Sierra Leone launches training to boost exports under African free trade area

The International Trade Centre (ITC) facilitated a training workshop that shows small businesses how they can increase their trade within the region. The How to Export with the AfCFTA training programme ran 20-23 August.

The training ‘is yet another crucial step in equipping our private sector with the tools and knowledge needed to thrive in this new trading environment,’ Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Fatmata Kargbo said in her opening address.

In the first component, 21 people, mainly from business support organizations, learned how to conduct the workshop themselves. That way they can keeping training more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which form the backbone of Sierra Leone’s economy.

The trainers included representatives from the Sierra Leone Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Chamber of Commerce, the SMEs Development Agency (SMEDA), the Business Professional Women and the Salone Businesswomen Hub.

Julius Kandeh-Kanu, Outreach and Public Education Manager for SMEDA, said the training would ‘build a solid foundation within the ecosystem, eventually positioning our SMEs to compete at an advantageous level.’

Among the participants were representatives of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the ECOWAS Federation of Business Women Entrepreneurs, government, and business and trade groups.

New milestone in Sierra Leone's journey toward AfCFTA integration

Sierra Leone, which ratified the AfCFTA in 2019, is set to join the second phase of the GTI. Minister Kargbo said the workshop aligned with the country's efforts to collaborate with the AfCFTA Secretariat and GTI as they work towards their national objectives by October 2024.

Participants who had already completed ITC online training modules received further training using digital methodology.

Harouna Moussa, ECOWAS Permanent Resident Representative in Sierra Leone, called on national business associations to ‘massively replicate these workshops’. He said the Commission, along with their partners, ‘will be available to provide the needed support’.

The second component of the workshop focused on getting small businesses ready to export within Africa. Fifteen entrepreneurs learned about crucial trade topics such as the rules of origin, logistics challenges and trade finance options.

The workshop was organized by the One Trade Africa (OTA) initiative and funded under the WACOMP programme, in collaboration with Afreximbank, ECOWAS Commission and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The How to Export with the AfCFTA curriculum, co-developed with the financial support of Afreximbank, is part of ITC’s broader work within the 15-nation ECOWAS and has now been rolled out across more than 15 African countries.

About the projects

The One Trade Africa (OTA) initiative supports the accelerated implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).OTA developed this comprehensive training programme in partnership with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). The workshops are being conducted across the continent's five sub-regions, with those in the ECOWAS region delivered in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission. ITC and Afreximbank have also established a complementary free online training platform which has trained over 10,000 SMEs

The West African Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) is financed by the European Union under the 11th European Development Fund. The programme aims to strengthen the competitiveness of West African countries and enhance their integration into the regional and international trading system. ITC implements the programme in cooperation with UNIDO and under the overall guidance of the ECOWAS Commission. The overall objective of the programme is 'to strengthen the competitiveness of West Africa through an enhanced level of production, transformation and export capacities of the private sector in line with regional and national industrial and MSME strategies'.