More centres planned to give women information on EA cross-border trade

NYATAYA |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By Annie Njanja

In Summary

• The centres provide women with easy access to information about markets, standards, prices and taxes in the region.

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) is set to finance the building of four additional information centres at key border points before the end of this year, hoping to attract more women to cross-border trade.

TMEA is a not-for- profit organisation that supports the EAC integration process in areas such as trade policy reform and trade-related infrastructure.

The campaign in partnership with East African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) will set up additional resource centres in Holili, Kobero, Kabanga and Namanga. The centres provide women with easy access to information about markets, standards, prices and taxes in the region.

Together with 1,700 women served by centres already built in Mutukula, Busia and Katuna borders, the additional centres will raise the number of women reached by the programme to 5,000 by end of December.

“The resource centres will serve as a link between the women traders and border officials, who the women traders initially feared to approach,” said Christine Nankubuge Ndawula, EASSI programmes director.

The general fear of formality has reduced the earnings of women involved in cross-border trade. A study by EASSI estimates that 80 per cent of these informal traders are women.

Due to lack of information they prefer to move their goods through illegal routes as they hide from authorities, risking exploitation and damage to goods that result in lower returns.

The centres will educate women on the advantages of formal trade, help them form associations to facilitate trade and encourage more women to engage in trade.

“The programme increased advocacy and media coverage of issues related to traders across the EAC, increased access to relevant and timely trade and market information, including gender responsive border frameworks and representation of women traders on the joint border management committees,” said Frank Matsaert, chief executive, Trademark East Africa, referring to the first phase.

The service centres will be complemented by an SMS platform launched in 2012 to increase the number of women traders accessing market information and to cover the existing information gap.

“EASSI realised that women traders at the border sell their products without prior information on how particular goods are selling at particular markets within the region,” said Mrs Ndawula.

“EASSI, therefore, began disseminating market price information to the traders, for example telling them how beans, maize and other produce are trading at different markets in the region,” she said.

The information helps women traders to make informed choices on where to sell or buy goods. For instance, if traders in Busia get information that tomatoes are cheap in Uganda, they will source them from there and sell them in Kenya for a profit.

Besides market price information, EASSI has also included dissemination of general information on trade, for instance, the ban on import or export of a certain product, new tax rates and any other information relevant to traders.