Lagos To Host West Africa's Largest Medical Laboratory Event

Organizers of Medic West Africa today revealed they are introducing Medlab Nigeria 2013 alongside Medic West Africa (MWA) which will be the largest medical laboratory event in the entire West African region. 

In an exclusive interview with HealthNewsNG.com, Sanjay Sehgal, Exhibition Director, Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, organizers of MWA said both events will record growths in the number of attendees and exhibitors.

"This year we are introducing Medlab Nigeria 2013 – the largest medical laboratory event in the region running along-side Medic West Africa. We are also looking at a 94 per cent growth in space from 2012 to cater to the demand of the growing industry," Sehgal said.

He added that several countries that participated in last year's edition would also be exhibiting this year in addition to new countries such as Egypt and South Korea.

He said: "We also have returning country pavilions such as France, China, Pakistan, USA and India, as well as including new country groups from Egypt, Turkey and South Korea."

To adequately accommodate the expected growths, he said they've increased the amount of available rooms to 6,740 square meters of exhibition space for exhibitors and attendees. He also revealed that compared to last year, about 100 more exhibitors will be participating at this year's edition.

"More than 150 exhibitors from 35 countries participated in Medic West Africa 2012 we had 2282 attendees. [Now] we have 250 international and local exhibitors, 45 countries represented, and seven country pavilions represented this year," he said.

According to him, Medic West Africa was introduced to complement government's initiatives and programmes.

He said: "The introduction of Medic West Africa was complementary to government initiatives and programmes which have resulted in a sweeping healthcare reform throughout West Africa. Hospitals and healthcare institutes receive funding due to these programmes; it results in massive changes in the equipment, technologies and solutions for the healthcare industry. Therefore this encouraged Informa Life Sciences to come on-board as strategic partners.

"Additionally, Medic West Africa provides the perfect platform for new entrants to the market, as well as a unique event for existing suppliers, distributors and principal companies to meet their target audience."

Other features of this year's event include the three CPD accredited conferences and master classes while interested participants are required to pay US$485 per square metre for space only and US$525 per square metre for the shell scheme.

In addition to Nigeria, he said companies from other African countries will be exhibiting at the event that run from October 16 to 18, 2013 at the Eko Hotel and Exhibition Center in Lagos.

"We have companies primarily from Nigeria exhibiting at the show. We also have a number of companies from Ghana. From further afield, we have a number of companies from South Africa as well," he said.