On the sidelines of African heads of states, Kenya announced the launch of BiasharaLink and Deal House, two interconnected digital trade platforms designed to empower African embassies as transaction-enabling hubs for trade and investment, marking a new phase of digitally driven economic diplomacy across the continent. The digital platforms, developed by Real Sources Africa – a pan-African trade-infrastructure institution which serves as Kenya’s AfCFTA Trading Company, were designed to close the continent’s trade execution gap. Leveraging technology, the platforms seek to harness the commercial potential of more than 1000 diplomatic missions across the continent – transforming traditional embassies into proactive originators and facilitators of commercially viable deals. The initiative places particular emphasis on empowering SMEs and women-led businesses to access new markets, execute cross-border transactions and scale their participation in intra-African commerce. The event in Addis Ababa comes on the eve of a pre-AU Summit committee convened to review progress and assess key milestones in the implementation of the AfCFTA, with trade execution a priority.

Source: News Business Ethiopia February 18, 2026 20:58 UTC