A few days before the opening of the 17th edition of the Ouagadougou International Crafts Fair (SIAO), the Minister in charge of Crafts, Serge Poda, reassured Monday, during a visit to the site, that the national organizing committee is ready to hold the event.
“We wanted to take stock of the situation with the national organizing committee in order to see what residual difficulties could be overcome to enable us to be up to date to welcome the various participants who will come from the four corners of the world,” declared the Minister in charge of Crafts, Serge Poda.
According to Mr. Poda, the SIAO national organizing committee is more than 90% ready, but there are still some adjustments to be made to accommodate the 350,000 to 400,000 people expected.
The head of the department in charge of crafts was speaking on Monday in Ouagadougou, during a visit to the site for preparations for the biennial.
In terms of innovations, Minister Serge Poda specified that there is the SIAO Kids, dedicated to children
, allowing this young section of the population to learn about crafts.
According to him, the ministry has also developed a platform called e-SIAO, which allows all artisans to reserve their stands and visitors to reserve their tickets online.
“All these innovations have been put in place to truly create a harmonious, facilitating and accessible framework, allowing the show to be exported more and to be accessible,” continued Serge Poda.
The minister also noted that safety and hygiene measures have been taken to preserve the peace and quiet of all festival-goers on the site.
As a reminder, the 17th edition of SIAO, which will be held from October 25 to November 3, 2024, under the high patronage of the President of Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, is placed under the theme ‘African Crafts: Youth Entrepreneurship and Empowerment’.
Source: Burkina Information Agency