The Kenya Export Promotion and Brand Agency (KEPROBA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kenya conducted a 5-day capacity building workshop at Magharibi Garden Hotel in Kisii County where 23 Small and Medium Enterprises were trained on Export Trade from 27th June to 1st July 2022.
Kelvin Nkai, Principal Officer, Trade Advisory Services (KEPROBA) taking participants through the E-Portal that will provide exporters, buyers and sellers with an opportunity to showcase and trade their products globally.
The trainers were drawn from KEPROBA and partner institutions including Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade), Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI), Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), State Department of Trade (SDT), Micro and Small Enterprise Authority (MSEA), Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), County Government representatives, and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).
In August 2021, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kenya and Kenya Export Promotion and Brand Agency (KEPROBA) agreed to a partnership to develop the capacity of women and youth to access export markets through the Green Economy Youth Activation Programme (GrEYAP). As part of this initiative, KEPROBA and UNDP conducted outreach sessions for 98 women and youth-led SMEs engaged in Macadamia, Cashew nuts and Avocado value chains in Kisii, Embu, Kwale, Kisumu, and Machakos counties.
The outreach sessions formed part of export readiness assessment where producers and potential exporters were interviewed to determine how prepared they were to participate in export trade. Identifying these challenges was crucial to devising a suite of interventions needed to address the said challenges. The outreach revealed that 80% of the enterprises required capacity building and training hence motivating the need to develop an exporters manual. Other challenges included failure to adopt the Made-in-Kenya brand mark (75%); need for KEBS certification (30%); as well as support for export to SMEs provided by sister Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) such as MSEA and KIRDI. In addition, the assessment established that 15% of the enterprises were admissible to the exporter’s directory.
Arising out of this outreach findings, in November 2021, UNDP and KEPROBA invited stakeholders from both the private and public sectors namely, KenTrade, KIRDI, Kenya KAM, SDT, MSEA, KEPHIS, AFA, County Government representatives, and KEBS to develop introductory and intermediate manuals that could be used to train enterprises at different stages of export readiness and aid in addressing the capacity gaps that limit the ability of these SMEs to access export markets.