IATF 2025 Closes: Algiers Edition Declared an Exceptional Success — Deals, Momentum and a Call to Deliver
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – September 2025 –
The fourth Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2025) drew to a close in Algiers with organisers, financiers and political leaders hailing an edition of rare ambition and scale — but one whose ultimate value will be judged by the speed and seriousness with which signed commitments are executed.
At the official closing, African and Algerian authorities presented figures that confirm IATF’s rapid evolution into the continent’s principal marketplace for trade, investment and industrial matchmaking. The consolidated total of deals and investment agreements announced at the end of the week of activity was widely reported at roughly USD 48 billion, a result Afreximbank’s leadership called the most successful outcome since the IATF’s creation — a performance that exceeded earlier projections.
Scale and substance
Organisers and partners stressed that the fair’s quantitative footprint matched its political importance: more than 2,000 exhibitors, country pavilions and delegations from nearly 40–75 countries (figures vary by source), tens of thousands of on-site visitors and a heavy program of sectoral panels and B2B sessions that placed private-sector deal flow at the centre of the agenda. The programme — which co-ordinated investment pitches, dozens of sectoral roundtables and dedicated matchmaking events — produced hundreds of concrete memoranda of understanding and commercial contracts across energy, infrastructure, agro-industry, manufacturing and services.
Political backing and continental purpose
The ceremony was attended by senior Algerian officials and the pan-African leadership that co-convenes the fair — a visible signal of state willingness to attach high diplomatic priority to economic integration. Larbi Latrèche, IATF 2025 Commissioner, framed the fair as an operational lever for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): hosting the event in Algiers, he said, was intended to accelerate integration by linking political intent to bankable projects and industrial pipelines. He underlined Algeria’s aspiration to play a structuring role in that continental transition.
Afreximbank and the pressure to convert promise into project
Afreximbank — the institutional engine behind the IATF — praised the results while sounding a note of realism. Benedict Oramah and the Bank’s executives welcomed the record deals but warned that the central test remains implementation: agreements signed in exposition halls must be translated rapidly into financed, insured and executed projects. Afreximbank’s leadership and advisory partners urged immediate follow-up mechanisms — trade finance lines, guarantees, and de-risking facilities — to ensure commitments do not remain paper-bound promises.
From Algiers to Lagos: continuity and institution-building
The fair’s advisory leadership announced that the next IATF will be hosted in Lagos in 2027, a choice that signals continuity and a continental rotation designed to diffuse ownership of the initiative. Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo — chair of the IATF Advisory Council — exhorted participants to convert the week’s momentum into an execution culture: the continent’s competitive advantage will depend on its capacity to move from pledge to project. Meanwhile, Afreximbank announced a plan to institutionalise the IATF as a permanent entity with a capital endowment and a stable secretariat — an institutional leap intended to sustain follow-up, with headquarters and seed capital arrangements discussed in Harare.
The implementation challenge: capital, risk-sharing and industrial policy
If the headlines rightly celebrate volume, policy-makers and financiers identified three structural shortfalls that will determine whether IATF 2025 is remembered for delivery or for a round of promising press releases.
First, project finance. Multiple speakers highlighted the persistent scarcity of long-term, continentally-oriented capital and the need to mobilise banks, development finance institutions, export credit agencies and private capital to underwrite the deals. Afreximbank and partners argued that trade-finance corridors, guarantees and blended-finance instruments must be swiftly deployed to convert MOUs into executed contracts.
Second, risk de-rating and local capacity. Several agreements depend on upgrading local supply chains, logistics corridors and regulatory frameworks. Participants stressed that improving the “bankability” of projects requires not only capital but also technical assistance, standards harmonisation and predictable procurement frameworks that allow domestic firms to occupy larger shares of the value chain.
Third, follow-through and measurable monitoring. The fair’s organisers insisted that a rigorous monitoring mechanism — point-by-point verification of milestones, public release of investment timetables and a role for regional development banks — is essential. Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat signalled they will play an active part in this monitoring, setting a calendar that culminates in the next IATF and in accelerated implementation targets through 2027.
Algeria’s host role: political capital and industrial strategy
For Algeria, the IATF was both showcase and strategy. Officials used the platform to underline national projects that can be scaled regionally — from energy and mining partnerships to agro-industrial programmes and heavy industry exports. By convening ministers, national champions and foreign investors, Algiers sought to convert diplomatic weight into commercial corridors anchored by domestic companies and public-private partnerships. The government presented the fair as a concrete step in positioning Algeria as a logistical and industrial hub that serves North–South and South–South trade links.
A pragmatic verdict: optimism tempered by urgency
IATF 2025 has indisputably raised the bar. The week in Algiers produced headline results, deeper strategic conversations and a clearer institutional architecture for a continent-wide trade platform. Yet the decisive judgment will come in the months ahead: will the billions pledged be mobilised as disbursements, will corridors and industrial clusters be built, and will the promised institutional reforms — from trade-finance facilities to a permanent IATF secretariat — be realised?
The fair gave Africa a working blueprint: stronger intra-continental trade, aligned public and private financing, and a more active role for national champions. Now the continent’s political and financial actors must act with at least the same urgency shown in Algiers, converting rhetoric into contracts, contracts into construction, and commitment into measurable economic transformation. Only then will IATF 2025 be remembered not just as an exceptional edition, but as the moment Africa accelerated from promise to delivery.
Translated from:
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