All set for IATF 2021
Organised by Afreximbank in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the second Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021) will take place in Durban from November 15 to 21, 2021. Ahead of the event,
The Herald Finance & Business (HB) spoke to Zimtrade chief executive officer Allan Majuru (AM) to find out more about the event and what Zimbabwe stands to gain.
HB: Can you give us a brief summary of what IATF2021 is all about and how it came to be?
AM: The Intra-Africa Trade Fair (2021) is a continent-wide programme designed to improve linkages between buyers and sellers on the continent. It serves as a marketplace that will bring together continental and global buyers and sellers.
The second edition of IATF, which follows the successful one held in Egypt in 2018, allows for stakeholders to share trade, investment, and market information as well as trade finance and trade facilitation solutions designed to support intra-African trade and African economic integration.
The programme will start with a trade and investment conference that will feature highprofile speakers and panellists addressing topical issues relating to trade, trade finance, payments, trade facilitation, trade-enabling infrastructure, trade standards, industrialisation, regional value chains and investment.
An exhibition will run throughout the days of the event business-to-business and business-to-government partnerships will be established.
HB: What is the relationship between this event and the now in place AfCFTA?
AM: IATF is an initiative that supports the implementation of the AfCFTA through facilitating for improved linkages between businesses on the continent. As you recall, the idea of the AfCFTA agreement is to create a single market for African goods by eliminating obstacles that make it difficult for African businesses to trade with each
other.
However, that is one component in the entire matrix as it is also important to ensure that products developed in one African market are also visible in another African market. That is where the IATF seeks to address the gap between businesses in African countries.
HB: In 2018, a similar event was held in Cairo Egypt, what can we expect to be different at this year’s event especially considering its coming when AfCFTA is now operational?
AM: The IATF2021 is coming at a time when businesses in Zimbabwe and abroad were affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and this changes approaches to this year’s event compared to 2018. Our approaches are looking at how we can leverage the changing business environment and consumer dynamics to capitalise on African markets.
First, one of the lessons that the pandemic taught us was to focus on regional markets as they are easily accessible and may cushion local companies from the shocks that take place in international markets. We are focusing on markets in the region, with some businesses engaging physically, whilst others will meet their counterparts through
virtual platforms.
So, we are looking forward to seeing participating companies taking advantage of all available opportunities and leads to establish a much stronger footprint in African markets.
This of course will dovetail with the market diversification objectives set by the National Export Strategy that was launched by President Mnangagwa in 2019.
We have also made strides in improving the structure of participating companies at this year’s event, apart from raising the number of participating businesses to 30.
These companies are drawn from sectors such as horticulture, processed foods, construction and engineering, agricultural inputs and implements, clothing and textile, packaging and printing, arts and crafts, and electricals.
This time around, we have youth-led and women-led businesses, small businesses and these are drawn from key sectors such as processed foods and horticulture.
We also have businesses in the services sector that are participating at the event. This structure of participating companies will complement other activities that have been put into place to ensure Zimbabwe’s exporters will take full advantage of the event.
HB: What makes IATF unique compared to the other trade fairs that we have been to as a country? We are currently exhibiting at Dubai Expo.
AM: Whilst IATF offers unique opportunities for Zimbabwean companies to explore the rest of the African continent, the event does not compete with other trade promotion programmes but rather, complement them. As discussed earlier, the current focus is to ensure Zimbabwean exporters take full advantage of opportunities available in regional
markets.
We have a comparative and competitive advantage in several products, which makes it easy for our products to compete against those coming from overseas. Thus, by bringing buyers close to our exporters, there is room for local companies to develop leads to supply the rest of the continent.
The continent-wide trade fair, whose broad goal is to boost trade among African countries, is expected to benefit Zimbabwe’s exporters by unlocking business partnerships with buyers from across the continent. This is going to make it easy for the country to penetrate non-traditional markets, which will go a long way in diversifying
export markets.
HB: As a follow-up, what are some of the major activities at IATF2021?
AM: The major activity for companies is the trade exhibition where they will directly meet with some of the top buyers from African countries. There are conferences and other events that have also been lined up to discuss best approaches to unlock businesses in the continent. Business-to-business meetings are being organised to strengthen
synergies.
HB: IATF2021 comes on the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated challenges of getting products across the world. Do you think trading amongst African countries will see less disruptions as seen globally?
AM: Covid-19 disrupted international trade in terms of both volumes and commodity prices, which resulted in significant negative impact, particularly on small and medium sized businesses.
Restricted movement of people, and in some extreme cases cargo, made it difficult for businesses to produce and export. Without exports, some enterprises struggled to remain in business as they continued to meet overhead expenses that were not being covered by sales or profits.
In the midst of that challenge, regional markets and other markets in Africa remained easy to access compared to international markets. This is because most countries in the region remained open to trade and were looking for alternative suppliers within the continent.
As countries have started experiencing the benefits of importing from other African nations, projections are that such a trend will continue to grow.
With strategic partnerships between countries and between businesses themselves, we are going to see less disruptions as what was experienced in major global markets.
HB: Let’s now come to the Zimbabwe delegation, South Africa, the host, says at least 80 companies will participate. How many will take part from Zimbabwe and are you happy with that number?
AM: ZimTrade has facilitated for 34 companies to attend the event and this is a bigger group compared to the number that participated in 2018. There are also other companies that are participating independently, and the number of Zimbabwean companies will go beyond 45 if we consider them.
Whilst we would have wanted to go with a much bigger group, there were limitations to space and issues around Covid-19 meant we had to consider the number of participating companies. However, we are confident that the participating companies will represent their sectors well.
One thing we need to understand is that IATF is a platform to showcase the country more than individual businesses and participating companies will demonstrate that Zimbabwe is a competitive source market for products.
HB: Is Zimbabwe going there as one delegation or it will be each firm on its own? In short, will Zimbabwe have a stand there?
AM: As the trade development and promotion agency, ZimTrade is leading the development of the Zimbabwe Pavilion that will house companies exhibiting under its banner. There are other companies that will be participating independently and will also complement our efforts in raising Zimbabwe’s flag high.-The Herald
