From September 4 to 10, Algiers will host the fourth edition of the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2025). Officially, it’s billed as a major economic event, expected to attract over 35,000 visitors from 80 countries and 2,000 exhibiting companies.
In reality, however, many observers view the event as a carefully staged public relations effort by Algeria’s military-backed regime, aimed at polishing President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s international image while diverting attention from the country’s deepening social and economic crises.
By personally presiding over a special preparatory meeting, Tebboune has effectively turned the IATF into a vehicle for self-promotion. The regime is pushing the narrative of Algeria as a “driving force of African integration,” even as the country remains one of the most closed to foreign investment and heavily reliant on oil and gas revenues.
The participation of a few African leaders, such as Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani and former Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, amounts to little more than window-dressing diplomacy.
Behind the smiles and official speeches, Tebboune’s Algeria offers little in the way of a positive example: an undiversified economy, ongoing political repression, a steady brain drain, and a disillusioned youth desperate to leave the country. Few still believe in the regime’s promises.
The official rhetoric surrounding the trade fair fails to conceal the truth: under pressure from powerful military figures like General Saïd Chengriha, Tebboune is using the IATF as a smokescreen to hide the glaring failures of his governance.
In the end, IATF 2025 in Algiers is unlikely to be remembered as a turning point for Africa, but rather as yet another PR stunt by a regime on the defensive, more concerned with its international image than with addressing the real suffering of its people.