Empowering African entrepreneurs under the AfCFTA: Highlights from Biashara Afrika 2024
“Biashara Afrika has issued us with an important call to action: that we invent a new future for Africa underpinned by the African Continental Free Trade Area (…) To answer this we must ensure that the private sector is in the driving seat to guarantee an inclusive future for small businesses, women and youth,” says Deputy Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, Dorothy Tembo.
H.E. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, opened the second edition of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Business Forum at Kigali Convention Centre, the same site where the landmark agreement was adopted six years ago.
Branded “Biashara Afrika”, which means trade in Swahili, the forum discussed how to unlock the potential of Africa’s private sector through intra-African trade, attracting almost 1,500 delegates from across Africa and globally, including 120 small business exhibitors.
Taking the “Guided Trade Initiative” to the next level
Trading under the AfCFTA is no longer rhetoric and is now taking place through the Guided Trade Initiative. Biashara Afrika launched the initiative’s second phase to include 39 African countries, additional products and trade in services.
The first Biashara Afrika plenary on the “The AfCFTA is a Reality – Daring Intra-African Trade” was opened with a keynote address by the Deputy Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), Dorothy Tembo. She underscored ITC’s focus on making the AfCFTA work for Africa’s small businesses, especially led or owned by women and youth entrepreneurs, through its One Trade Africa initiative.
She said, “one of the biggest lessons is that not all companies have the information, connectivity, or other critical resources to take part in the Guided Trade Initiative (...) we look forward to working with the Secretariat to support small businesses to trade under AfCFTA rules in the second phase of the initiative through coaching, business matchmaking, trade missions and aggregation.”
She also pledged ITC’s continued support in implementing the recently concluded AfCFTA Women and Youth Protocol and the Digital Protocol.
Coordinating a private sector driven AfCFTA
ITC played a key role in discussions on making the AfCFTA work for Africa’s private sector, sharing insights from collaborative work with the AfCFTA Secretariat to map Africa’s private sector, survey business support organizations and define the AfCFTA Agreement in a glossary for small businesses.
One of the event’s highlights was the closed AfCFTA Private Sector Roundtable which brought together leaders from organizations, including the Africa Business Council, All-Africa Association for SMEs, Pan-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Afrochampions, to streamline efforts on private sector engagement.
The AfCFTA Secretariat Secretary General, H.E. Wamkele Mene, introduced the Private Sector Roundtable as a “structured mechanism to engage the African business community by bringing together existing regional and continental business councils, chambers of commerce and business support and constituency-based organizations.”
Looking ahead, ITC will serve as a partner institution to support the work of the platform once formally launched through technical inputs, analysis and research, and services.
Lily Sommer, ITC One Trade Africa Programme Manager, also participated in a plenary session on “The African Private Sector Championing the AfCFTA” and highlighted the critical role of business support organization in enabling African businesses to leverage AfCFTA opportunities, calling for greater coordination between these organizations.
A business forum with small businesses at the forefront
Biashara Afrika provided an unparalleled and supportive environment for small businesses to voice their stories of trading regionally and under the AfCFTA, while showing their “Made in Africa” products.
Five ITC supported entrepreneurs had the opportunity to exhibit and engage in B2B and business-to-government interactions.
This included fairafric, a Ghanaian chocolate company that is about to trade with South Africa under AfCFTA rules made possible thanks to ITC’s collaboration with the Ghana National AfCFTA Coordination Office. Fairafric’s involvement was facilitated by ITC’s One Trade Africa (OTA) initiative, in collaboration with the Alliances for Action team, funded by Netherland Trust Fund.
The other entrepreneurs were members of ITC’s Ye! Community and SheTrades initiatives: Imagine We Publishers presented their Pan-African book collections; Kinunu Wonders its premium Rwandan coffee; IGIRE Fashion Design its fashion creations; and HappyNes its fashion accessories and leather products.
