A training boot camp, titled “Export Readiness for Youth-Led SMEs under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)” convened trainers from East African business support organizations to enhance their capacity for supporting young entrepreneurs in trading across borders under AfCFTA.
It aimed at equipping youth with the essential skills and knowledge needed to take advantage of export opportunities under the AfCFTA.
The three-day camp covered various key topics such as navigating the AfCFTA protocols, understanding export procedures, leveraging digital platforms for exports, and utilizing trade information resources.
The training exposed young business leaders to:
- AfCFTA Protocols: Understanding the fundamentals of AfCFTA, its trade facilitation, tariffs, and rules of origin. Currently, 48 out of 54 countries have signed the agreement with 89% of the signatories making ratifications of the agreement.
- Export Readiness: Assessing business readiness to export and identifying target markets and customers. Under the component, enterprises will be able to assess their capacity to comply with requirements across countries and with international standards.
- Market Access Tools: Navigating AfCFTA trade portals and leveraging digital tools for successful exporting. The freely available online tools are designed to enable African enterprises to develop their export skills to take advantage of the AfCFTA market.
- Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania have commenced trading under the AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative (GTI). Ms. Happiness Nyiti from AJA Ltd shared her success story of exporting more than 20 tonnes of sisal fibres to Ghana under the AfCFTA trade.
The East African Business Council (EABC), in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC) organised the training as part of the EU-East African Community (EAC) Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP) II funded by the European Union.
