“The AfCFTA will be shaped by the businesses that use it first, and use it well”

Dr. Michelle Kristy, Program Management Officer at the International Trade Centre

The knowledge of rules and standards, the ability to create in and source from Africa, the drive to implement the AfCFTA, and the ability to make the most of the networks women now have access to. These are the ingredients for success in African markets identified by Dr. Michelle Kristy, Program Management Officer at the International Trade Centre and Global Lead of the SheTrades Hubs during the workshop on Unlocking AfCFTA Opportunities for Women-Led Businesses in African Markets.

The AfCFTA is an effective tool to allow entrepreneurs to improve their products so that they meet the needs of African markets. That is the opinion of Dr. Michelle Kristy, Program Management Officer at the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Global Lead of the SheTrades Hubs. In her address at the Unlocking AfCFTA Opportunities for Women-Led Businesses in African Markets held on July 8 and 9, she explained that Mauritius recognised this opportunity as an early signatory of the AfCFTA, which it ratified in 2019. 

Mauritius already sells nearly half a billion dollars of goods in Africa every year, most of them being textiles and clothing. However, the most difficult part of the AfCFTA is not deciding to trade across the continent. It is knowing how. “How to comply with rules and standards, prove where your product is made, move it, set its price and get paid,” she explained. 

 

“The more you create and source value on the continent, the more your product qualifies, and the more this value stays in the country.”

 

To maintain duty-free trade and to develop it, the product, said Dr. Michelle Kristy, must count as made in Africa. It can be manufactured or substantially transformed in Mauritius, or built from inputs sourced from Africa. “These rules of origin differ depending on the product, and some are still being developed, but the direction is clear: the more you create and source value on the continent, the more your product qualifies, and the more this value stays in the country,” she added.

The role of SheTrades 

The AfCFTA has its own protocol on women and youth in trade, and the ITC helps to implement it. “Through our One Trade Africa programme, we work with the AfCFTA Secretariat to make the agreement usable for small businesses, especially those led by women and youth,” explained Dr. Michelle Kristy.

Negotiations having largely been completed, the task, now, is implementation. “In Eswatini, this meant bringing trade and gender into one conversation. In South Sudan, helping to put the women and youth protocol into practice. What you are doing here in Mauritius is that same work,” she argued. 

This work is already visible here. The SheTrades Mauritius Hub, hosted by the Economic Development Board (EDB), was launched in 2023, and more than 360 women-led businesses have since registered, with more than 100 of them working with the hub on export readiness, coaching and courses. Some carry the “Made in Moris” brand, and some have made their first sales in Southern Africa.

The SheTrades network extends far beyond Mauritius. There are 22 SheTrades Hubs worldwide, and in Africa, one in seven AfCFTA countries hosts one. “This is South-South trade that you can use. A contact in Accra, Lagos, Johannesburg or Nairobi can become a partner, a supplier or a buyer. So, use this network, and use it very often,” advocated Dr. Kristy. 

Free ITC tools 

The objective of the two-day workshop, as explained by Dr. Michelle Kristy, was for women entrepreneurs to leave with three things. First, a market they did not have before, a tool they will continue to use, and a person from SheTrades with whom they can follow up. 

Women entrepreneurs were therefore guided step by step as the workshop answered all the questions that entrepreneurs must ask themselves before entering the African market. A number of free ITC tools – a Trade Map, Market Access Map and Export Potential Map – were also provided, through which participants had the opportunity to choose three priority markets for their product and test the demand.

That will help women entrepreneurs not only enter new markets, but also shape them, as “the AfCFTA will be shaped by the businesses that use it first, and use it well.”