SME Trade Academy
SME Trade Academy
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The SME Trade Academy provides a public learning platform with more than 100 free online courses on export development, sustainability, trade support, entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and market analysis.
Our courses are aimed at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), mostly in developing and least-developed countries.
But others find our courses useful too: government agencies, policymakers, members of international organizations, trade and investment support institutions, and academia.
The SME Trade Academy is part of ITC. Our mission is to digitalize all of ITC’s group trainings, both online and in-person. We don’t just put courses on a computer. We enhance them by applying digital learning technologies.
We work in partnership with ITC project managers, business support organizations, academic institutions and development agencies to build and deliver learning solutions to ITC’s beneficiaries in developing environments.
Video
22 November 2022
About the ITC SME Trade Academy
Online training: We build e-learning courses, entire curriculums, and virtual learning spaces for the communities that grow up around ITC projects. We also support ITC’s technical sections with virtual workshops that can reach beneficiaries remotely.
In-person and instructor-led training: We provide solutions for both digital and digitally-supported workshops.
The SME Trade Academy offers one-year Certificate and Diploma Programmes in international trade to participants in selected countries in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Institute of Exports and International Trade (IOE&IT).
The Academy also offers a one-year International Diploma in Supply Chain Management via a group of 30 network partners in Africa and Asia.
ITC tools (for relations)
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ITC’s e-learning platform offers 100+ free online courses in different languages, available to all.
Access the tool
Contact
Email
e-learning@intracen.org
ONE TRADE AFRICA: Connecting the African business community with the AfCFTA
Contact
First name
Lily
Last name
Sommer
Email
lsommer@intracen.org
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ITC holds AfCFTA Forum in Harare Zimbabwe to engage women entrepreneurs in Southern Africa.
ITC - OTA programme
The African continent is creating the largest free trade area in the world. Once in full operation the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will connect 1.3 billion people across 55 African countries with a combined gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion.
Implementation of the Agreement comes as African countries are grappling with the triple-C crisis of Covid-19, climate change and conflict. This provides African countries with an occasion to reconfigure and diversify their production and trade and prioritize the development of robust and resilient intra-African supply chains.
One Trade Africa
Although the AfCFTA has been operational since 2021, most African businesses are neither informed nor empowered to access market opportunities. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), especially led by women and youth, need access to information, resources, skills, assets, credit, and economic opportunities.
AfCFTA in figures
ITC - OTA programme
3 programmatic levels of the OTA programme
ITC - OTA programme
“One Trade Africa”, ITC’s corporate programme launched in 2021 sets out to empower and enable African MSMEs, as well as young and women entrepreneurs to access meaningful business opportunities created by the AfCFTA.
The programme is designed to support Africa to advance on ONE coherent framework that encompasses not only the AfCFTA, but also the Regional Economic Community (REC) Free Trade Area Agreements, the building blocks of the AfCFTA, and trade arrangements between Africa and the rest of the world. This is to ensure convergence with a unified goal of boosting the competitiveness of African MSMEs and their participation in both intra- and extra-African trade.
Adapting ITC tools for an integrated African market
The One Trade Africa programme is a critical initiative of the ITC Strategic Plan 2022-2025, broadening opportunities for African small businesses and tailoring ITC tools and services to the African continent through supporting businesses to incorporate Green and Digital Goals.
A look at ITC’s working areas on the AfCFTA.
ITC - OTA programme
A look at the role of MSMEs in Africa’s economy.
ITC - OTA programme
One Trade Africa centres around Africa’s private sector, because it is the key driver for the success of the Free Trade Area. ITC particularly supports small businesses, young entrepreneurs, and women, especially those operating in the informal sector.
One Trade Africa Achievements
ITC - OTA programme
ITC Signs MOU with AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra, Ghana.
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ITC holds inaugural AfCFTA Forum in Dakar, Senegal to engage West Africa REC.
ITC
ITC supports the 1st Africa Women Trade Conference in Nairobi, Kenya with OWIT Nairobi.
ITC
ITC holds initial AfCFTA workshop in Casablanca, Morocco.
ITC
ITC holds AfCFTA Forum to engage Central Africa REC in Yaounde, Cameroon.
ITC
ITC collaborates with UNDP and UN Women to hold 1st joint AfCFTA workshop in Kampala, Uganda.
ITC
ITC collaborates with UNECA to discuss greening the AfCFTA at WTO Public Forum.
ITC
ITC ED Pamela Coke Hamilton, visits entrepreneurs exhibiting items at the Afreximbank Intra-African Trade Fair.
ITC
Video Playlist
One Trade Africa
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8 April 2021
Newsletters: Programme Highlights
- OTA Newsletter Issue 3 - September 2022-February 2023
- OTA Newsletter Issue 2 - March-July 2022
- OTA Newsletter Issue 1 - March 2020-February 2022
- OTA Programme Highlights 2020-2022
Publications and Workshop Resources
Implementing partners
Sustainable Development Goals
This project contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goals, as defined by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
<p>The African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA) is now a reality and the International Trade Centre (ITC) <ins cite="mailto:Raphaëlle%20Lancey" datetime="2021-10-04T09:35">is poised</ins> to <ins cite="mailto:Raphaëlle%20Lancey" datetime="2021-10-04T09:35">play a central role in </ins>its i<ins cite="mailto:Raphaëlle%20Lancey" datetime="2021-10-04T09:35">mplementation..</ins></p><p>ITC has developed an umbrella programme, the ONE TRADE AFRICA (OTA) to empower MSMEs, women and youth to access the opportunities unfolding under the new single market. </p><p>OTA is an integrated package of technical assistance solutions that ITC is offering to the African business community operating in both the formal and informal sectors to enable them to understand the opportunities of the AfCFTA and to build the capacity of enterprises and entrepreneurs to export across Africa and beyond. </p><p><br></p>
Type
Programme
Open data portal link
Funding partners
Date
-
External ID
C088
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AfCFTA Export Training Programme for African SMEs
Contact
First name
Dorina
Last name
Dobre
Email
ddobre@intracen.org
Recipients
Implementing partners
Sustainable Development Goals
This project contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goals, as defined by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
<p>This project document proposes the establishment and piloting of a blended, non-accredited, vocational and practical training programme concentrated around the fundamentals of exporting and the opportunities resulting from the AfCFTA. This curriculum will be developed by the SME Trade Academy in collaboration with the Afreximbank.</p><p>Local partners, such as trade training institutions will provide support in implementation of the pilot programme in three countries, namely Nigeria, Rwanda and Côte d'Ivoire.</p><p>The pilot will involve building local partners’ capacity to market the training and conduct sessions on a continuous basis, localizing the offering for each national context.</p><p>An <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">expansion phase</span> has been added to the project involving a further 12 countries. The online training will be opened to all African countries.</p><p>A second expansion phase has been added to the project involving the delivery of national workshops for 4 additional countries following a new agreement signed with the ITFC.</p>
Type
Project
Open data portal link
Date
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External ID
B972
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