Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The fourth edition of the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) has shattered records with a haul of US$48,3 billion in deals amid calls to bring the deals to fruition.
IATF2025 ended in Algiers, Algeria, on Wednesday in what is the biggest fair since the marketplace debuted in 2018 to drive intra-African trade.
Organisers of the fair, Afreximbank, the African Union, AfCFTA Secretariat and Algeria, had set a target of US$44 billion.
The previous edition in 2023 recorded trade and investment deals of US$43,8 billion.
Gainmore Zanamwe, Afreximbank’s director Trade Facilitation & Investment Promotion called IATF2025 the best and biggest fair.
Benedict Oramah, outgoing Afreximbank president, said It is the extent to which “we are able to implement the deals signed here that will count”.
“So, as we’ve done in the past, at Afreximbank we follow each and every deal to make sure that by the time we get back to Lagos 2027, most of them are done, financed where they need financing, and facilitated where they need facilitation,” he said.
Oramah said those he is “leaving behind must do for 2027”.
“We’ve now been able to build this trade fair. We’ve established it as a permanent institution,” he said.
The veteran trade finance expert is leaving the bank at the end of the month after completing his two terms as the institution’s president and chairperson of the board of directors.
Cameroonian George Elombi will take over the reins to become Afreximbank’s fourth president.
Wamkele Mene, AfCFTA Secretariat executive secretary, lauded IATF2025 as a resounding success.
“The transactions that were concluded here are almost US$50 billion, a very, very encouraging number. Again, an indicator that the IATF is growing from strength to strength as a platform for conducting business,” he said, adding that the secretariat would deploy trade rules to support the trades that have been concluded in Algeria.
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