May 2 Highlights
May 7, 2012, 12:54 pm

An eight-person delegation (including a political analyst, two social media executives, and a blogger) from the ONE campaign learned about the USAID West Africa Trade Hub’s work in the Home Décor and Fashion Accessories sector in Ghana. www.one.org

Business
420 stakeholders from 36 countries – including every shea-producing country in West Africa – participated in “Shea 2012: Shared Value,” the fifth annual shea industry conference in Cotonou, Benin. Benin’s Minister of Commerce and Industry and the U.S. Ambassador opened the conference on April 25. Stakeholders reached consensus on and launched a program to ensure shea nut quality across West Africa and an initiative to increase the use of shea-based cocoa butter equivalents in chocolate in the U.S.  Bloomberg news service, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio France International, Voice of America and national print and broadcast media in Benin reported on Shea 2012, bringing news of the conference to millions around the world. www.globalshea.com

More than 250 shea industry stakeholders participated in two days of training preceding the fifth annual shea industry conference in Cotonou, Benin. Topics included access to finance, marketing and branding, cosmetics formulation and shea tree promotion.

More than 70 shea businesses, service providers, buyers and traders participated in over 400 meetings during a business-to-business event organized during the fifth annual shea conference, “Shared Value,” in Cotonou, Benin.

Basket weavers in Ghana are busy filling orders from buyers in the U.S. and Europe after receiving market linkages assistance from the USAID Trade Hub. The Trade Hub worked with basket weaving groups in Bolgatanga in northern Ghana to follow up on production of the baskets. More than 600 women and 250 men are involved in the groups and the orders were the first they had received in a year, they said. www.africa-now.org

3 fashion designers and 1 bead designer-manufacturer from Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia and Ghana showcased their designs with assistance from the USAID Trade Hub at Origin Africa, a trade show held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The companies made several positive contacts and sold out their products; 2 established distributor agreements for their products in east Africa. www.sourceafrica.com

Transport
More than 150 stakeholders from across West Africa at a regional conference on Joint Border Posts in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The event featured the introduction of a new source book on the operations of Joint Border Posts – which compiles best practices in the operations of the posts. Stakeholders are seeking ways to increase the efficiency of the operations of the Joint Border Posts, which are costly to build, said USAID Trade Hub participants. www.borderlesswa.com

The Borderless Alliance presented the latest data on checkpoints, bribes and delays across West Africa to 50 stakeholders at the fifth annual shea conference in Cotonou, Benin. The team also organized a panel discussion on supply chain logistics in the shea sector which included major exporters of shea nuts and butter in West Africa. www.borderlesswa.com
 
Business Environment
52 stakeholders in Cote d’Ivoire participated in a Borderless Alliance Breakfast to discuss transport and logistics issues and the upcoming Borderless conference, “Transforming Trade,” which is being held in Abidjan, May 15-17. www.borderlesswa.com



April 26 Highlights
April 30, 2012, 12:39 pm

Business
More than 350 professionals in the cosmetics industry met representatives of six shea companies from Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, and the Global Shea Alliance at in-cosmetics, one of the world’s largest cosmetics industry events, in Barcelona, Spain. Major cosmetics companies – Revlon, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson – met the Global Shea Alliance at the event. Requests for other ingredients sourced in West Africa were also made, including baobab oil. www.globalshea.com

Two equipment manufacturers from Asia confirmed their participation in the African Cashew Alliance’s World Cashew Expo 2012. The exhibition of processing machinery, input and service providers, and national cashew associations will be held during the 7th ACA Annual Conference in Cotonou, Benin, September 17-20. The first World Cashew Expo took place at the 2011 ACA Conference, with one exhibitor receiving so much demand for its products that it was forced to stop taking orders; another exhibitor is planning to open an office in West Africa to better serve the demand it discovered. www.africancashewalliance.com

17 stakeholders in Cote d’Ivoire, including representatives of the Côte d’Ivoire Chamber of Commerce and private sector, toured the new AGOA Resource Center in Abidjan during a USAID Trade Hub work visit to the center, which was launched in March. www.agoatoolkit.com

Transport
12 business executives in Ghana participated in a Borderless Alliance dinner in Accra to discuss advocacy efforts to increase trade across West Africa and “Borderless 2012: Transforming Trade,” the first Borderless conference scheduled to take place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, May 15-16, 2012. The executives, representing major transport and logistics firms in Ghana and large manufacturers that compete regionally, said they would provide data to improve understanding of the barriers to regional trade. In February, the World Bank reported that Africa loses billions in lost trade opportunities due to trade barriers. www.borderlesswa.com

