Our partners are the bodies who, in one way or another, share the common development agenda of the East African Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (EACCIA) and are actively or potentially engaged in partnership activities with EACCIA.
Our Efforts
- Reaching out to Europe
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MOU between EACCIA and EBCAM A partnership between the EACCIA and European Business Council for Africa and Mediterranean (EBCAM) was entered into in October 2021 through the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two organizations. This agreement shall ensure that EACCIA is able to support its core membership base and the wider corporate sector to access and reach out to additional markets and other business opportunities into the European Union countries.
- Consolidating our presence in the African continent
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In November 2021, during the 12th African Union Private Sector Forum (AUPSF), which was held in Cairo and was jointly organized by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Africa Business Council (AfBC), the EACCIA Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Charles KAHUTHU, was elected as one of the four Vice Presidents of the Africa Business Council Executive Board, to represent Eastern Africa and Great Lakes Region countries, thus extending our Chamber’s reach and network to the entire African Continent. AfBC is an organization which was established through a Decision of the African Union Heads of State and Government with the mandate to boost intra-Africa trade by rallying the African private sector together to facilitate smooth implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
- Objectives of the AFBC
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Advocate for the African business interests of the private sector in the African region; Promote trade, industrialization, and investment amongst the African private sector, and between Africa and the rest of the World; Provide a platform of engagement between policymakers at AU level and the private sector; To foster cooperation and collaboration between the African private sector, business organizations and other related bodies in Africa as well as those outside Africa. Improve the communication/collaboration between AU and the private sector; Contribute to and promote pan-African economic integration and structural transformation; Create value propositions for businesses through the provision of information and opportunities for engagement and networking to support business growth. This includes providing sector-specific market & business insights, market intelligence reports and advisory services; Monitoring and evaluation of trade and trade-related programs across the continent (contribute the internal and external processes) Aggregating and defending the views of the private sector towards trade policy-making processes; Exchange of experiences and capacity building towards strengthening the private sector in Africa. To support and empower the participation of SMEs, women and youth in the African and the global economy
- Reaching out to the Caribbean and the Pacific regions
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The OACPS Business Forum is launched! Less than two years since the coming into force of the Revised Georgetown Agreement, which is the Constitutive Act of the Organization of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the OACPS Business Forum was officially launched on 21 January 2022 during a virtual meeting organized by the OACPS Secretariat with technical support of Business ACP. “OACPS leaders have always recognized the crucial socio-economic role played by our private sector, and in particular our micro, small and medium sized enterprises, in fostering the sustainable development of our countries by providing decent jobs, creating wealth, generating government revenue and driving foreign exchange. However, until today we had been unable to formalize the platform through which OACPS political leaders could engage with the private sector in a constructive manner via an open and inclusive public-private sector dialogue” said H. E. Mr. Georges Rebelo Pinto CHIKOTI, the Secretary-General of the Organization of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States in his welcome remarks. During the first official meeting, attended by representatives of the private sector from across all OACPS regions, it was underlined that the Business Forum is one of the five “Subsidiary and Consultative Organs” foreseen under the Georgetown An agreement, with 3 main objectives: Promoting dialogue and collaboration between OACPS Governments, Regional Integration Institutions and the private sector at national, regional and continental levels within and between the 6 OACPS regions; Contributing to the formulation and implementation of private sector development policies; and Promoting knowledge sharing and information dissemination on the private sector development issues, including the exchange of best practices between and within the 6 OACPS regions. This meeting also endorsed the election of 12 candidates (2 per region) who volun- teered to serve as initial Board Members of the OACPs Business Forum. During the meeting held in early February 2022, the members of the Executive Board proceeded to formally elect the Forum’s President and 5 Vice Presidents, as office bearers. The EACCIA CEO is one of the new Vice Presidents representing Eastern Africa. The Board will be tasked with developing the Forum’s constitute documents, proposing operational modalities and preparing a six months’ work programme of the Business Forum.
