By Vivian Ihechu
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, has released a list of 71 sponsors of the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023).
The IATF is Africa’s premier trade and investment event, with the 2023 edition taking place in Cairo, Egypt from Nov. 9 to Nov. 15, 2023.
Positioned as the premier platform for business exchanges in Africa, IATF2023 is drawing on the broad range of programmes and initiatives being implemented by Afreximbank.
These programmes and initiatives will facilitate intra-African trade and on the promise of the AfCFTA to revolutionise trade, reshape markets across the Africa, boost output in the manufacturing and service sectors and fundamentally transform Africa’s economic structure.
Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, said: “This Intra-African Trade Fair will open the African market to African businesses and will enable us to create investment opportunities and regional value chains beyond anything we have imagined. We are grateful to our sponsors for supporting us in achieving this objective.”
The roll call of IATF2023 sponsors includes four companies in the IATF Official Premier Partner category, two IATF Trade and Investment Partner, one IATF Country Day partner, and 38 IATF Official Partners, among others.
Four of the IATF Official Premier Partners include The Dangote Group, a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, founded by Aliko Dangote and Elsewedy Electric.
Others are Mota Engil, a multinational with activity centred on the construction and management of infrastructure segmented into diverse areas of engineering and Oando Servco Nigeria Limited, part of Oando Plc, one of Africa’s leading energy solutions providers.
Two IATF Trade and Investment Partner are the Atlantic Financial Group and Vista Group Holding SA.
IATF Country Day partners include ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP) which identifies industrial gaps in African countries, to unlock value and create new industries in key sectors by creating local transformation, maximizing production, efficiency and cost, which in turn generates local value addition.
Other Sponsors include the NNPC Limited, Union Bank, Access Bank, Orion Oil, African Development Bank, KK Kingdom Nigeria, Export Trading Group (ETG), Hassan Allam, SOMOIL (ETU Energies), International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), Trinity Energy Limited and Bono Energy.
The Great Horn Investment Holdings, Sahara Group, Levene Energy, Development Limited, Guiter, SAMCO Egypt, Oakwood Green Capital Ltd., Fidelity Bank, Pacific Energy Company Limited, Plot Enterprise, UBA, Epe Tasdir Spa /, SAFEX (Algeria), RS Oil & Gas Co. Limited, `Oilserv Limited, Matrix Energy, Lotus Bank, COGEB International, JNPM COMÉRCIO GERAL E REPRESENTAÇÕES and Econet.
Also among the sponsors are Harvest Group of Companies, CORIS Bank International, Scanning Systems, Woodhall Capital, Dorman Long, PAC Holdings, HAVIT INC, Eyrie Energy Limited, UTM FLNG Ltd, NSIA BANQUE Côte d’Ivoire, DPA Industries, FDH Bank PLC, Azikel Group, Bank of Industry, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Banque Misr and Afriland.
Others are Gemcorp, OPAIA GROUP, Liquid Tech Telecommunications (Jersey) Limited/Cassava, Technologies, Sterling Bank, African Energy Chamber, Alfa Services, and Petrovision Energy Services.
The Bureau Veritas, SICOP Industries SA, RAWBANK, Blue, Horn Aviation, DOTT Services, Banque Populaire de Mauritanie, Exodus and Company, FBC Bank and Samapeche are also sponsors of IATF2023.