Business Environment
The Government of Côte d’Ivoire announced that it would provide $40,000 in sponsorship for the first Borderless conference, “Borderless 2012: Transforming Trade.” The conference will bring stakeholders from across West Africa to Abidjan for two days of discussions on increasing trade across the region, May 15-16.  Additional support is expected from private sector stakeholders. More than 50 stakeholders from across West Africa have registered for the conference. www.borderlesswa.com



April 19 Highlights
April 23, 2012, 4:39 pm

From December 2011 to March 2012, the USAID Trade Hub facilitated $15.9 million in exports from West Africa’s apparel, cashew, shea, handcrafts, and specialty foods sectors, creating 2,065 jobs (1,085 filled by women). The Trade Hub launched three new AGOA Resource Centers during that period in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Niger, with partners at the chambers of commerce in each country, taking the total to 19 across the region providing businesses with practical information on trade and investment. At six international trade shows, the Trade Hub assisted 32 companies in making 515 buyer linkages. A cashew cluster finance scheme launched in 2011 was expanded this quarter and stakeholders in other sectors are seeking to replicate the approach. Stakeholders in transport and logistics are also seeking to implant a Border Information Center at the Benin-Nigeria border after the success of the center launched at the Ghana-Togo border. Finally, a breakthrough in road governance was achieved in Togo, which eliminated checkpoints along its national highway after intensive awareness raising and advocacy. The Trade Hub submitted its 16th quarterly report on April 15.

Business
A Chinese company has joined the African Cashew Alliance, the first company from the country to do so. The company is interested in sourcing raw nuts from Africa for processing and would like to organize a field visit in the near future. This represents growing interest from China in the African cashew industry and acknowledgment of ACA’s worldwide reputation as an essential partner for doing cashew business in Africa. The ACA now has 135 members. www.africancashewalliance.com

The Vice President of Ghana and the Prime Minister of Benin will open Shea 2012: Shared Value on April 25 in Cotonou. More than 350 stakeholders are expected to participate in the fifth annual event. www.globalshea.com

Transport
Cargo volumes will double this year – from 130,000 to 260,000 tons – on freight-carrying boats using the Volta Lake to move goods north and south in Ghana and increase 10-fold over the next four years, stakeholders said at the first Volta Lake Stakeholders Conference. The USAID Trade Hub participated in the event, which resulted in stakeholders forming the first Volta Lake Users Group. For various products, notably cement, the Volta Lake corridor  is critical to price competitiveness. www.borderlesswa.com

Business Environment
46 stakeholders in Nigeria participated in the launch of the Borderless Alliance in a workshop held in Lagos. Presentations by the National Facilitation Committee and the Borderless Alliance presented the rationale for the private sector-led alliance to increase trade across the region. The first Borderless conference, “Transforming Trade,” was also promoted during the event.

Finance
A Nigerian cashew processing company has completed processing its first 800 metric tonnes of raw cashew nut, which it was able to purchase with a $625,000 loan from Nexim Bank, a partner to the Trade Hub-developed Nigerian Cashew Cluster Finance Scheme. The company has 320 workers up from 150 persons one year ago thanks to the cashew finance scheme. www.borderlesswa.com



April 12 Highlights
April 14, 2012, 4:20 am

Business
The world’s leading shea specialty fats makers – AAK, Loders Croklan and Wilmar – the world’s leading users of shea in cosmetics products – L’Oréal and The Body Shop – and development partners, including public sector stakeholders such as the Port of Cotonou and ECOWAS – are supporting the fifth annual shea industry conference, “Shea 2012: Shared Value.” More than 200 stakeholders from 28 countries have registered for the event, which will feature Nestlé’s head of responsible sourcing and Ghana’s Vice President at its opening ceremony. www.globalshea.com

Seven cashew industry stakeholders from Guinea Bissau, Senegal and The Gambia (including six women) visited juice co-operatives in Benin and Ghana and an Italian juice processing equipment manufacturer in Ghana in an assessment of cashew apple juice potential in West Africa. The stakeholders discussed cashew apple juice processing and packaging and learned best practices from experienced processors; they also bought several pieces of equipment. While cashew apple juice is popular in Brazil and India, its production for consumers in West Africa is virtually unknown – and presents an important market opportunity, stakeholders said. www.africancashewalliance.com

