Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, says the ongoing Intra Africa Trade Fair (IATF 2021) is an opportunity for exhibitors, producers of goods, service providers to explore new market and trade opportunities across the African continent.
He said the maiden edition, which was held in Cairo and convened by the Afreximbank and the Egyptian government was hugely successful as it concluded trade transactions worth US$35bn.
For this year’s fair, he is hopeful that the figure will be exceeded with the existence and operationalisation of the AfCFTA agreement to open new markets.
“We want to merge exhibitors with providers of goods and services whilst exposing them to new market opportunities across the continent,” he told Single African Market.
He indicated that for young businesses and entrepreneurs, the IATF is the best platform for them to forge partnerships for growth and expansion across the continent and to identity potential consumers of their products and services.
“There is no other forum on the continent that provides such a platform for business-to-business trade connectivity and huge volume of transactions. It is the only forum on the continent that will ensure that small and medium enterprises seeking to expand into other parts of Africa.”
According to Mr. Mene, a significant amount of the US$35bn that was traded in the maiden edition was concluded among SMEs who found new business partners to trade with, urging such businesses across the continent to take active part in the upcoming edition.
“We can see from this example that the IATF holds huge opportunities for the smaller businesses of the continent that are ready for partnerships and regional collaborations.
The main beneficiaries of this fair are mostly small and medium enterprises that will be able to interconnect with their counterparts or even bigger enterprises from other parts of the continent,” he said.
The IATF 2021 will also host ministers from across Africa, with National Days where individual countries will display what they have to offer but the objective is purely business-to-business connectivity.
The AfCFTA, Mr. Mene said, is for the private sector which is largely composed of small and medium enterprises and it’s only proper for them to take the forefront of the IATF even though there will be government representation as well as senior trade experts and related stakeholders.