Nigeria poised to tackle women’s barriers in cross-border trade

The Nigerian authorities and growth companions have launched the Making Trade Work for Women (MTWW) initiative to tackle barriers dealing with girls in cross-border trade.

The initiative goals to tackle restricted entry to finance and markets, unclear trade procedures, harassment, and insufficient border services.

Implemented by the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) and TradeMark Africa (TMA), and funded by Global Affairs Canada, the initiative covers Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.

Speaking on the launch in Lagos on Thursday, Dayo Okewole, representing the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, mentioned the undertaking would assist tackle the challenges stopping girls from benefiting totally from cross-border trade.

Mr Okewole mentioned girls account for greater than 70 per cent of casual cross-border merchants and make up a considerable share of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Despite this, girls nonetheless face restricted entry to trade finance, border safety issues, and gaps in digital and trade literacy, in accordance to Mr Okewole.

“Women are the bedrock of our economic architecture in Nigeria,” he mentioned, including that the undertaking would assist efforts to make trade extra inclusive and accessible.

He mentioned the ministry is dedicated to enhancing the regulatory atmosphere, lowering bureaucratic bottlenecks, and selling transparency in implementing trade insurance policies.

Mr Okewole recognized coverage inclusivity, digital abilities and entry to finance and markets as key areas of intervention.

He mentioned the initiative would assist women-led companies enhance digital literacy, combine e-commerce into their operations, and construct the talents wanted to increase their markets.

He additionally highlighted proposals to enhance services for ladies merchants in border communities, together with a mini-market the place merchants may trade items with out making repeated journeys throughout the border.

According to him, a go to to the Seme border revealed that some services for ladies merchants had been unused, partly due to insufficient consciousness.

“We are happy to see some of the steps that have already been taken by the Customs Command in addressing some of the challenges in that area,” he mentioned, including that higher data would assist girls reap the benefits of current services and procedures.

Kwamina Ekremet, TMA’s Country Director for Ghana and Anglophone West Africa, mentioned the initiative was supposed to make trade extra environment friendly, inclusive and responsive to girls’s wants.

Citing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Sahel and West Africa Club, Mr Ekremet mentioned West Africa’s intra-regional meals trade goes unrecorded in official statistics, at about $10 billion yearly.

He mentioned girls play a central function in this trade however usually face barriers that make their companies extra expensive, tough and generally unsafe to function.

“Our challenge, therefore, is not simply to encourage women to trade formally. It is to make formal trade accessible, affordable, predictable and worthwhile,” he mentioned.

Mr Ekremet mentioned the programme, which runs from 2024 to 2028, goals to straight profit 80,000 folks, a minimum of 70 per cent of whom might be girls merchants.

It additionally seeks to profit about 20,000 extra merchants not directly and attain greater than 50,000 folks by way of sensitisation.

The programme goals to enhance taking part girls’s incomes by 40 per cent and lift the variety of girls merchants utilizing sustainable practices by 50 per cent.

Mr Ekremet mentioned engagements with border officers, customs officers and small-scale merchants on the Seme border had highlighted a number of checkpoints alongside the Badagry-Seme hall, unclear procedures, identification challenges, harassment, intimidation, poor highway circumstances and insufficient entry to important services.

He cited a dealer, Madam Iyabo, who mentioned a journey that beforehand took someday now takes three to 5 days.

“Every additional day increases her costs, reduces her profit and places greater pressure on her business and family,” he mentioned.

Mr Ekremet mentioned the findings underscored the necessity for improved dealer schooling, less complicated documentation, higher coordination amongst border companies and extra accessible services for ladies.

He added that the initiative would work with authorities and regional companions to promote safer border practices, strengthen girls’s associations and set up efficient channels for reporting harassment.

While talking to the PREMIUM TIMES after the launch, Sand Mba, Executive Director of the Africa International Trade and Commerce Research, which he described because the lead implementing consortium for the undertaking, mentioned the initiative would assist tackle gender-based barriers, enhance entry to trade data and allow girls to profit from current regional trade agreements.

He mentioned a number of insurance policies and protocols already assist cross-border trade, together with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), its Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade, and the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) Trade Liberalisation Scheme.

However, Mr Mba mentioned implementation and entry to data remained vital gaps.

“There are fantastic policies on the ground that will make women trade, but it is the implementation that we have the gap, and accessing information to make this information work. That is where we have the gap,” Mr Mba mentioned.

He referred to as for stronger cooperation between the federal government and undertaking companions to guarantee girls merchants understood and will entry out there trade facilitation mechanisms.

A consultant of the Bank of Industry’s Gender Inclusion Unit, Jelilat Ismaila-Ayinde, additionally highlighted financing alternatives out there to women-owned companies by way of the financial institution’s Guaranteed GLOW for Women product.

She mentioned the initiative was designed to assist Nigerian girls in mild manufacturing, agro-processing, healthcare, and different sectors the financial institution helps, significantly these working micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.

READ ALSO: NUJ, Women’s Centre seek stronger media focus on gender-sensitive journalism

Ms Ismaila-Ayinde mentioned the product provided financing of up to ₦50 million, required one guarantor, and that the financial institution deliberate to digitise the appliance course of to enhance nationwide entry.

She, nevertheless, famous that the product didn’t cowl buying and selling, whereas encouraging girls entrepreneurs in eligible sectors to discover the financial institution’s on-line software platform.

At the occasion, the president of the Lagos State Association of Pineapple Sellers, Omotola Durotola, additionally spoke on the challenges dealing with merchants, saying girls in cross-border agricultural trade struggled to entry producers, safe satisfactory capital, and discover appropriate markets.

She mentioned many merchants purchased items on credit score as a result of they lacked the funds to purchase them outright, whereas some sellers operated underneath bridges in Lagos as a result of market services had been insufficient.

The affiliation referred to as for assist to enhance entry to agricultural producers in the Republic of Benin, present financing for merchants, and construct appropriate market infrastructure in Lagos.