International Trade Centre Launches Network of Trainers and Advisors for African SMEs Targeting Global Markets

The International Trade Centre (ITC) has launched a new network of trainers and advisers for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa to facilitate increased export growth and better integration into global markets.

The network will provide an ideal platform for maximizing synergies across business advisory services and extending awareness of the existence of such qualified training, counselling and advisory services in Africa, for Africa.

With the help of the donor community and its partners in the field, ITC has created a strong training and advisory network for SMEs in Africa, covering key aspects of the export business including export management, the export value chain, standards and quality management, packaging, export marketing and branding, and e-solutions. But until now, too few SMEs have known of the assistance available to them.

‘The immediate challenge is to empower the network to play its role and to ensure its sustainability, with the active support of the trade support institutions involved,’ says Aicha Pouye, ITC Director of the Division of Business and Institutional Support.

In the medium term, ITC aims to create and link expert support networks for SMEs across different regions of the continent, using web-based networking technologies.

The foundation of this new African network was laid at a two-day meeting in July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda, attended by ITC experts and a panel of trainers and advisers from the region.

The Kampala meeting was financed by CIDA, Canada’s agency for international development, within the framework of the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP).

This article was originally posted on Africa Venture Capital Platform

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