Durban Business Fair offers exciting opportunities for street vendors
For the first time in its 20 years, the popular Durban Business Fair will feature a street market where vendors will showcase their diverse range of products.
The main Durban Business Fair (DBF) celebrates 20 years of success this year and in celebration it will for the first time feature a street market offering an opportunity to more than 30 street vendors to showcase their products, ranging from food to crafters, home décor and vintage clothing.
The street market, to be held between 21 and 24 September at Walnut Street between the Durban Exhibition Centre (DEC) and Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC), aims to boost the economic status of street traders who will have access to more than 10 000 attendees expected at the prestige event.
After hosting three successful regional business fairs at eThekwini Municipality’s outer west, south and north region, the City is now taking the programme to the Durban central business district, which has over the past two decades shown great potential in uplifting the business sector.
The Durban Business Fair runs from 18 to 24 September at the DEC and ICC where it will expose and equip business owners with the appropriate skills to grow and sustain their businesses through exhibitions, conferences, master classes, networking and linkages with various business sectors.
The fair will also market locally produced goods from more than 500 businesses and will incorporate a number of empowerment programmes such as women in business, youth, filmmaking and tech-zone.
Kick-starting the programme will be a powerful two-day business conference on 18 and 19 September. The conference will centre its discussions around radical agrarian socio-economic transformation, radical economic transformation opportunities focusing on capital projects and localisation in industrialisation.
On 20 September, women economic empowerment engagements will be hosted.
Programme Manager at the City’s Business Support, Tourism, Licensing and Markets Unit, Nonku Mthembu urges everyone to support the initiative because it plays a vital role in addressing the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
Businesses wishing to participate in one of the DBF activities must contact Fezile Nzuza on 031 311 4500 or email: Fezile.Nzuza@durban.gov.za
For more information about the Durban Business Fair contact Sane Shandu on 031 311 4806 or 072 572 8658 or email: sanelisiwe.shandu@durban.gov.za.
