The Bahamas and Afreximbank Sign Deal For Afro-Caribbean Marketplace

ALGIERS, Algeria – The Bahamas Wednesday signed an agreement with the Egypt-based Africa Export Import Bank (Afreximbank)  for the establishment of an Afro-Caribbean Marketplace on Grand Bahama Island and a logistics centre that will be “the first of its kind”.

Minister for Grand Bahamas, Ginger M. Moxey (CMC Photo)Minister for Grand Bahamas, Ginger M. Moxey, signed the project preparation facility during the fourth Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2025), which wraps up here later on Wednesday.

Moxey told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the centre  will involve all 55 African countries, 20 Caribbean countries and 16 islands of the Bahamas archipelago.

“And this is where you’ll have permanent pavilions representing each of these countries; the best of what the country has to offer in arts, craft, music, food, everything,” Moxey said.

“And so it’s going to be an exciting undertaking, where on Grand Bahama Island, by 2028, we expect to have six million visitors to our island, which means that there will be a huge market for this type of development.”

She noted that Grand Bahama is a 20-minute flight from Miami in the United States, and Carnival Cruise Line has just developed its largest investment ever on Celebration Cay, in Grand Bahama.

“We also have developments coming from Royal Caribbean cruise line as well as MSC, and so we know that Grand Bahama, we consider it to be the gateway to the Caribbean,” she told CMC, noting that the island also has a major transhipment terminal.

“But it’s also going to play a role in our other Caribbean countries, with the ability to sell their products, market their products, and have an available market to purchase their products from everyone from around the world. ”

She said The Bahamas is excited about the Afro-Caribbean marketplace for all Caribbean and African countries “because we have the infrastructure in terms of the free trade zone on Grand Bahama Island, and we also have warehousing and logistic capabilities, transhipment capabilities, we believe that it’s an ideal place to grow your business”.

She noted that her country participated in the fourth AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum in Grenadines in July, where Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell launched the Global Africa Commission.

“And here in Algeria, we (saw) it being chaired now by the former president of Nigeria,” she said, referring to Olesegun Obasanjo.

“And so again, that is very important, because we’re really focusing on the sixth region of Africa, which is the diaspora, and the Caribbean is a part of that,” Moxey said, adding that the  focus will be on opportunities for our entrepreneurs and other small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as business-to-government and business-to-consumer.

“We’re very excited about what’s happening here, very excited about the work that Afreximbank has done,” she said of the bank, which opened its CARICOM office in Barbados in 2023, its first regional office outside of Africa.

Moxey noted that Afreximbank signed its partnership agreement with CARICOM in 2022 and things have moved apace since then. Barbados will also be home to the Afreximbank African Trade Centre, the first located outside the continent.

“You also have St. Kitts and Nevis that will do their Africa museum. And so there’s been a lot of movement in terms of what other Caribbean countries have been doing, but we’re going to be playing our part in the Bahamas.”

The minister noted that Nassau hosted Afrexiumbank’s annual meetings in 2024, with great participation from the Caribbean.

“And the message that I always share is that we are one. We are one with Africa. We are one with our other Caribbean brothers and sisters. And so we want to ensure that we work together to progress, work together for economic prosperity,” Moxey told CMC.

“We’ve gone through years since the Middle Passage of the struggle. So now is the time to use those same oceans that were utilised to bring us from Africa into the region of the Caribbean and other places, to utilise that for trade and economic progress.”

IATF2025 features 2,000 exhibitors and has attracted more than 35,000 visitors from more than 140 countries. It is projected to facilitate trade and investment deals worth over US$44 billion and the virtual platform is connecting exhibitors and visitors throughout the year.

The Bahamian minister said IATF is “a wonderful platform for business development, for business engagement, for collaboration, for learning more about what Africa has to offer and what the Caribbean has to offer.

“So I look at it as an amazing platform. I actually also look at it as what our Afro-Caribbean marketplace in the Bahamas is going to be. It’s going to be IATF, that type of opportunity for businesses and all that, but it’s going to be on a more permanent scale and … it’s going to be more specific to the various countries.”

Moxey said it appeared that people were surprised “at the level of progress and development and opportunities.

“And I think maybe some came looking for something specific, and then realised, oh, wow, there’s, there’s an abundance of opportunities,” she told CMC, noting that her country had a “huge” delegation at the event, which involved people from the chamber of industry.

“What’s important moving forward is the education of it, for others to recognise that it is happening, for others to be prepared for when it happens in Nigeria, in 2027, to start to get ready for that,” she said, referring to IATF2027.

She said IATF2025 showed how Africans and Caribbean people are “willing to partner in these interesting times.

“Because, again, when we hear of tariffs and restrictions in other places, the sky’s the limit here. The opportunities are endless, and it’s time for us to be as one, work together as one and progress as one,” Moxley told CMC.