The Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021), organised by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, is being held in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, from 15-21 November 2021
“We see the IATF playing a significant role in making intra-African trade a reality thereby supporting the implementation of the AfCFTA by providing a platform for buyers and sellers, investors and governments, to connect, exchange trade, investment and market information and conclude business deals,” Oluranti Doherty, Director for Export Development at Afreximbank said.
Nhlakanipho Nkontwana, Head of Department at the South African Ministry of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, added, “We are confident that IATF2021 will be hosted safely in November in Durban. We are committing to expediting beneficiation of our precious metals and not allow them to be exported as raw material and come back as finished product. This is critical for localisation, for job creation, skills development and our youth and women.”
The IATF2021 Roadshow in Cape Town featured a panel discussion under the theme Unlocking Regional and Global Value Chains Through the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) with the participation of Andrew Masuwa, head of client relations at Afreximbank’s southern Africa regional Office; Lara Utian-Preston, CEO and founder of The Ladima Foundation and Salman Katjie, head of InvestSA, One Stop Shop (Western Cape).
“We believe that South Africa is poised to be a major beneficiary of this. It would be wrong not to mention some of the challenges, however we believe that these challenges would in fact create investment and business opportunities: the infrastructure gap, the need to modernise and industrialise, the need for diversification and beneficiation,” Doherty commented.
