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UN agency pledges to assist East African SMEs access to Indian market

Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 00:20 | By
Fatma El Maawy, Director at Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) speaks during the Kenya-Indian agribusiness forum in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. (Xinhua/Charles Onyango)

NAIROBI,

The International Trade Centre (ITC) on Monday pledged to assist east Africa's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to gain access to the India market.

Govind Venuprasad, coordinator of ITC's project dubbed Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) told Xinhua in Nairobi that it is providing small firms in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda with advisory and strategic support to enable them to improve their competitiveness.

"By using partnership with Indian institutions and business, we are enabling east African SMEs in select agricultural value chains to boost their revenues through exports," Venuprasad said on the sidelines of the Kenya-Indian agribusiness forum.

The Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) is visiting Kenya with a delegation of 27 companies from India primarily in the agricultural sector who is seeking investment, joint venture and other business opportunities.

The beneficiaries of the SITA projects are in the textile, apparel, leather, spices, pulses and edible oil sectors.

ITC is also encouraging investment partnerships between Indian and eastern Africa companies as part of the south-south cooperation.

Venuprasad said that countries have traditionally relied on the west as key markets for their products. "We are keen to help the East African firms to diversify their product portfolio in order to enhance their incomes," he added.

He noted that one of the biggest challenges facing SMEs is access to finance, markets as well as compliance with international product standards.

The International Trade Centre is a development agency that supports the internationalization of SMEs, which is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. (Xinhua)

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