• Mon - Fri 8.00 - 17.00
  • [254] 700-000-757
WhatsApp

Building a Competitive Edge in the EAC and COMESA Region


Project Description

The Building a Competitive Edge in the East Africa Community (EAC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region training was offered to entrepreneurs in Kenya by the Centre for Business Innovation & Training (CBiT) courtesy of Kenya Association of Manufactures (KAM).
The training was tailored to offer participants insight on business opportunities in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East Africa Community (EAC) regions and also to offer skills and knowledge on how to build a competitive edge towards exploiting the identified opportunities.
The COMESA region was formed in1994 with the aim to serve as an organization of free independent sovereign States that agreed to cooperate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people. In this context, the main focus of COMESA has been on the formation of a large economic and trading unit to overcome trade barriers faced by individual States.
The region offers a total population of USD 560 million, a GDP of USD 768 billion and is the largest of the regional groupings in Africa. With its 19 member states, population of over 389 million and annual import bill of around US$212 billion with an export bill of US$112 billion COMESA forms a major market place for both internal and external trading. Although Kenya is the second largest exporter to the COMESA region, a lot more can be attained if the private sector was better prepared to harness opportunities presented by the economic block.
The East African Community (EAC) on the other hand is the regional intergovernmental organization of the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda. The EAC countries established a Customs Union in 2005 and a Common Market in 2010 and is working on a Monetary Union, with the ultimate goal being that of a Political Federation.
The overall objective of the Common Market is to widen and deepen cooperation among the partner states in the economic and social fields. This is to be realized through removal of restrictions on the movement of goods, persons, labor, services and capital, and the rights of establishment and residence.
The Building a Competitive Edge in the EAC and COMESA regions training courtesy of KAM was, therefore, set to support entrepreneurs in Kenya to build a competitive edge in the EAC region.