Stories

Story: Coming up! EAC MARKUP Invest

24 February 2021
ITC News
A virtual event is set to provide an opportunity to help unlock trade potential between Europe and East Africa.

“Coffee farming and export partnerships are crucial for business growth strategy. I look forward to expert advice, and strategic associations at the EAC MARKUP Invest”, says Agnes Mukamushinja, a woman entrepreneur from Rwanda.

Tom Owuor, Managing Partner of Direne Packaging in Kenya expects to find workable solutions to recent challenges.

“Having incurred business cancellations due to Corona pandemic last year, we look forward to finding partners to support our business revival strategies. We expect to meet new clients as well as identify sources of funding during this event. Partnering with the invest event could not have come at a more appropriate time,” he says.

And for Shakeel Padamsey, co-founder of The Coffee Gardens based in Eastern Uganda, a highlight of the event will be various trainings as his company begins to stabilize in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“Now that my own business is slowly growing again after Covid, I’m especially looking forward to the MARKUP trainings and panel discussions, and so I can get inspiration from new ideas and skills to do even better,” he says.

What to expect?

From 1 March to 4 March, representatives from 75 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), including Agnes, Tom and Shakeel, will participate in the EAC MARKUP virtual event that will bring together SMEs, regional and international investors, financial institutions, business support organizations, and public stakeholders.

Over the four days, plenary sessions and training sessions, participants will be able to network and establish international connections for exploring investment opportunities in the EAC. They will also find concrete solutions to attract investment for boosting value addition and increase exports from the agri-sector in the region.

The event will serve to:

  • Facilitate investment deals between SMEs in identified sectors and investors;
  • Equip financial institutions to better understand the growing market opportunity of providing sustainable financing solutions to agribusinesses;
  • Facilitate customer-centric services for investment attraction and promotion through Investment Promotion Agencies;
  • Advise SMEs on specific technical constraints for accessing investment to improve packaging, branding and marketing, overall quality and investment readiness through workshops and business clinics.

The International Trade Centre is organising the four-day MARKUP EAC Invest event through the European Union – East African Community Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP) and in collaboration with the EAC Secretariat, GIZ and with the Sankalp Africa Summit 2021, a large annual investor gathering in the EAC region organised by Intellecap.