According to Afreximbank Executive VP Kanayo Awani, mega deals await at Africa’s largest annual fair, the Intra-African Trade Fair to be held in Algiers, Algeria on 4 – 10 September 2025.
By Brian Ngugi
Afreximbank Executive VP Kanayo Awani says that African firms are encouraged to participate in the IATF 2025 as mega deals are expected to be forged.
Commenting on the previous trade fair held in Cairo, Egypt, Awani says that firms directly benefited from trade and investment deals worth more than USD 43 billion.
“This trade fair is a meaningful backbone for trade and investment. Deals of close to 43 billion dollars were closed in the previous Cairo IATF 2023. That means African buyers found new buyers. New deals were forged,” says Awani.
During the signing ceremony of the hosting agreement for the IATF 2025, Awani says that efforts by Afreximbank to boost trade through the trade fair came at a time of increasing risks for African trade from global protectionism.
“One of the objectives of the trade fair is the have African countries look to their neighbours. A total of 120 billion dollars have been concluded over the last three trade fairs. 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,” says Awani.
As the host nation, Algiers Minister of Trade Tayeb Zitouni says his country of more than 44 million people offers various opportunities for trade and investment which will be showcased during the trade fair.
Recent rules aimed at diversifying the Algerian economy to reduce reliance on oil and gas sales include a new investment code that came into force in 2022 and cash incentives to non-oil exporters.
For decades the oil and gas-rich Algeria had used its high energy revenues to run a top-down economy in which private or foreign investment was difficult, large sectors were reserved for the state, and entrepreneurs were stifled by bureaucracy.
“This is the first time for Algeria to sign this agreement and this implies more collaboration with African countries going forward,” says Zitouni.
The Algerian Government has been pushing for reforms to strengthen the private sector, boosting local businesses.
Next year’s fair is expected to provide a platform to share trade, investment and market information with stakeholders and allows participants to discuss and identify solutions to the challenges confronting intra-African trade and investment.
In addition to African participants, Awani says that the Trade Fair is also open to businesses and investors from non-African countries interested in doing business in Africa and in supporting the continent’s transformation through industrialisation and export development.
“This is another opportunity to continue to deepen trade ties among us,” says Awani.
The Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Intra-African Trade Fair and former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo says the IATF meeting had emerged as a ‘marketplace’ and ‘go-to event’ for trade players and policymakers in Africa and claims that the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represented the fourth stage of Africa’s liberation.
“The IATF is now the foremost event of economic, social and even policy in Africa. Increased intra-African will end the harmful trend of African countries exporting primary goods to other continents only to import them as manufactured goods. This is a huge opportunity cost for the African continent which the intra-African trade fair seeks to correct. We need information about products and markets and we need to have infrastructure that will make it possible to trade more among ourselves. I’m sure the IATF 2025 will be bigger and better and more appreciated than all the three we’ve had so far. It will improve and make possible trader transactions between African countries and the Arab world,” says Obasanjo.
Note from the Editor: This featured has been edited from its original publication here.
