Gabriel Edgal Urges Ghanaian Businesses to Boost Intra-African Trade at IATF2025

Gabriel Edgal, IATF Ambassador and Chairman of Oakwood Green Africa, called on Ghanaian businesses to actively participate in the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2025) to strengthen commercial ties and unlock cross-border opportunities, emphasizing the need for Africa to move from rhetoric to actionable intra-continental trade. Speaking at the IATF2025 Ghana Business Engagement Session in Accra, part of continent-wide roadshows, Edgal highlighted the Fair, set for September 4-10, 2025, in Algiers, Algeria, expecting over 2,000 exhibitors, 35,000 visitors, and $44 billion in trade and investment deals.

Edgal stressed that Africa’s potential must translate into action, noting, “Potential opens the door, but only solutions, products, and partnerships walk through it.” He cited examples of progress, such as Rwanda’s dairy trade with Kenya, Senegal’s vaccine exports to Mali, and Zambia’s poultry trade with the DRC, as evidence of African businesses building regional value chains. He urged Ghanaian producers and buyers across industries to leverage IATF2025, stating, “This is a marketplace created for us, by us. The solutions we seek may already exist across the border.”

Highlighting Ghana’s role as a transshipment hub for West, Central, and Southern Africa, Edgal encouraged logistics, financial services, insurance, transport, agriculture, and creative sector players to enable regional trade. The session, themed “Harnessing Regional and Continental Value Chains: Accelerating Africa’s Industrialisation and Global Competitiveness under the AfCFTA,” featured representatives from the AfCFTA Secretariat, Afreximbank, Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Ghana Chamber of Commerce, Association of Ghana Industries, and Volkswagen Ghana.

Attendees learned about Afreximbank’s trade tools, including the Mansa due diligence platform, Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), and Africa Trade Gateway, designed to streamline transactions, enhance transparency, and connect businesses to financing and markets. Edgal noted Oakwood Green Africa’s role as an Afreximbank partner in helping businesses access these tools, urging SMEs and corporations to engage.

IATF2025, hosted by Afreximbank with the African Union and AfCFTA Secretariat, is Africa’s largest trade and investment platform, fostering strategic partnerships, market diversification, and industrialization through intra-African value chains.

Source: African Publicity