The new online marketplace is designed to create business opportunities for African SMEs, general merchants and service providers on the quest for growth and expansion by creating visibility and accessibility to African buyers and suppliers.
Described as "a one-stop-shop for all things African", the decision to form the platform was informed by the availability of vast opportunities for business among African countries, most of which had not yet been fully harnessed, according to Afrimart’s president and founder Fredrick Igbinedion.
“Africa is by far one of the lowest in terms of continental or regional trade around the world with intra-Africa trade estimated at 11%,” said Igbinedion, speaking at the launch event held on the sidelines of this year’s Afreximbank Annual Meeting (African-Export-Import Bank) and its 25th anniversary celebrations in Abuja, Nigeria.
Igbinedion observed that Afrimart takes a cue from the ongoing African industrialisation strategy by African governments and is an essential build up towards the recently launched AfCFTA (Africa Free Trade Agreement) all gearing towards building a prosperous continent with shared wealth.
“We believe that transforming African economies for the better is a shared role, and Afrimart is offering an access to market solution that is key in fostering trade within Africa which will, in turn, catalyse the continent’s industrialisation drive through existing and emerging business opportunities,” Igbinedion said.
“Suffice to say, intra-Africa trade is fraught with many roadblocks which can be surmounted by the proper will, planning and deployment of appropriate technological infrastructure to support this endeavour.”
"Through Afrimart, we are deploying a world-class highly robust and scalable platform that will become Africa's global marketplace.”
John Kamara, Afrimart’s director and co-founder added: “Afrimart is engineered to create a pool of trusted indigenous African suppliers, give them visibility of their products and services, and partner them with merchants across the continent and beyond by facilitating seamless interaction among them, offering best payment platform options, connection to efficient logistic operators, performance and location-based lead generations, guaranteed security and geo region product push among other features.”
According to Kamara, the beneficiaries of the intra-Africa trade catalysed by Afrimart will include general SMEs, African manufacturers, producers, processors and wholesalers of all classes of goods, commodity traders, farmers, artisans, import and export companies, logistics companies and service providers, among others.
