Local firms beckoned to continental trade fair
Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) executive vice-president for Intra-African Trade Bank Kanayo Awani has encouraged firms on the continents, including those from Malawi, to participate at the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) in Algeria next year.
The trade fair, organised in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat, will take place from September 4 to 10 2025 in Algiers, Algeria.
Speaking on Monday during the signing ceremony of the hosting agreement for the IATF 2025, she said the previous trade fair held in Cairo, Egypt last year saw firms directly benefiting from trade and investment deals worth more than $43 billion (about K75 trillion).
Said Awani: “The trade fair is a meaningful backbone for trade and investment. Deals of close to $43 billion dollars were closed which means African buyers found new buyers and new deals were forged.”
She said next year’s fair is expected to attract more than 35 000 visitors, buyers and conference delegates from all 55 African countries, the diaspora and the rest of the world.
Awani said efforts by Afreximbank to boost trade through the trade fair have come at a time of increasing risks for African trade from global protectionism.
Algiers Minister of Trade Tayeb Zitouni said his country, with more than 44 million people, offers various opportunities for trade and investment which will be showcased during the trade fair.
“This is the first time for Algeria to sign this agreement that we have signed and this implies more collaboration with African countries going forward,” he said.
IATF Advisory Council chairperson Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also former president of Nigeria, said the IATF meeting had emerged as a “marketplace’ and go-to event” for trade players and policymakers in Africa.
He said the implementation of the AfCFTA represented the fourth stage of Africa’s liberation.
Algeria will become the third country to host the IATF after Egypt hosted the inaugural edition in Cairo in 2018.
The second edition was held in Durban, South Africa in 2021.
