By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
OVER US$36 billion deals have been concluded at the just ended Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) 2021 in Durban, South Africa.
IATF was a platform to develop business and to grow Intra-African trade as well as an opportunity to do business beyond the continent, IATF Initiative African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) managing director Kanayo Awani said.
“Even though the number I have announced is about as of now, deals are still going on, we are still getting entries as many of you know we advertised for digital inputs into the deals,” Ms Awani said.
She said a total of 11,828 attended the just ended IATF 2021.
Addressing journalists yesterday, Ms Awani said this was against its target of 10,000 delegates, stating that the number of attendees this year grew to 11,828.
She indicated that 46 African countries were represented at this year IATF in the exhibition stands, with 59 nations participating in the trade fair.
Ms Awani said out of the 59 countries that participated at the IATF2021, 46 were from Africa, signifying that the continent was ready to trade among itself.
“In all, when you take it into consideration delegates, exhibitors, visitors , buyers, and speakers were participants in IATF2021 activities from 128 countries,” she stated.
Mr Awani said in terms of the exhibitors, they had a target of 1,100 which was exceeded to 1,161 across various sectors including the youth exhibitors.
She pointed out that there was also an IATF virtue meetings going on parallel to the main event, which was a hybrid programme, with statistics showing that over 27,000 registered for the trade fair.
Ms Awani said the IATF2021 was highly publicized on digital media with activities and programme being streamed live.
She said the IATF2021 received good publicity from the media outfits across the continent as well as a 1,000 pieces of daily coverage of news across Africa in Arabic, French, Portuguese and English.
