African countries urged to open up their economies

The International Trade Center (ITC) on Friday urged African countries to open up their economies in order to increase the range of trade so as to spur profitable earnings.

ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez said open economies and trade work is much better than closed markets because it offers consumers a large variety of markets from which to source diverse goods in the international arena.

"Trade agreements can make trade possible especially if well-crafted, but mostly if they are an impediment to commerce because they restrain growth of small and medium-sized enterprises," Gonzalez said during the launch of the partnership between ITC and Barclays Bank of Kenya in Nairobi.

Through the initiative, dubbed "SheTradesKE", Barclays will leverage its expertise in financial services while ITC will employ its experience in business development to offer local women entrepreneurs support in critical areas, including financial management, in order to help them create and maintain links to international markets.

The "SheTrades" enterprise was launched by the global trade organization in 2015 with the objective of connecting one million entrepreneurs from around the world to global markets in the next five years.

"By initiating the idea, we wanted to move from talking to action and bring in more women into the economy because access to credit has been a key restraint for women in business, often confining them to the informal sector," she said.

The executive director said lack of credit restricts the ability of women-owned businesses from growing and generating jobs and by bringing them into the financial system is good for the economy, adding that the joint venture with Barclays in Kenya will go a long way in helping women in business.

The ITC is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations and assists small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing and transition economies to become more competitive in global markets, thereby contributing to sustainable economic development.

In Kenya, women-owned businesses account for over 48 percent of all SMEs, contributing about 20 percent of the Kenyan gross domestic product (GDP).

Barclays Bank of Kenya Managing Director, Jeremy Awori, said one third of all small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries are led by women yet the businesses continue to face significant challenges in accessing global market opportunities.

"As such, there is need for us to partner with like-minded institutions to invest in the capacity development of women-led SMEs because it will play a critical role in growing our economy," he said.

Awori said that Barclays would invest 70,000 U.S. dollars into the program in the next five years.

In December last year, the bank set up 50 million dollar fund to offer credit facilities to enterprises owned by women. This is in addition to the 300 million dollars that the bank has earmarked to lend to SMEs in Kenya.

The bank is currently running an SME outreach program targeting to train 10,000 small and medium businesses across 11 major towns on business financial management. Endit