ANOCA says Africa Village closure has damaged Africa's reputation

The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) claims the closure of Africa Village has damaged Africa's image.

Africa Village when it was open
Africa Village when it was open

The village in Kensington Gardens is closed for a third day after suppliers including The Mar-Key group withheld their services, claiming they hadn't been paid by French agency Pixcom which organised the venue.

In a statement, ANOCA said: "The closure, which is based on a dispute between a French enterprise and some English companies, has impacted our continent most adversely, especially as our only desire, when we initiated this project, was to exhibit Africa’s rich cultural diversity to the English public and visitors from other countries."

It said it had not been informed of the closure, and neither had the exhibitors, who represented more than 20 mainly Francophone African countries.

The statement continued: "ANOCA has demonstrated all necessary goodwill by making payments for transactions in which we were not at all involved and in doing our possible best to assist the English companies.

"We wish to make it clear that ANOCA reserves the right to seek redress for damages caused to our public image and to the exhibitors who were even barred access to the exhibition ground for the entire morning period."

Pixcom released a statement in French which said it was forced to close the village after suppliers suspended their services. It said that the unpaid payments were a minor part of the project's budget and did not merit such "excessive measures" from suppliers.

The Concerto Group is also owed money but was not one of the suppliers which took legal action against Pixcom.

Concerto was contracted by Pixcom to operate bars at Africa Village through its catering business Create, and to provide other services like trackway and portacabins.

Sam Gill, marketing director of Concerto, told Event: "Create traded the bar profitably over the first 10 days due to many people coming through. We've made less money than we'd hoped but The Concerto Group has no net financial exposure to the project so our outstanding debt with Pixcom is not significant in the bigger picture."

Topiary House provided ornamental plants to the village and is also owed money by Pixcom. Duncan Ormrod, managing director of Topiary House, said: "We are not sure whether the village will re-open. At this point no one is allowed into the village, so I do not have access."

Suppliers will be de-rigging on Monday, while exhibitors can still get on the site.

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