In Algiers, from September 4 to 10, the 4th Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2025) aims to be more than just a showcase: a platform to build the African internal market. Announced goal: 44 billion dollars in contracts, a record volume since the event’s creation in 2018.
Algiers, the Algerian capital hosts this 4th edition under the theme « Building bridges for a successful AfCFTA. » Here, it’s not just about exhibiting, but signing: 2,000 companies from across the continent, 35,000 visitors expected from 140 countries, and several African heads of state announced.
« We are delighted that today the IATF has become the rallying point where children from the Kabylie region, in the deserts of Algeria, from Abu Simbel, in southern Egypt, from Kilwa Island, in Tanzania, from Ngogom, in Senegal, from Tabankulu, in South Africa, from my little town of Nnokwa, in Nigeria, and many others, can dream of bringing their ideas, their ideas of creativity and innovation, and not just being listened to with respect, but actually supported.
BENEDICT ORAMAH, Outgoing president of Afreximbank – Nigeria
An objective considered ambitious but realistic by experts, provided that companies get involved and financing follows. Algeria, the host country, wants to seize the opportunity to assert its economic and logistical role in Africa. The event also serves as a large-scale test for the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, which is expected to move from promise to concrete results by the next edition of the IATF in Lagos, Nigeria in 2027.
« ZLECAF is already delivering results under the leadership of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Intra-African trade rebounded strongly in 2024, reaching US$220 billion, an increase of 12.5% over 2023, according to the African Bank’s African Trade Report 2024. This recovery underscores the growing confidence in Africa’s economic integration model, at the heart of which is the one driven by Agenda 2063, the Africa we want. »
Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA – South Africa
With the participation of high-level delegations, this edition is presented as the most ambitious since 2018. The challenge is clear: to transform African resources instead of exporting them raw. In Algiers, Africa is trying to build, contract by contract, its internal market of tomorrow.
