Kenya launches digital platforms to turn African embassies into trade deal hubs

By KPC Reporter

Kenya has launched two interconnected digital trade platforms—BiasharaLink and Deal House—to turn African embassies into active hubs for originating and executing cross-border trade and investment deals.

The initiative supports the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The platforms were launched at a high-level reception in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the 39th African Union Summit, attended by senior government officials, AU representatives, diplomats, development partners and private sector leaders.

Speaking at the event, Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, said the initiative signals a shift from traditional diplomacy to results-driven economic engagement.

“BiasharaLink and Deal House represent a new model of economic diplomacy; one that is results oriented,” Dr Mudavadi said.

“It provides a common platform for capturing and organising opportunity. It connects opportunity to execution. Together, the platforms turn diplomacy into delivery.”

The digital systems are designed to operationalise the AfCFTA by closing what officials described as Africa’s persistent “trade execution gap”—the disconnect between policy frameworks and actual commercial deals.

Developed in partnership with Real Sources Africa, and supported by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and Equity Group Holdings, the platforms leverage technology to harness the commercial potential of more than 1,000 African diplomatic missions.

BiasharaLink allows embassies, exporters, investors and other market actors to formally capture, structure and track trade and investment opportunities aligned with AfCFTA priorities.

Deal House serves as the execution layer—validating opportunities, matching credible counterparties, linking them to financing, and pushing transactions toward contract closure.

AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene said the initiative comes at a critical moment for the continent.

“As the world is moving ever closer to supply chain disruptions and increased industrial protectionism, our continent is moving in the opposite direction,” Mene said.

“We have no alternative but to succeed; we have to build a very strong domestic market.”

Real Sources Africa founder and CEO Felix Chege noted that African embassies receive thousands of trade enquiries monthly, but very few translate into actual deals.

“Our embassies collect about 3,500 trade enquiries a month, but the closure rate of deals was less than one per cent,” Chege said.

“Our goal is to build the infrastructure and ecosystems that can drive trade, investment and financing to move this continent forward.”

Equity Group CEO James Mwangi described the platforms as the “day-to-day machinery” needed to convert enquiries into bankable transactions.

The initiative underscores Kenya’s growing role in continental trade integration, aligned with President William Samoei Ruto’s leadership on AfCFTA implementation and digital trade, as African leaders push for practical solutions that deliver jobs, markets and shared prosperity.