150 young Nigerien entrepreneurs learned about exporting to international markets during the first Young Entrepreneurs Program organized by the U.S. Embassy in Niamey, Niger. The event served as a platform for entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and learn from successfully established Nigerien businesses who gave advice on how to become a successful entrepreneur. USAID Trade Hub AGOA Services Manager Abou Fall presented practical aspects of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. www.agoatoolkit.com 

 

 

A special unit of 350 officers in Cote d’Ivoire – including Police, Gendarmerie, Customs, Forestry, and the Army – has begun removing illegal barriers, tracking corrupt agents, and sensitizing transport stakeholders on road governance issues. “The time for talk has passed – now it’s time for action,” said Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister of the Interior Hamed Bakayoko as he launched  special unit to remove illegal checkpoints. The government established the unit after learning of the scope of the problems from USAID Trade Hub-UEMOA reports on road governance. The Abidjan-Bamako and Abidjan-Ouagadougou corridors were added to the monitoring initiative in 2010, and reports showed Cote d’Ivoire with levels of bribery and delay considerably higher than her neighbors. www.borderlesswa.com 

 

24 senior customs officers in Ghana learned about the USAID Trade Hub-UEMOA road governance initiative and the extent of bribes and delays that occur at checkpoints in the country and across the region during a Trade Hub presentation at a training workshop in Kpetoe. The officers lauded the Border Information Center launched by the USAID Trade Hub in August with public and private sector stakeholders at the Ghana-Togo border. www.borderlesswa.com 

 

The Acting Commissioner of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Major General Carl Modey (pictured), said his service is adopting several recommendations proposed by the Border Information Center, a USAID Trade Hub initiative launched with private and public sector stakeholders in August at the Ghana-Togo border. The Authority has identified space for an “Express Lane” to expedite clearance of goods for regional destinations, make the list of companies registered under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme available at the border, and push for GCNet to extend its GPS tracking of transit trucks to Aflao, at the Ghana-Togo border. www.borderlesswa.com

 

 

The Ghana Export Promotion Authority has awarded a USAID Trade Hub-assisted handcrafts company as “Exporter of the Year.” Geolicrafts, which produces popular djembe drums, was recognized for its export excellence in a ceremony at State House in Accra. www.africa-now.org  

 

 

 

A regional company that trades assorted food items, including gari, palm oil, palm kernel, pepper, maize, coconut and fresh tomatoes between Ghana and Nigeria, praised the Border Information Center initiative after it moved a shipment across the Ghana-Togo border without experiencing any harassment. The company asked the USAID Trade Hub, which launched the center with stakeholders in August, to open a similar center at the Benin-Togo and Benin-Nigeria border crossings. www.borderlesswa.com  

 

Root Capital, an international social investment fund, has placed an investment officer at the USAID Trade Hub’s Dakar office in Senegal. Launched in 1999, Root Capital provides capital, delivers financial training, and strengthens market connections for small and growing businesses that build sustainable livelihoods and transform rural communities. www.rootcapital.org  

 

U.S. Ambassador Marianne Myles inaugurated Cape Verde’s second AGOA Resource Center with the USAID Trade Hub AGOA Services Manager and the president of the Cape Verde Investment Promotion Agency, which is housing the center in Mindelo. Meanwhile, 50 export company managers in Cape Verde participated in a workshop on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) at the 15th Cape Verde International Trade Fair. www.agoatoolkit.com 

 

Representatives from four Malian shea unions met and discussed shea business issues with retailers, cosmetics producers, research institutions and packaging companies in Senegal during visits facilitated by the USAID Trade Hub. The exchange visit was organized after Mali stakeholders learned new business approaches and techniques during a similar exchange visit to Ghana last year. www.globalshea.com 

 

The Global Shea Alliance connected to hundreds of stakeholders in the sustainable cosmetics industry at the annual Society for Cosmetic Scientists meeting in Coventry, England. The two-day event featured more than 900 stakeholders and more than 150 exhibitors. www.globalshea.com 

 

The USAID Trade Hub has published a new guide to trucking in Mali, the Mali Truck Drivers Guide. More than 65 transport stakeholders participated in an event to release the new guide. Meanwhile, a Trade Hub team met with transport stakeholders in Burkina Faso to collect information that will become the Truck Drivers Guide to Burkina Faso. The Trade Hub published the Truck Drivers Guide to Ghana last year in close collaboration with transport stakeholders in Ghana. The guide promotes professionalism in trucking. Truck drivers who follow the laws and drive trucks that are roadworthy are much less likely to be harassed at checkpoints along primary trade corridors in West Africa.  www.borderlesswa.com

 

A traveler in Mali reported an incident with traffic police – and said her Borderless bumper sticker discouraged harassment in the encounter. The police officer told the driver that the Borderless campaign had impressed upon him the importance of free movement – and increased trade – across West Africa. He said since her vehicle had the Borderless sticker, he would only issue her a warning for an alleged infraction. www.borderlesswa.com 

 

 

A fourth cashew processor in Nigeria is joining the Nigerian Cashew Cluster Finance Scheme and Ecobank and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank pledged to work together to address the companies’ finance needs, the Trade Hub learned during a workshop in Lagos. The scheme, launched last year, has led to loans to two of three participating cashew processing companies, preserving more than 300 jobs as a result. The Nigerian Export-Import Bank has pledged to commit $2.5 million for loans for new investment and $200,000 for working capital after a workshop to review the scheme, an innovation of the Trade Hub and the African Cashew Alliance. Ecobank, West Africa’s largest bank, also committed support to the scheme’s expansion. Of the three cashew processors targeted for assistance, two obtained loans in 2011 that effectively preserved over 300 jobs.

 

A new cashew processor launched activities in Benin and two additional factories are expected to come online in the next month. Benin stakeholders discussed the developments during a meeting organized by the African Cashew Alliance, co-founded by the Trade Hub in 2006, where stakeholders agreed on statutes and bylaws for the new Benin ACA National Committee, which will be launched in November. In September, Benin will host the 2012 ACA Annual Conference. www.africancashewalliance.com

 

AfricaNow! is now tweeting news on the West African home décor and accessories sector. The AfricaNow! Twitter feed is @AfricaNowDecor – follow AfricaNow! for the latest on new products from West Africa’s amazing artisans, market trends in the home décor sector and updates on the international trade shows where the Trade Hub promotes West African home décor and accessories. Follow the Trade Hub on Twitter, too, for the latest West African trade news: @watradehub. www.africa-now.org

 

150 drivers and 31 key transport stakeholders from the private and public sectors learned more about the state of road governance across West Africa and in Ghana specifically during a Borderless road show in Tema, site of the country’s primary port. The event included representatives of the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, Ghana’s Police, Immigration Service, Customs, Highway Authority, National Road Safety, and Port Authority, State Insurance Company, drivers’ unions, as well as freight forwarders, shippers from Burkina Faso and Niger, and Malian transporters. Participants raised concerns about illegal imprisonment of drivers and harassment of foreign drivers, numerous customs checkpoints on the Tema-Ouagadougou corridor, lack of parking/rest stops at the port and along the corridor and the unreliability of the weighbridge at Tema port.