The African Import-Export Bank (Afreximbank) is teaming up with International Trade Centre (ITC) to help businesses make the most of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Afreximbank in a statement by its Manager, Communications & Event (Media Relations), Amadou Labba Sall, on Wednesday stated that it is teaming up with ITC to train small-business owners and young entrepreneurs in Africa to trade with other African countries as part of the new AfCFTA.
The bank explained that the training programme, ‘How to Export within the AfCFTA’, is being launched as the new free-trade area comes on stream and amid the economic strain of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Afreximbank, the training will give business owners the knowledge and skills they need to engage effectively in cross-border trade under terms of the emerging free-trade area for Africa. Intra-African trade is structurally low at 15 per cent (compared to Europe at nearly 70 per cent, for example), and the AfCFTA will open a market of 1.2 billion people.
“Against the backdrop of the current COVID-19 health and economic crisis, African micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) need support to take full advantage of the continental market,” ITC acting Executive Director Dorothy Tembo said.
“Through this partnership, African businesses will have the opportunity to learn, plan and succeed in growing their business by taking full advantage of the AfCFTA.”
Managing Director of Afreximbank’s Intra-African Trade Initiative, Kanayo Awani, said that the initiative was necessary because increasing intra-African trade through exports of goods and services by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was the cornerstone of the AFCFTA.
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“It signals an optimal strategy to aid businesses and develop regional value chains, which have become more relevant with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.
“Our joint initiative with ITC is a proactive way to support the implementation of the AfCFTA and to provide SMEs with the tools to respond more effectively to the economic and social challenges presented by the global pandemic” Ms Awani added.
The training programme, run via ITC’s popular multilingual SME Trade Academy platform, under the auspices of the Afreximbank Academy (AFRACAD), will be piloted in Nigeria, Rwanda, and Côte d’Ivoire and be launched in close collaboration with trade promotion organizations of the three selected pilot countries.
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