Following the success of the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) in Durban in 2021, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is expecting this year’s Cairo showpiece event in November to generate even more investment on the continent.
The forum, Africa’s premier trade and investment event, is to be held in the Egyptian capital from November 9-15 and will bring together over 1 600 exhibitors and 35 000 buyers from all corners of Africa.
The IATF was created to fast-track Africa’s economic integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“It is the trade information flow that the Trade Fair will facilitate that will bring down the 87 000 kilometres of borders that divide us. It is the Trade Fair that can help us to begin to change the trade patterns that see African countries import from outside Africa, at much higher cost, the same products from a neighbouring African country,” said Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board at Afreximbank.
The first edition of the Trade Fair was held in Cairo in 2018, leading to more than $32 billion in trade deals. The second was in Durban in 2021 and led to more than $42 billion in trade deals, a figure that Afreximbank expects to beat this year.
