Trade Catalyst Africa

Category: Snippets

With Tariffs Gone, What Comes Next

By Eve Muthoni On 1 May, China will remove tariffs on goods from 53 African countries. This will be real market access and a genuine opportunity for African exporters to scale their exports into one of the world’s largest markets. According to China’s General Administration of Customs 2025 report, trade between China and Africa has […]

What Trade in Africa Needs Now

Written By Duncan Onyango On 3 February, President Donald Trump signed a law extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the preferential trade agreement between the US and African countries, through to December 2026. The agreement had lapsed in September 2025. I choose to read this renewal as a signal, however modest, to the […]

Financing Kenya’s Agriculture

Written By Antoinette Tesha Yesterday, I joined the panel on Building Sustainable Financing Models for Smallholder Farmers and Agricultural Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Agri-MSMEs) at the GlobalG.A.P. Tour Stop Conference by Rootooba Limited. One statistic struck me deeply: Kenya’s commercial banks allocate approximately 4% of their lending to agriculture. This is despite the sector contributing 30–40% of GDP and employing about 40% […]

Africa’s Trade Crunch and What Trade Catalyst Africa is Doing About It

By Duncan Onyango At the Holili–Taveta border, long-haul driver Edwin Lasti recalls waiting for up to a month for clearance processes to be completed. “Because of the OSBP and the digitalisation of processes, you can now get cleared within a day,” he says. However, in places where no One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) exist, drivers still […]

Stitching Together Success: Reflections from The Africa Sourcing Fashion Week

By Antoinette Tesha The Africa Sourcing Fashion Week (ASFW) was a fantastic event that provided a platform to connect with industry leaders, new manufacturers and suppliers, showcasing Africa’s burgeoning potential in fashion and garment production. Yet, beneath all the great energy lies a stark reality: Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) textiles and garment industry contributes just 1.9% of […]

Why Africa Must Invest in its Digital Trade Infrastructure

By Duncan Onyango East Africa’s smallholder farmers are at the heart of the coffee industry, producing 82% of Africa’s coffee and 10% of the world’s supply—yet they earn less than 5% of its final retail value. A significant part of this is their limited ability to access digital solutions, which connects them to digital value […]