Afreximbank expects over $40bn trade, investment deals at 2nd IATF billed for Rwanda

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says it expects trade and investment deals totaling more than 40 billion dollars from over 1,100 exhibitors at the second Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2020) scheduled for Kigali.

A statement by Deborah Ross, Afreximbank’s spokesperson on Tuesday said the fair is organised in collaboration with the African Union and hosted by the Government of Rwanda would hold from Sept. 1 to Sept. 7.

Ross said the registration for the fair, which had opened would attract exhibitors from 55 countries.

She said that the fair would also feature business-to-business and business-to-government exchanges for the development of trade and investment in Africa.

“Country Days have also been set aside to allow interested countries dedicated days to highlight their trade and investment opportunities,” she said.

Ross quoted the bank’s President, Prof. Benedict Oramah, as saying that the fair would widen networks for business and government buyers and sellers from across Africa and beyond.

Oramah said that the trade fair would position participants to access a single market of over 1.3 billion people and reap the full commercial benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

He reiterated that tariffs, protectionism, poor infrastructure, lack of market information and other barriers to trade had severely constrained intra-African trade and impeded the continent’s economic development for decades.

Oramah said that the operational phase of AfCFTA had started to remove many of these obstacles, adding that the fair was a better time for Africa’s vibrant and varied business sectors to exponentially increase their intra-African and global trade.

The inaugural Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2018), which took place in Cairo in December 2018, generated business deals worth more than 32 billion dollars.

Afreximbank is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra and extra-African trade.

The bank was established in Oct. 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors.

Since 1994, it has approved more than 67 billion in credit facilities for African businesses, including 7.2 billion dollars in 2018.

Afreximbank had total assets of 13.4 billion dollars as of Dec. 31, 2018, and is rated BBB+ (GCR), Baa1 (Moody’s), and BBB– (Fitch).

The bank has its headquarters in Cairo.