Roads lead to Corporation Drive , Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos State was jam-parked on Saturday 20th – 21st Sunday December 2025 like Nothing Hill Carnival in United Kingdom. The experience at the 2025 festive edition was outstanding. It was bigger compared to May edition.The two-day Food and Drink Festival titled GTCO Food & Drink Festival ended hours with lots of accolades for the organizers. . There have been lots of praises from attendees and they are requesting for more creative initiative like this. GTCO Food & Drink Festival, which took place at GTCentre in Victoria between December 20 and 21, 2025, annual culinary event in Lagos, Nigeria, hosted by Guaranty Trust Holding, displayed diverse food entrepreneurs, street food, masterclasses, and local cuisine, with free entry for all to enjoy family-friendly fun and support local businesses.The 2025 edition was the first-ever Holiday Edition, with over 200 vendors, kids’ play areas, and live DJs. Lots of fun seekers who visited the arena were thrilled and could not hide their experience. Baliqees Adebeshin said , “This is my first time coming here. It was a nice networking event for me . I met a baker I have been eager to me . I think the organisation was memorable. There are quite a lot of vendors. It is well organized. There are a lot of varieties. It is a pleasure being in the midst of experts here. I must confess, there are lots of improvement and I learnt a lot .”For Amuda Opeodu, who adequately prepared for the GTCO festival, made enough special provision by loading enough money into his ATM and handing it over to his children to ensure they had maximum fun, “What GTB is doing is something quite commendable, GTB is trying, everything here is perfect and in order.”Responding to the question if the food and drink at the festival were affordable, he answered, “Well I don’t really know, it is my children that are spending. I handed my ATM to them and they are buying what they like, I don’t even know how much they have spent.”Abubakri Surakat who came from Ajah, Lagos said, “I am always here, it is a very good initiative, I was here in May, I am happy to be here. I think they need to put out more chairs, so that people can sit if they want to do so.”Speaking on hid relationship with GTB, he said, “I am a proud user, I use GT, no issues.”Cupid, was one of the vendors at the food festival and he has amazing testimonials to make about GTCO Food and Drink Festival. “As one of the vendors, it is so amazing, Cupid was the name of my snacks company.It is so amazing, we have been selling cakes, yesterday was so amazing, we sold out and today, we are going to sell too, they are so moist and so delicious, when you get one, you will come back for more. Everything we do here is more than standard. We have a variety of flavours from vannila to chocolate, carrot, lemon, so many flavours. It is something edible, so no matter the situation people will come and buy.”He added that GTB is the best bank so far, adding that their customer service and and all their service offerings are topnotch.
The festival continues to underline GTCO’s commitment to SME empowerment by providing zero-cost participation for selected vendors, giving small businesses a premium platform for visibility, revenue generation and growth during the festive season.
-Adegbola Shehu Tijani
