– Nearly 300 Tunisian export companies and 150 import companies from some 30 sub-Saharan African countries will partake in the 3rd edition of the Tunisia Africa Business Meetings (TABM), hosted on July 2-3 in Tunis at the initiative of the Export Promotion Centre (CEPEX).
These meetings will offer the opportunity to Tunisian companies operating in 10 sectors, including ICT, textile and pharmaceutical and agrofood industries, to meet with the main economic actors in the sub-Saharan African market, said CEPEX CEO Mourad Ben Hassine at a press conference held Friday.
“We are expecting over 2,500 B2B meetings to be held during this edition between Tunisian companies and sub-Saharan importers,” he indicated, adding that the event’s ultimate goal is to boost intra-African trade by making the most of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) agreements.
Tunisian exports to sub-Saharan African countries fell by 1% to TND 1528.4 million in 2023, against TND 1541.6 million in 2022, CEPEX said.
Exports to sub-Saharan African countries accounted for 3.5% of the overall exports.
Cameroon, TABM 2024 Guest of Honour
Cameroon will be the guest of honour of this 3rd edition, given the important number of Cameroonian participants (ministers, professionnals and exporters), besides the fact that the first shipment of Tunisian goods under the AfCFTA agreement was to Cameroon.
Trade between both countries reached TND 122.4 million in 2023, i.e. up 6% compared to 2022. Tunisian exports to Cameroon rose by 10% in 2023.
The 2024 TABM will be organised with the support of the “Promotion of Export Activities to New Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa (PEMA II),” mandated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and initiated by GIZ Tunisia in partnership with the Trade and Export DEvelopment Ministry and CEPEX.
Taking the floor, PEMA II Project Manager Lisa Menucha said this project aims to increase Tunisian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)’s access to new sub-Saharan African markets and to support CEPEX’s efforts to integrate these markets and step up exports.
She pointed out that PEMA II had helped over 700 companies in Tunisia, offering them various types of support to improve their export capacity to sub-Saharan Africa.
These companies have implemented nearly 400 export projects since 2021, generating a turnover of over €30 million in 2023 only and creating 219 new jobs, the official specified.
The Arab-African Trade Bridges (AATB) Programme initiated by the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) is also one of the CEPEX’s partners in the organisation of this event.
