Hello Members, Partners, and Friends of OWIT Nairobi! Our one audacious goal at OWIT Nairobi is to assist our members to generate 60% of their revenue from exports by the year 2030. We do this through our four objectives: (1) Access to Markets (2) Access to Finance (3) Capacity Building and (4) Mentorship. The objective of Access to Markets is critical to achieving our audacious goal. The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) came into operation on 1 January 2021. This agreement opens a market of 3 billion people on the continent.
Our members at OWIT Nairobi export to the following top key export markets: United Kingdom 19%, United States of America 17%, Uganda 10%, and Tanzania 10%. These statistics tell a story, the story is that we need to promote trade amongst our African Countries. African Countries need to trade with each other, we have many reasons why this is important: proximity of markets; the sheer size of the market (1.3 billion people); the unique advantages presented by our natural resources; a youthful population amongst other great selling points that we have in our beautiful continent.
It is against this backdrop that we have arranged a series of training sessions within our programming to educate our members on the AfCFTA. These sessions are a precursor to our Africa Women Trade Conference scheduled for 25 to 26 November 2021 in Nairobi, Kenya. We have also scheduled an Africa Trade Bonanza on 27 November 2021 which will be a physical market where our members will meet and sell their goods and services. This Conference is hosted by OWIT Nairobi in collaboration with OWIT Nigeria and OWIT Zimbabwe. The Conference theme is empowering women in intra-Africa Trade.
The objectives of the conference are: (1) to create awareness for Intra-Africa Trade; (2) to provide a networking platform for women businesses to expand into African markets; (3) to create new market opportunities and linkages in Africa for women; (4) to examine trade barriers that hinder women traders; (5) to evaluate innovative financial solutions for women in trade; (6) to discuss e-commerce as an enabler of trade and (7) to discuss agriculture as the next frontier for Africa.
The Conference is a hybrid event hosting speakers, panelists and participants both physically and virtually. We are partnering with governments, government agencies, trade organizations, financial institutions, companies, investors, and like-minded organizations to host this Conference. We expect to have great deliberations from the Conference possible policy change suggestions which will be formulated into a draft policy paper for presentation to relevant governments agencies.
We invite you to be part of this great discussion as we shape the Trade Story for our Continent. Our OWIT Nairobi Secretariat is at hand to receive any queries and clarifications and partnership requests relating to the Conference using conference@owitnairobi.org. Further conference details can also be obtained from our conference website.
Let’s all be part of shaping the Women in Africa Trade Dialogue!
Caroline Gathii is the OWIT Nairobi President, Risk and Governance Expert, and CEO of FirstIdea Consulting Limited
