African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) have renewed and expanded their memorandum of understanding (MoU), underscoring their commitment to strengthening intra-African trade, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) competitiveness, and South-South cooperation.

The MoU was signed on the sidelines of the recently concluded Intra-African Trade Fair 2025 (IATF2025) by Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank and Ms. Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of ITC.

Organised by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), African Union Commission (AUC) and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF)  provides a unique platform for facilitating trade and investment information exchange in support of increased intra-African trade and investment, especially in the context of implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

 IATF brings together continental and global players to showcase and exhibit their goods and services and to explore business and investment opportunities in 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.

In addition to African participants, the Trade Fair is also open to businesses and investors from non-African countries interested in doing business in Africa and in supporting the continent’s transformation through industrialisation and export development.

Under the renewed MoU, Afreximbank and ITC will promote SME competitiveness, capacity building related to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), sustainable livelihoods through the creative industries, strengthening of Africa’s trade partnerships with the Caribbean and Arab regions, and increased access to finance for businesses, including small businesses. 

Commenting on the signing, Prof. Oramah said that the renewed MoU would help to expand Africa’s creative industries, deepen South-South cooperation with the Caribbean, and strengthen AfCFTA’s private sector impact.

“The signing of the renewed MoU on the sidelines of IATF2025 is a strong demonstration of Afreximbank’s leadership in driving intra-African trade and SME empowerment,” Prof. Oramah said.

“By choosing IATF2025 as the platform for this announcement, Afreximbank and ITC are underlining the important role of the IATF as a platform for unlocking the potential of SMEs to drive Africa’s trade led development,” he said.

He said that the partnership between Afreximbank and ITC positioned them as joint leaders in ensuring that Africa’s SMEs and creative entrepreneurs gain global visibility and market access, adding that they were scaling up their collaboration to empower the SMEs and creative industries, foster Africa-Caribbean linkages, and advance AfCFTA implementation.

Ms. Coke-Hamilton said, “Our long-term partnership with Afreximbank is one built on strengthening the way Africa engages with the rest of the world in terms of trade. With our expanded partnership, we will continue to work together to make trade easier, more accessible and less costly across the continent, for all African businesses, including the smallest and those led by women and youth.”

Attended by more than 112,000 visitors from 132 countries, IATF2025, which took place from 4 to 10 September, ended on a remarkably high note with US$48.3 billion in trade and investment deals signed over the seven days of the continental exposition. It welcomed 2,148 exhibitors.