CARIBBEAN-St. Kitts and Nevis PM Makes Case for Increased Caribbean-Africa Collaboration.

ALGIERS, Algeria, CMC-The fourth edition of the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2025) opened here on Thursday, with St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew saying that the low level of trade between Africa and the Caribbean is a point of optimism.

“The trade between the Caribbean and Africa is roughly one per cent or less. That is a very, very small percentage,” Drew told a panel of African leaders after the opening ceremony, which was attended by over 3,000 delegates.

“You might look at that and say, ‘Why is it important?’ When I look at a small number like that, I see hope. It is a silver lining. There’s only one place that trade can go. It cannot go down anymore. It is an opportunity to go up. Hence, we should establish this deeper relationship.”

The St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister identified areas where he saw opportunities for African investment in the Caribbean, including emerging technology, agricultural products, and renewable energy.

“The Caribbean has geothermal energy. Kenya excels in harnessing geothermal energy. We have sun, we have wind. Our potential is vast when it comes to the energy space,” Prime Minister Drew said, noting the critical role of tourism to Caribbean economies while also highlighting the absence of a Caribbean-Africa air bridge. Watch video

“To go from the Caribbean to Africa, you have to go north to come back south, and it sometimes takes two to three days. However, in the Caribbean, we have direct flights from Europe and various cities within North America.”

He said it is shorter to fly directly from St. Kitts and Nevis to Algeria than to travel via London, in the United Kingdom.

“Yet, I have direct flights from my country to London, and no direct flights from my country to the African continent. Therefore, there’s a great opportunity for growth in the tourism sector, with Africa having over one billion people and the Caribbean being a premier area for tourism.”

Drew also spoke of the creative industry, saying that the Caribbean region, despite its small size, has “certainly punched above our weight in the creative space,” pointing to the Caribbean as the birthplace of reggae and the steel pan, the only musical instrument invented in the 20th century.

“So it means, therefore, there is so much room for growth, even when it comes to the creatives,” Drew said, noting also the potential in healthcare and sports.

“What I’m basically saying is that there are opportunities in every sphere of our development, because our trade today only represents one per cent with Africa and with global Africa, that will only go up.”

Prime Minister Drew is preparing to take over the revolving six-month chairmanship of the Caribbean regional integration movement, CARICOM, which groups 15 countries.

“I want to bring a message from the Caribbean that we are much integrated, and we are much interested in getting a greater relationship with Africa as the continent and its sixth region.

“This will help us to create opportunities for our people and to write a history, but a history not written by them, but a history written by us, for us, by us, for our own interest,” Prime Minister Drew said.

In his address, Prime Minister Drew noted the historical links between Africa, slavery, and the Caribbean, as well as the contributions of Caribbean leaders, such as Marcus Garvey, to several countries on the continent during the post-colonial period.

“The Caribbean has always been a fundamental part of Pan Africanism,” he said, mentioning the impact of Bob Marley in reggae and George Padme, a Caribbean intellectual who was tasked with helping to set up the Pan African movement within the government of Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister of independent Ghana.

“Hence my presence here is well bona fide,” Drew said, noting that recently, the efforts of the Africa Export-Import Bank (AFreximbank), one of the cosponsors of the fair, have resulted in deeper ties between the Caribbean and Africa.

He stated that Caribbean and African leaders will convene in Ethiopia on Sunday for their second African Union-CARICOM Summit, following the inaugural summit held in 2021.

“But beyond the historical ties, which are critically important, there are beneficial things to be had as a result of the communication and reestablishment of ties between the African continent and its sixth region.”

Prime Minister Drew thanked Afreximbank “for really helping to promote this relationship” and noted the Africa-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum, the most recent of which was held in Grenada in July.

“And at that edition we saw entrepreneurs, business people, investors from the African continent in the Caribbean seeking opportunities to increase trade and the relationship,” he said, adding that the closer Africa-Caribbean ties have been beneficial to his country.

“… we have had the opportunity to interact with companies from here on the African continent, where we are now pursuing investments from Africa in the Caribbean, because the Caribbean, I would say, has tremendous opportunities, and establishing this relationship of trade would create opportunities for all of us.”

Itemising areas where the Caribbean and Africa can build a strong relationship, Prime Minister Drew said he was recently in Nigeria, whose president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, visited the Caribbean and met with leaders from the Organisation of Caribbean States, seeking to deepen ties with the bloc.

“Since establishing this new relationship with Africa, we are now benefiting from the Open University of Tanzania. We’re establishing a deeper relationship with vocational studies in Kenya. We are now seeking to establish greater relationships, I would say, in Ghana. And this, of course, I would say, is the beginning and not the end,” Drew said.

IATF2025 is being held under the theme “From Trade Fairs to Economic Empowerment: An Evolutionary Story”.

Speaking during Thursday’s opening ceremony, Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, said that since its founding in 2018, IATF has proven to be a solid platform for launching winning ideas and initiatives.

It has also forged continental and global partnerships, unlocked critical funding, and visualised unprecedented market opportunities.

IATF2025 brings together 30,000 visitors and buyers, as well as over 52,000 exhibitors from around the world, Oramah said.