Africa Trade Office

Overview

Focus Countries:

  • Nigeria, Senegal, Malawi
  • Ghana, Tanzania, Burkina Faso
  • Gambia, Lesotho, Madagascar
  • Cameroon, Uganda, Botswana
  • Namibia, Liberia, Ethiopia
  • South Africa, Benin, Morocco
  • Mozambique Cape Verde Rwanda
  • Mali

During FY2008, the office will focus on five countries chosen as a result of our examination of the business, financial and political climate as well as infrastructure in place to facilitate bilateral trade and investment. The Africa Trade Office, through implementation, will establish a new business model and paradigm that will dramatically expand trade and investment with countries in Africa. Prince George’s County is naturally suited for this new initiative because of the strong leadership on issues of trade with Africa by County Executive Jack Johnson and the long history of support for expanding trade with Africa by U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin, representing the State of Maryland.

The County’s Africa Trade Office will be located at the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation during the short-term, with a vision to relocate the office in the future to an office/hotel complex to be constructed at Steeplechase International Business Park. The office will undertake the following activities during the period that remains of FY2008:

Outreach

  • Arrange business-to-business meetings between County African companies and County non-African companies to build capacity and interest. These partnerships could then partner with African SMEs to effect trade.
  • Partner capacity building for African companies seeking business alliances with Prince George’s County companies through assessment, training, conducting lender forums and seminars on subject matter areas such as shipping and logistics. This would be accomplished in cooperation with Maryland’s Port Administration; in-country staffs of government organizations such as the US Commercial Service, US AID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, SBA/International, US Embassies and others.
  • Develop and present with partners and supporting organizations an event held in the County focused on Africa (i.e. International Economic Summit and others) to inform the public of the mission and successes of The Africa Trade Office, the successes of companies participating in the program and business leaders from Africa and the United States.
  • Develop a separate website with hotlinks on EDC’s site and maintenance of the site.
  • Advertise the program.
  • Establish memberships with partner organizations to leverage participation in the Trade Office programs.
  • Continued diplomacy through the County and EDC’s hosting of foreign delegations.

Education

  • Conduct a seven-week Export One-Africa certificate course beginning with twenty companies after vetting of those considered most probable of success. Incentive Grants will be available to assist county companies to offset a portion of the cost.
  • After completion of Export One: Africa! Offer additional coaching over several months for the companies with most promise by seasoned professionals in the trade community.
  • After coaching, conduct trade missions to as many as three countries with incentive grants provided to the six most promising companies.
  • Conduct six trade subject-matter specific seminars for those interested in trade with Africa.
  • Conduct information and training on AGOA in partnership with the US Department of Agriculture, U.S. SBA/International, U.S. Department of Commerce and others.
  • Conduct four agri-business workshops for those interested in trade with Africa.
  • Develop and maintain a library collection of resource materials open to the business community.

Trade and Investment

  • Establish a videoconferencing facility at EDC to at least ten countries to assure collaboration, sharing of documents and multi-party conference sessions.
  • Maintain access to useful business and intelligence databases to provide service and information to companies.
  • Establish business databases on U.S. companies and African companies involved in the exporting and importing of products and services.
  • Offer business counseling through staff and identified partner services to effect trade deal closure.
  • Develop a web toolkit for business use.

Goals - SUCCESS

  • Establish the Africa Trade Office and Prince George’s County, Maryland as a gateway for trade and investment between the United States and the countries of Africa.
  • Increase the number of small businesses, particularly minority firms in Prince George’s County and SMEs in the countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Cameroon, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal, Malawi, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Madagascar, Uganda, Botswana, Liberia, Ethiopia, Benin, Morocco, Cape Verde, Rwanda and Mali that can successfully identify and complete trade opportunities.
  • Provide business information to the public interested in entering African markets.
  • Expand the growth of EDC’s existing efforts to support growth of minority enterprises and County companies, connecting small businesses with trade opportunities.
  • Offer specialized training, one-on-one counseling, evaluation of business needs and business assistance support for access to capital and deal development.
  • Increase the number of partnering agreements between EDC and regional and national U.S. companies; corporations and government agencies in targeted African countries; universities engaged in these markets; U.S. AID Hubs; trade associations in priority sectors; Chambers of Commerce here and in selected African countries; State and Federal government agencies; and other non-governmental organizations. These partnerships will be established with clearly defined goals and objectives.

Partnering Organizations

The above cannot be accomplished without productive partnerships with embassies, universities, Chambers of Commerce, trade associations, the Corporate Council on Africa, various offices at US Department of Commerce, US Department of State/Bureau of African Affairs, USAID, US Treasury/International, ExIm Bank, FAS/USDA, Members of the United States Congress, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the USTR, USTDA, OPIC, the World Bank/IFC, the African Development Bank, the African Business Owner’s Forum, Association of Maryland Africa Societies, the African Business Roundtable, ECOWAS, COMESA, Constituency for Africa, The Whittaker Group, African Development Foundation, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation and the International Business Strategy Advisory Council and others.