African women represent more than 70 per cent of workers in the informal sector. However, many women continue to face barriers to trade opportunities, such as access to raw materials, increased economies of scale, integration into regional and global value chains, technological challenges, and access to finance to name a few.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in partnership with the UN Development Program (UNDP), is delivering a series of 3-day capacity building workshops in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire for women traders and producers in the ECOWAS region with the aim of guiding them on market entry and operations under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The first workshop kicked off Monday April 12 in Accra, Ghana – the headquarters of the AfCFTA Secretariat and convenes 20 women traders from the 5 English-speaking member states of the ECOWAS region (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia). They represent the agricultural, agroprocessing, textiles, and arts and crafts sectors, as well as trade development agencies.
Dr. BolanleAdetoun, Acting Director of the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre, who represented ECOWAS Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, DrSiga Fatima Jagne, commented that women traders “play critical roles in African economies. The capacity building programme is intended to highlight opportunities within the AfCFTA for ECOWAS traders, especially women, and contribute to an understanding of strategies and approaches to enhance value addition for goods and services within the framework of the AfCFTA.”
(SOURCE:https://bit.ly/2RP7eMi)
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