly reports to the House Committee
• Post-event reports for each fair held
• Auditing of the Board’s accounts

This work has given the Board a level of transparency and structure it had not previously had, critical for sustaining trust with oversight bodies and stakeholders going forward.

A Foundation for the Future

In three years, the Lagos International Trade Fair has moved from a 14-year hiatus to two successful editions, revenue collection has moved from informal practices to structured financial systems, and the complex itself has moved from a deteriorating facility to one undergoing active renovation.

There is still work ahead, but the turnaround achieved so far stands as proof of what focused, hands-on consultation can do for a legacy institution. Shelze is proud to have partnered with the Lagos International Trade Fair Management Board on this journey, and we look forward to building on this momentum in the years to come.