The fourth intra-African trade fair will be held in Algeria in September 2025, and Zimbabwe is already getting ready. ZIMTRADE kicked off its IATF 2025 mobilisation campaign on 7 June 2025 with a business breakfast in Bulawayo, attended by government officials, private sector players and representatives of African trade organisations keen to realise the government’s vision of increasing exports on an intercontinental scale.
ZIMTRADE, the national trade development and promotion organisation, is committed to providing local businesses with essential information about participating in the 4th Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2025), scheduled for September 2025. The country is hoping to send a delegation of around twenty companies to showcase its agricultural and mining potential. According to statistics from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the southern African country’s revenue from gold exports rose by 8.64% in the first two months of 2025, to reach $240.1 million. An economic windfall that the authorities hope will benefit other African economies.
Remember, our goal is to increase exports, but we also need to increase the product base and also we need to increase the number of people who are participating in exports. So this program is specifically aimed at doing that. But we also provide market intelligence. We’ve done market scans in Equatorial Guinea, in Singapore, even in Mozambique.
Allan Majuru, CEO of Zimtrade
The African Development Bank’s 2025 growth forecasts indicate that Zimbabwe should record growth of 6% or more in 2025 thanks to its mining exports. Experts believe that these resources could be more profitable if they were transformed.
Statistics may help you realize that we do have a problem. Over 30% of the global natural resources are in Africa, yet Africa only contributes 2 to 3% of global trade. More than 80% of the exports from Africa are raw. We are exporting our exports as raw Intra-African trade is less than 15%.
Stanley Sachikonye, Manager at Afreximbank
Organised by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the African Union (AU) and the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the IATF brings together more than 2,000 exhibitors from 75 countries, offering unrivalled opportunities for trade, investment matchmaking and business networking. Zimbabwe has a strong track record at previous editions of the IATF, having concluded trade deals worth more than $20 million.
