The African Union Commission begins the process of validating SME Strategy and Master Plan 2017-2021

Nairobi, Kenya – 10 October 2016. The African Union Commission (AUC) began today the process of validating the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Strategy and Master Plan 2017-2021 during a two-day workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. The objective of the initiative is to develop an African Union strategic framework which will support the implementation of the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA) and Africa’s sustainable economic transformation under Agenda 2063. The workshop was attended by the Senior Industry Officers from the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the Private Sector and Development Partners. AUC and UNECA officials co-chaired the working sessions

The SME Strategy and Master Plan 2017-2021 aims, among others, at improving the continental business environment, increasing business formation, supporting formalization of growth-oriented informal enterprises and startups, increasing SME/Is, MSMEs and entrepreneurs’ participation in regional and global value chains and promoting innovative financing.

Mrs. Treasure Thembisile Maphanga, Director of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the African Union Commission, commended participants for their continuous commitment in supporting the Department of Trade and Industry to contribute to the sustainable structural transformation of the continent through Industrialization. She praised RECs and Experts from various institutions including the European Union, JICA, Traidlinks, UNCTAD, UNECA and Canadian Government who worked closely with the Commission during the last few months by providing comments and inputs in order to enrich the draft SME Strategy and Master Plan. The Director pointed out that Industrialization has recently become a high priority for more countries and more cooperating partners. She echoed the tragedy that migrants are going through while trying to join Europe and the high rate of youth’s unemployment. According to her, the continent’s industrialization appears to be the winning strategy that will accelerate job creation and poverty alleviation for the coming years in addition to support the continent’s sustainable structural transformation.

Mrs. Maphanga referred to some key statistics about the youth population in Africa to highlight the importance of taking advantage of its full potential. “In 2015, 226 million youth aged 15-24 lived in Africa, accounting for 19 per cent of the global youth population.  By 2030, it is projected that the number of youth in Africa will have increased by 42 per cent. Africa’s youth population is expected to continue to grow throughout the remainder of the 21st century, more than doubling from current levels by 2055”, she emphasized. She urged the audience to deepen its reflections and support productive capacities while discussing the issue of youth and start-ups. To harness the youth’s demographic dividend, which is the 2017 theme of the African Union, the Director for Trade and Industry indicated that research has identified some policy actions related to SME Development as key levers. “According to the findings, economic reforms to create more quality jobs with multiplier effects, enhance innovation and productivity of the informal sector and support graduation from small to medium sized enterprises, as well as transformative education to focus on innovation, skills development, science and technology and entrepreneurship are winning strategies”, she underscored.

The SME Strategy and Master Plan identifies initiatives that should be undertaken in the next five years that are aimed at unleashing the potential of SME/Is and MSMEs - the drivers of African economies’ growth to create employment, reduce poverty and promote by ensuring that women, young people and underserved populations, including those in rural areas, benefit from economic growth.

The EABC was represented by Mr. Richard Muteti theb SME focal point

UGANDA HELD THE 17TH EAC REGIONAL JUA KALI SMEs EXHIBITION IN KAMPALA, UGANDA

The East African community Jua Kali / Nguvu Kazi exhibition was started in 1999 at Arusha in Tanzania during the signing of the treaty that established the East African Community .It is  a yearly rotational initiative started by the East African community Secretariat In collaboration with the EAC Partner States through the East African Confederation of Informal Sector Organizations (EA-CISO) . the regional exhibition acts as a platform for carrying out marketing initiatives for the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) products and services which has been branded “JUA KALI /NGUVU KAZI”. This exhibition was the 17^th since its inception

After  the inauguration  of the first regional exhibition  in Arusha (1999), subsequent  exhibitions have been held in Nairobi (2000 and 2001), Kampala (2002), Dar es Salaam (2003) Mombasa (2004), Kampala (2005), Dar es Salaam (2006) ,Nairobi (2007), Kigali (2008), Dar es Salaam (2009), Kampala (2011), Bujumbura (2012), Nairobi (2013) , Kigali (2014), Dar es Salaam (2015) and the 17^th Exhibition in Kampala  in 2016. The exhibition exposes the MSEs to the vast Regional market of over  140 million people and acts as  a platform  availing the Micro and Small Entrepreneurs of East African Region new market for their products and bridging-up the technological gaps between them .

The 17^th EAC Jua Kali/ Nguvu Kazi exhibition was managed by Mr. Richard Muteti Chairman of the COMESA Business Council SMEs Workgroup and also the Regional Project Manager  for the regional initiative and  was held at UMA Grounds Exhibition  Grounds in Kampala, Uganda between  5TH December to 11th  DECEMBER, 2016

East African Legislative Assembly Members from Kenya meets the EAC MSE leaders from Kenyan and the MSE Authority

High level meeting held today between the Kenyan Members of Parliament from the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Micro and Small enterprises Authority (MSEA) and  EAC Regional MSE leaders from Kenya

The meeting held on 21^st April 2016 at the MSEA headquarters discussed the following;

The current status of the MSE and the MSE ecosystem in Kenya presented by the CEO of MSEA Mr. Patrick Mwangi

A brief on the MSE regional harmonization and cross border trade within the East African Region presented by Mr. Richard Muteti, CEO of Kenya National federation of Jua Kali Associations and current Regional Project Manager of the EAC Jua Kali/ Nguvu Kazi Exhibitions

The role of EAC on MSEs

The meeting come up with several recommendations and agreed on a number of ways to promote and develop the small businesses sector both in Kenya and the EAC region

COMESA BUSINES COUNCIL - LOCAL SOURCING for PARTNERSHIPS WORKSHOP takes place in Kenya, from the 23rd to 26th February 2016

theme, “Building Sustainable Sourcing Partnerships between SMEs and Corporate Companies”, 

this event is hosted by COMESA Business Council (CBC) , Kenya Association of Manufacturers and  the Kenya National Federation of Jua Kali Associations

This capacity strengthening exercise is focused on the development of an action plan on strengthening the inclusiveness of SMEs into value chains at firm and sectoral level in Africa. The end result is to create a sustainable sourcing system from indigenous Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that ensures business meet the standards required for them to effectively participate in a competitive supply chain network of corporate companies present in the region.

