South Africa

<p><span lang="EN-GB">COVID-19 has vastly accelerated the growth and adoption of e-commerce. It is critical that women-led businesses are able to harness the power of e-commerce to internationalize their business and reach new markets. The <strong>SheTrades: Empowering African women through e-commerce</strong> project, funded by GIZ, aims to promote economic growth and job creation in Nigeria and South Africa through the increased participation of women-led businesses in digital trade. The project will build the competitiveness, digital skills and e-market connectivity of 100 of women-led SMEs and will work with&nbsp;</span>two key partners, specifically the SheTrades Hubs hosted by The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and South Africa&rsquo;s Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). This project will also work with<span lang="EN-GB">&nbsp;market partners including buyers, to help them implement strategies to support women in their supply chains.&nbsp;</span></p>

<p>This project is targeting women owned businesses (WOBs) in the Apparel, Accessories and Home D&eacute;cor sector from Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Senegal, and South Africa.<span>&nbsp;It</span> aims to support income generation and job creation for women owned businesses in the Apparel, Accessories and Home D&eacute;cor sector by:</p><ul type="disc"><li>Creating a more supportive ecosystem of partners and institutions to help the growth of women&apos;s economic empowerment initiatives and activities;</li><li>Increasing the competitiveness of women owned businesses in the sector;</li><li>Creating new market linkage<strong>&nbsp;</strong>opportunities for women owned businesses in the sector.</li></ul>

<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 C&ocirc;te d&apos;Ivoire.</p><p>The pilot will involve building local partners&rsquo; 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>