Online Reporter
Kudzanai Sharara, in ALGIERS, Algeria
The Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) 2025, underway here from 4 to 10 September, is a “perfect opportunity and the perfect platform” to branch into the African market, local exhibitors have said.
Held every two years, the IATF brings together continental and global players to showcase and exhibit their goods and services and to explore business and investment opportunities on the continent.
It also provides a platform to share trade, investment, and market information with stakeholders and allows participants to discuss and identify solutions to the challenges confronting intra-African trade and investment.
At this year’s event, more than 35 000 delegates and 2 000 exhibitors from across 140 countries will converge, creating a global marketplace forecast to unlock over US$44 billion in trade and investment deals.
The country’s trade development and promotion body, ZimTrade, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, facilitated the participation of 25 local firms in various sectors of the economy at this year’s edition.
Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Algeria, Vusumuzi Ntonga, congratulated ZimTrade for bringing a diversified range of exhibitors to the fair.
“We are happy to see a number of quality products that are in high demand on the Algerian market. We also take cognisance of the fact that it’s not just the Algerians here; it’s the whole of Africa, and some are from outside the continent,” he said.
“We want to take a big share of the expected US$44 billion worth of deals. We have a good chance of doing not only trade but also investments,” said the Ambassador.
Lienne Shonhiwa, founder of Manetain Organics, whose company uses indigenous ingredients to make natural hair and skincare products, described the IATF as the perfect opportunity to find people in one place.
“So it’s opportunities and platforms like this that get small companies like ours to learn more and to speak to the right people—the right buyers and distributors—who can actually put our products in the right markets,” she said.
“So it’s a very good platform. It’s massive, with different companies from different countries,” she added.
Also exhibiting here is Wenceslous Nyamupfukudza, the founder of Afrostain Farmtech, a precision farming consulting company.
Mr Nyamupfukudza said his company’s main agenda is to cover the entire Africa with its services.
“This is mostly to do with satellite crop monitoring and satellite data analytics, which involves forest monitoring, grazing, pastures management, crop monitoring, and other key services like the farm-to-fork traceability of products. These are things that allow you as a consumer to know exactly where your food has been grown and how it has been grown,” said Mr Nyamupfukudza.
He said while his company is based in Zimbabwe, its clients are now scattered across Africa.
“Since the Intra-African Trade Fair is the biggest marketplace for almost every country in Africa, our agenda is to make sure that we tap into those markets and catch them while they are still developing,” Mr Nyamupfukudza said.
Collen Moyo, CEO and founder of Viridi Solutions Africa which manufactures vegetable-based lubricants, said platforms such as the IATF provide opportunities to engage with people from various countries.
“We are looking forward to more opportunities, especially in the renewable energy industry that we are in. We are engaging with a lot of African countries, especially those with seaports, for one of the oils that we manufacture, which is marine oil,” he said.
“So we are looking for those customers, and even suppliers of the raw materials that we need.”