This will increase local sourcing from small growth enterprises in the agro manufacturing and agriculture sectors by large corporate companies in the COMESA region through training on the Global Food Safety Management Systems, and facilitating the integration of the SMEs into the competitive supply chain network of corporate companies and key regional value chains.

Richard N. Muteti

CEO, Kenya National Federation of Jua Kali Associations

Chairman, COMESA Business Council SMEs Workgroup

1st Annual Regional Agricultural Outlook Symposium and Gala Dinner held in Lusaka Zambia from 4th- 5th November, 2014

The Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI) hosted the 1^st Annual Regional Agricultural Outlook Symposium and Gala Dinner in Lusaka Zambia from 4^th- 5^th November, 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel. The meeting ran under the theme “Anticipating and Responding to the Region’s Policy Challenges in the Decade Ahead,” and aimed at facilitating and fostering ownership in the development and implementation of regional agricultural policy by bringing together an extensive regional cadre of around 200 high level guests and experts from both the public and private sector to discuss issues pertinent to the development of sustainable, coherent, and consistent agricultural policy.

 ReNAPRI is a regionally coordinated group of national agricultural policy research institutes duly established and operating in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, namely; the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. ReNAPRI strives to support the national agricultural policy research institutes in these countries to be centers of excellence that guide and inform national and regional agricultural and food security policy issues. 

ReNAPRI hosted this event in conjunction with the FoodTrade ESA programme and the Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agriculture in Africa (GISAIA) Programme. The symposium aimed to demonstrate ReNAPRI’s acuity in producing empirical evidence for regional agricultural policy formulation and development in line with its mission to;“support  dynamic  collaboration  amongst  national  agricultural  policy  research institutes  to  produce  sustainable  and  high-quality  research,  outreach  and  capacity  development  that promotes national and regional agricultural policy objectives.”

High Level public private dialogue on opportunities and challenges in the iron and steel industry value chains in the East African Community (EAC)

The EAC Secretariat has prioritized investment in iron and steel sector as a strategic value chain that can enable job creation and facilitate socio economic transformation in the region. In this regard it has commissioned a value chain study in order to generate comprehensive information on investment potentials in the sectors, identify policy and other regulatory constrains to the growth of the sectors and propose actions required to stimulate investment and development of the value chain.

To enable consultations in the investment opportunities identified in the study and the proposed policy interventions, the EAC Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development and the Mining Associations organised a National dialogue among stakeholders in the public and private sectors that was held at the Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi on the 11^th November 2014.

During the dialogue, presentations were made by the private sector, key government officials, development partners and other stakeholders highlighting the strategic role of each stakeholder towards the realization of the study recommendations

The forum was attended by stakeholders drawn from the Private Sector, Government Policy makers, Development Partners, Academia, Financial Institutions and other stakeholders.

During the Forum, Mr. Richard N. Muteti, the CEO of the Kenya National Federation of Jua Kali Associations and Chairman of the COMESA Business Council SMEs Workgroup made a presentation on “Opportunities and Challenges in the development of Iron and Steel Metal Fabrication Sector”

The workshop report for the TradeMark East Africa convened SME Platform Exploratory Meeting.

This follows the workshop that was recently held with SME representatives and other BMOs from across the region. The main agenda was to agree if indeed there was a need to set up a regional platform to address SME issues/challenges which included: 

1.            Transport and Logistic services in East Africa and Non-tariff measures affecting growth                 of SMEs.

2.            How to improve SME export capacity and the role of trade facilitation organizations in increasing the competitiveness of export oriented SMEs.

3.            Policy requirements for enhancing competitiveness of SMEs in East Africa.

4.            Role of Innovation and Technology in improving SME Competitiveness. 

Importantly, the participants agreed that there needs to be a structured support programme for addressing SME related issues. They however agreed that there needs to be careful due diligence to ensure duplication of efforts is mitigated. Below please see the recommendations that were adopted at the end of the meeting: 

1.            The participants agreed to the formation of an SME platform with a caution that it must specifically be tailor-made to meet the SME needs at the regional level, arising from each of the EAC Partner States.

2.            The platform should not replace the existing entities, but can spread/share knowledge on best practices, depending on the roles that will be assigned to the platform.

3.            TMEA should facilitate a SME assessment/research to document the mandate of existing SME associations/organizations in the region, identify best practices and also to establish the viability of setting up an SME platform that is sustainable.

4.            It was noted that, the East African Charter in Article 125(4) makes provision for a dialogue framework. However, it was agreed that creating a platform would not threaten the position of the EABC or its activities.

TradeMark East Africa is currently following this up with internal consultations on the best way forward and gather more information on how best to structure and effective advocacy vehicle for the SMEs