What Exhibition News Got Right About Africa's Exhibition Market
Exhibition News, one of the global exhibition industry's most respected trade publications, recently featured Exhibit Africa CEO Daniel Mesfin and jwc Chairman Jochen Witt in a major interview exploring why Africa's exhibition market is ready for serious investment and coordinated development. The piece lands as the first Africa Exhibition Forum approaches in December 2026, and it raises questions that every international organiser, venue investor, and government trade body should be thinking about.
Why Africa's Exhibition Industry Is Growing Faster Than Its Infrastructure
The core issue the interview addresses is one that anyone who has exhibited on the continent already knows. Africa's trade show market is expanding rapidly, but the physical infrastructure has not kept pace. Venues across the continent's key markets are operating at or near full capacity. International organisers cite venue limitations as the primary reason they have not expanded their African portfolios further.
The numbers are stark. Africa hosts nearly 20% of the world's population but holds under 2% of global venue capacity. No African venue exceeds 100,000 square metres. The continent's total combined exhibition space is roughly equivalent to a single major German venue. Meanwhile, Africa's imports rose to $781.5 billion in 2025, and manufacturing industries across the continent are growing as countries work to reduce import dependency. The demand for trade shows that connect buyers and sellers is only accelerating.
This is not a problem of demand. It is a problem of supply.
How the Africa Exhibition Forum Plans to Close the Gap
The Africa Exhibition Forum, taking place on 4 and 5 December 2026 at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi, was designed specifically to address this mismatch. Organised by Exhibit Africa and jwc, with backing from UFI and UNIDO, the Forum brings together the people who can actually move the needle: international organisers, venue developers, government stakeholders, and investors.
The Exhibition News interview reveals the thinking behind the Forum's structure. Rather than a large-scale conference, the event is deliberately capped at 80 delegates to keep conversations productive and honest. The speaker lineup reflects that ambition, with confirmed names including Wolfram Diener (Messe Dusseldorf CEO and incoming UFI President), Matt Denton of dmg events, Greg Hitchen of Terrapinn, Naji El Haddad of UFI, Stefan Kratzsch of UNIDO, and Carole Kadenge of the Sarit Expo Centre.
Three priorities frame the programme. Identify and implement quick fixes for the gaps that are costing the continent international events right now. Build agreement on what the industry needs so that high-quality venues get built faster. And send a clear signal to the global market that Africa is a growth opportunity to invest in today, not in ten years.
Why Nairobi Was Chosen Over South Africa for the Inaugural Forum
The choice of Nairobi over Johannesburg or Cape Town is deliberate and strategic. While South Africa is widely considered Africa's most established exhibition market, the Forum was conceived as an East African initiative and later expanded to cover the whole continent.
Kenya is the economic powerhouse of East Africa and a trade gateway to the wider region. Nairobi is also a prime example of the very problem the Forum exists to solve. The city's exhibition venues, KICC and the Sarit Expo Centre, are regularly at capacity, with international events either constrained by available space or unable to launch in the market at all. The Kenyan government has engaged directly with the Forum, with the Kenya Tourism Board supporting and speaking at the event.
Future editions will move to other African countries that are actively supporting exhibition industry development, creating a rotating platform that engages different governments and markets over time.
What the Interview Reveals About Government Engagement and Exhibition Investment
One of the most important themes in the Exhibition News piece is the relationship between governments and the exhibition industry. Across much of Africa, policymakers do not yet recognise exhibitions and business events as economic infrastructure in the way they do roads, ports, or airports. This means exhibition development rarely features in infrastructure budgets, planning frameworks, or trade promotion strategies.
The interview makes it clear that financing is not the fundamental barrier. Capital follows strong business cases. The real challenge is getting governments to understand the role exhibitions play in driving exports, attracting foreign investment, supporting domestic industries, and accelerating the kind of intra-African trade that the AfCFTA is designed to unlock. 54 of the African Union's 55 member states have signed the AfCFTA and 50 have ratified it, but commercial implementation remains uneven. Trade shows are one of the most effective physical platforms for turning that agreement into actual cross-border business.
The Forum's programming is designed to make this case with data, not just advocacy. UNIDO and jwc are presenting findings from a new study examining Africa's trade show and venue landscape, while UFI will share global trends and economic impact research. The goal is to give governments the evidence they need to justify investment and policy support.
Why Exhibit Africa's Growing Role as an Event Organiser Matters
The Exhibition News feature positions Exhibit Africa not just as a stand builder and pavilion partner, but as an increasingly significant player in the business of organising and developing exhibitions on the continent.
Co-organising the Africa Exhibition Forum with jwc is one dimension of this. Launching AGMEX, Ethiopia's first dedicated green mobility and energy exhibition at the AICC in Addis Ababa in February 2027, is another. Daniel Mesfin's dual role as Exhibit Africa CEO and jwc's Managing Director for Africa reflects the convergence of stand building, event organising, and industry development that defines the company's direction.
This matters for international brands and agencies working with Exhibit Africa because it signals a partner whose understanding of the African exhibition market goes deeper than logistics and fabrication. A company that is actively shaping the industry, building relationships with governments and global organisers, and creating new events where gaps exist brings a level of market intelligence and connectivity that a pure stand builder cannot offer.
What Africa's Exhibition Market Looks Like From the Inside
The interview offers a perspective on Africa's exhibition landscape that outsiders often miss. Africa does not function as a single market. It operates as a collection of distinct markets shaped by ethnic, linguistic, and cultural trading networks, many of which drive substantial informal trade outside standard customs channels.
This has direct implications for how exhibitions work on the continent. Trade flows that drive real commerce often do not follow the borders drawn on a map. Understanding these authentic patterns, rather than imposing a European or Middle Eastern exhibition model, is essential to building shows that attract genuine buyers and generate actual business.
At the same time, new trade corridors are emerging as the AfCFTA takes hold. Cross-border events will increasingly surface, and organisers who anchor themselves in key gateway hubs early will capture first-mover advantages. Nairobi, Lagos, Addis Ababa, and Abidjan are the cities to watch.
What COP32 Means for the Timing of the Forum
The Forum's December 2026 timing is strategically aligned with COP32, which comes to Addis Ababa in November 2027. COP32 will bring approximately 50,000 participants to Ethiopia and require the construction of dozens of country pavilions and corporate exhibition spaces in a city where the exhibition infrastructure was built for a different scale.
COP32 will be the most visible test of Africa's exhibition capacity in history. The Forum, eleven months before COP32, is the moment to align the industry on what needs to happen. It is also why Exhibit Africa's presence in Addis Ababa, through both AGMEX and its established exhibition stand building operations, positions the company as a natural local partner for governments and agencies preparing their COP32 presence.
Read the Full Feature and Register for the Africa Exhibition Forum
The full Exhibition News interview with Daniel Mesfin and Jochen Witt is available at exhibitionnews.uk. It is essential reading for anyone involved in exhibition organising, venue development, trade promotion, or event services on the African continent.
The first Africa Exhibition Forum takes place on 4 and 5 December 2026 at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi. Registration is open at africaexhibitionforum.org. For partnership, sponsorship, or exhibition services enquiries, contact Exhibit Africa.
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