Seven shea companies from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal are set to participate in Europe’s largest cosmetics trade show, in-cosmetics, in Barcelona with Trade Hub assistance. In-cosmetics attracts tens of thousands of professional buyers. The use of shea in cosmetics has grown from about 500 tons annually 10 years ago to approximately 10,000 tons last year. The increase has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for women’s groups across West Africa. www.globalshea.com www.in-cosmetics.com

Transport
The Trade Hub provided logistical support and background information on issues affecting regional trade to a team commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to film a documentary on Intra-African trade. The Trade Hub organized meetings with key trade and facilitation stakeholders such as Ghana Customs, Ghana Immigration, Ghana Shipper's Authority, transport operators and managers of the Port of Lomé in Togo. The documentary will showcase the potential and challenges of Intra-African trade to policy makers and stakeholders including the African Union heads of State Summit to be held in July 2012 in Malawi. www.borderlesswa.com

25 investors at the Africa Investment Forum in Accra, Ghana, learned about the USAID Trade Hub’s work to reduce the costs of transport and increase efficiency in the movement of goods and vehicles across the region. Ghana’s Vice President John Mahama opened the Forum and visited the Trade Hub’s booth at the event.

A new, simpler and less easily forged ECOWAS Brown Card – which indicates that a vehicle and its driver carry appropriate insurance when traveling across borders in West Africa – is now in use in West Africa. The Trade Hub participated in a workshop in Accra, Ghana, where the Brown Card was introduced and discussed. www.borderlesswa.com

Business Environment
A Border Information Center at the Benin-Nigeria border would reduce delays and increase the efficiency of the border’s operations, stakeholders agreed during workshops to discuss implanting a Center at the border. The new Center would be modelled on the pilot trade information service center launched in August 2011 on both sides of the Ghana-Togo border. www.borderlesswa.com

Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry has confirmed that she will participate in the first Borderless conference, “Transforming Trade,” in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, May 15-16, 2012. The minister is a vocal advocate for increased regional trade. More than 30 people have registered for the event, which is being sponsored by the Côte d’Ivoire Minister of Transport. www.borderlesswa.com



April 5 Highlights
April 9, 2012, 4:09 pm

The Trade Hub published Tradewinds, its monthly newsletter, featuring an inside look at the life of long-haul truck drivers and a report on the Borderless road governance caravan in Cote d’Ivoire, including several multimedia reports. A video on the participation of the AfricaNow! network at the New York International Gift Fair, a report on the cashew finance cluster scheme in Nigeria and a preview of the upcoming Borderless 2012: Transforming Trade conference in Abidjan are also included. www.watradehub.com/tradewinds

Business
38 shea stakeholders in Nigeria participated in a workshop to preview the Shea 2012: Shared Value conference set for April 23-26 in Cotonou, Benin. More than 180 people have registered for the event, which will feature two days of workshops on successful exporting, a business-to-business forum, the general assembly meeting of the Global Shea Alliance and field trips to industry sites across Benin. Space is still available but filling fast – register at www.globalshea.com.

U.S. Ambassador Phillip Carter III and Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Commerce, Mr. Dagobert Banzio, inaugurated the new AGOA Resource Center in Abidjan. 120 stakeholders participated in the opening of the Center, which featured presentations by the USAID Trade Hub’s handcrafts and speciality foods advisors. www.agoatoolkit.com

Transport
Ghana has completed construction of 11 of 14 planned weighbridges as part of its efforts to meet a July 2012 deadline set by ECOWAS for all countries to implement regional axleload weight regulations. The National Facilitation Committee discussed this and other transport and trade developments at its first quarterly meeting in Accra.  www.borderlesswa.com 

Regional integration would be promoted and transport made more efficient and less costly if regional economic communities, including ECOWAS, establish transport coordination committees, states support and reinforce corridor management committees and public and private stakeholders establish and support transport observatories, agreed stakeholders to the World Bank’s Sub Saharan African Trade Policy Program in Mombasa, Kenya. 76 stakeholders participated in the SSATP workshop, including corridor management organizations, regional economic communities, freight forward and shippers’ organizations, transport associations, port authorities and development partners. www.borderlesswa.com



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