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Tradewinds
Tradewinds is a monthly newsletter produced by the West Africa Trade Hub.
April, 2013
Once a month or so, an employee of Mamma Mia’s pizzeria in Accra, Ghana, drives three hours to Lomé in neighboring Togo to stock up on supplies for the popular restaurant. The reason is simple...
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The Global Shea Alliance will host its inaugural North American event in New York City May 13, reflecting the organization’s meteoric growth in just two years. Launched with 54 stakeholders in...
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At trade shows around the world, during meetings with brands large and small and via communications varied and regular the USAID Trade Hub has championed baobab – which, to be fair, may not...
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"Value Chain & Gains!," the African Cashew Alliance's World Cashew Festival and Expo2013, will take place Sept. 16-19 in Lagos, Nigeria, the Alliance has announced. The Eko Hotel...
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The Government of Niger has eliminated seven checkpoints, winning the gratitude of truck drivers and the praise of the Borderless Alliance.Checkpoints slow down trucks, driving up transport costs and...
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The National Committees of the Borderless Alliance, the West African private sector-led group advocating for reduced costs and delays in cross-border transport, have begun mobilizing their members to...
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Dr. Daniel Bromley is the Anderson-Bascom Distinguished Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at Humbold University in Berlin. He is the author, most recently, of...
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Global Shea Alliance participates at in-cosmetics, trains women in GhanaThe Global Shea Alliance, co-founded by the USAID Trade Hub in 2011, participated at the In-Cosmetics international trade show...
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March, 2013
Hundreds of transport and trade stakeholders in Burkina Faso participated in meetings in five cities during a caravan organized by the Improved Road Transport Governance (IRTG) initiative, a joint...
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At the second annual conference of the Borderless Alliance in Accra in February, Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Harouna Iddrisu, pledged to reduce delays at Ghana’s borders...
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In 2006, the USAID Trade Hub co-founded the African Cashew Alliance with 24 private sector stakeholders. In the ensuing seven years, the cashew industry has become a major economic force in West...
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More than 500 representatives of all points in the shea value chain participated in the Global Shea Alliance’s “Global Perspectives” conference, held in Abuja, Nigeria, in March,...
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With fast increasing urbanization, West Africa needs more food than the region currently produces – where will it come from? How will it get here? And at what cost? Peter White, an...
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Border Information Center opens at the Port of Dakar105 stakeholders in Senegal participated in the launch of West Africa’s fourth Border Information Center in Dakar. The new center is hosted...
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February, 2013
AGOA opened the U.S. to duty-free sale of more than 6,000 items (tariff lines) from African nations provided those countries conduct free and fair elections. Products from West Africa...
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Traveling in West Africa to source handcrafts and import those products is full of challenges. I don’t have to tell those who have been there, how difficult logistics alone can be as you...
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In the 1990s, international handcrafts buyers included Côte d’Ivoire on their itineraries when they came to West Africa. But the country’s long civil war in the 2000s decimated that...
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A new enhanced AGOA Resource Center (eARC) is now serving the business community in Guinea, thanks to collaboration between the USAID West Africa Trade Hub, the USAID Business Environments for Agile...
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Seven handcrafts exporters from Ghana, Guinea, Niger and Senegal met over 100 professional buyers when they exhibited textiles, baskets, leather products, furniture and other home décor...
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Ghana’s Minister of Trade pledged to significantly reduce the time it takes to process trucks at the country’s border as he opened the second annual conference of the Borderless...
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January, 2013
Paul Brenton, Trade Practice Leader in the Africa Region of the World Bank, is a keynote speaker at this year’s Borderless Conference in Accra, February 21-22. Mr. Brenton is among the world...
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In 2005, UEMOA, the eight-member group of francophone countries and Ghana, asked the USAID Trade Hub to develop a methodology to monitor the extent of checkpoints, delays and bribes along primary...
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Ask any up-and-coming export company in West Africa what its greatest challenge is and it will probably say financing – and, in particular, long-term financing to acquire plant and equipment to...
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Access to finance remains a significant constraint for thousands of companies across West Africa, but a strategic initiative launched by the USAID Trade Hub in 2009 has helped SME exporting companies...
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Often, intermediaries in value chains are viewed with disdain, as a necessary evil, and often derogatorily referred to as “middlemen.” But in West Africa’s handcrafts sector, export...
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Private and public sector stakeholders across West Africa are gearing up for the second annual Borderless Alliance conference, "Borderless 2013: Connecting Markets," which takes place...
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Hundreds of shea companies will join high-level VIPs, including former President of Nigeria Ibrahim Babangida, Nigerian Deputy Minister of Trade, the Governor of Niger State, the Nigerian Minister of...
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Cutsoms officer inspect goods at the Port of Dakar.The Port of Dakar has identified an office to host a Port Information Center in Senegal modeled on the USAID Trade Hub-supported Border...
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December, 2012
2012 saw business expand, but what does 2013 hold as the World Bank and others downgrade their forecasts? Tradewinds invited business consultant Elvina Quaison, director of Silk Solutions in Ghana,...
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As part of an ongoing series of firsthand reports on the challenges facing drivers in West Africa, Bright Gowonu from the USAID West Africa Trade Hub’s Transport team hitched a ride with a...
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