Intra Africa Trade Summit kicks off today

WALVIS BAY – Speakers and exhibitors from various African countries will convene for the next three days in Swakopmund for the inaugural Discover Namibia Intra Africa Trade Expo and Africa Summit that will start today at the Swakopmund Hotel and Entertainment Hotel.

The three-day Trade Expo & Business Summit is the brainchild of the Africa Economic Leadership Council (AELC), a pan African business organisation co-founded by Swakopmund local authority councillor Heinrich Hafeni and Percy Morapedi Koji from South Africa.

The AELC aims to establish and foster business and entrepreneurial synergies across the African Continent.

In line with the Africa Union (AU) Agenda 2063, the AELC envisions the acceleration of inclusive and sustainable economic leadership in Africa.

According to Hafeni, this year’s summit will be held under the theme ‘Unpacking Trade and Investment Opportunities on the African Continent’.

“The Summit aims to bring together political, business and economic leadership to discuss how best intra-African trade and business can be accelerated under the Africa Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA). The AfCTA came into operation in January 2021 and promotes the formation of a single market for the free movement of goods across 54 African countries,” Hafeni explained.

He said the idea is also to expose Namibian entrepreneurs to the rest of Africa by having speakers of various fields gracing the stage.

The African continent has pronounced itself and is open for business.

However, it is up to us entrepreneurs to take it further and create networks. We want to unpack opportunities that these networks create and tell Namibians and all other African entrepreneurs that there are opportunities outside their relevant countries,” Hafeni said.

He added the speakers are not only from Namibia but from countries such as Japan, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Cameroon, who will discuss sectors such as tourism, banking, agriculture logistics trade and finance, among others.

About 50 exhibitors will participate in the trade expo.

Hafeni says most of the exhibitors are from Namibia, Cameroon and Zimbabwe, while some could not attend due to challenges with their visas.