African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) have significantly expanded their strategic partnership, setting the stage for enhanced support to small and medium enterprises across Africa and strengthened trade links with Caribbean and Arab markets.
The renewed memorandum of understanding, signed during the recently concluded Intra-African Trade Fair 2025 in Algiers, represents a deepening commitment to unlock Africa’s trade potential through targeted SME empowerment and creative industry development.
Record-Breaking Trade Fair Provides Strategic Backdrop
The partnership announcement came against the backdrop of IATF2025’s remarkable success, with the seven-day continental exposition attracting over 112,000 visitors from 132 countries and facilitating $48.3 billion in trade and investment agreements. The fair hosted 2,148 exhibitors, underscoring the growing appetite for intra-African business collaboration.
Professor Benedict Oramah, Afreximbank’s President and Chairman, emphasized the strategic timing of the announcement. “By choosing IATF2025 as the platform for this expanded partnership, we are highlighting the critical role these platforms play in unlocking SME potential for Africa’s trade-led development,” he said.
Enhanced Focus on Creative Industries and South-South Cooperation
The expanded MoU places particular emphasis on several key areas that could reshape Africa’s economic landscape:
- SME Competitiveness Enhancement: The partnership will provide targeted support to improve the competitive positioning of African small and medium enterprises in global markets.
- AfCFTA Capacity Building: Both organizations will work to strengthen private sector engagement with the African Continental Free Trade Area, ensuring businesses can capitalize on continental integration opportunities.
- Creative Industry Development: A significant focus on sustainable livelihoods through creative industries aims to tap into Africa’s vast cultural and artistic potential.
- Regional Integration: The partnership will strengthen Africa’s trade relationships with Caribbean and Arab regions, expanding South-South cooperation beyond traditional boundaries.
- Financial Access: Enhanced support for business financing, with particular attention to small enterprises that often struggle to access capital markets.
Strategic Implications for African Business
Ms. Pamela Coke-Hamilton, ITC’s Executive Director, highlighted the partnership’s broader significance for African trade integration. “Our expanded collaboration will 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,” she stated.
The timing is particularly strategic as African economies seek to leverage the AfCFTA’s potential. With the continental free trade agreement creating opportunities for increased intra-African trade, the Afreximbank-ITC partnership positions itself as a key facilitator of this transformation.
Looking Forward
The partnership represents more than institutional cooperation—it signals a coordinated approach to addressing Africa’s trade development challenges. By combining Afreximbank’s financial capabilities with ITC’s trade development expertise, the initiative could serve as a model for future continental partnerships.
For African SMEs, particularly those in creative industries and those led by women and youth entrepreneurs, this expanded partnership opens new pathways to global markets while strengthening their capacity to compete effectively in increasingly integrated regional and continental markets.
The success of IATF2025, with its record-breaking deal flow, provides tangible evidence of the appetite for such initiatives and suggests strong potential for the expanded Afreximbank-ITC partnership to deliver meaningful results for African businesses.