Women benefit from new EAC cross border trade guidelines

Mr Samwel Mwangi, Senior Assistant Director for Regional Integration (left) and Busia Cross Border Women Traders Association Chair person ,Florence Atieno during the launch of a simplified guide to cross border women traders in Busia County. (Photo/Isaiah Gwengi)

BUSIA, KENYA: The East African Community and the Kenyan government have established simplified guides aimed at improving cross border trade among millions of women from member states.

The guides provide relevant information on existing policies, procedures, requirements, rules of origin, taxes, tariffs, exemptions and facilities available to cross border traders such that they can ably trade within the region.

The guides, according to Samwel Mwangi, Senior Assistant Director for Regional Integration, was established following the information gaps and numerous challenges faced by women that have been a stumbling block denying them opportunity to trade freely.

“The main challenge has been the information gap. Most of them do not know the privileges they have and some of the laws that usually favour them. This has made many not thrive in their business,” said Mwangi.

Studies have shown that there are about 16 million traders in the EAC region of which 70 per cent are women dealing with primary stable and agricultural commodities.  

“Cross border traders are significant players in feeding this country. Majorly trade in cereals and other foodstuffs which are essential in stabilizing food supply in Kenya.”

The launch, coming few weeks after establishment of a one stop border post in Busia and other border points, was done in Busia by the East Africa Community, the Kenyan government’s ministry of EAC and Nothern Corridor aimed at empowering women doing small scale businesses in the states within the region.

The once stop border post has brought in some tangible achievements to the women since its establishment such as improved time for processing, improved relationship between the government officials and traders, improved market linkage between East African countries, attracted investors, improved the environment at the border and reduced operation cost.

Mwangi said the new capacity development programme for women cross border traders is also motivated by the “Big Four” national agenda which seek to accelerate economic progress of Kenya through manufacturing, universal health care, food security and affordable housing.

Some of the challenges that came up during the empowerment forum organized by GIZ and attended by close to 100 women traders were inadequate border security, lack of a common physical market, lack of information on trade and harassment by border officials.

Dr Kirsten Focken, GIZ Cluster Coordinator termed the guides for small-scale women cross border traders as an important initiative to bridge the gender income inequality gap that has existed for over two decades in the region.

She indicated that the gender gap is found across many assets, inputs and services such as land, livestock, labour, education, financial services, and technology; and this imposes costs on the broader EAC economy.

“We need to jointly investigate further where laws and regulatory environments facilitate or hinder gender equality and women’s economic participation and develop specific activities and interventions to remove the barriers,” said Dr Focken.

The GIZ coordinator pointed out that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase export and import income by 20 to 30 percent and expand their business distribution channels across the region.

Florence Atieno, Chairperson of Busia women cross border traders Association urged partners working at the border points to conduct further joint sensitization for border officials and women traders and improve border security to ease trade.

She also asked for establishment of a central market and storage facilities at Busia border to facilitate trade for women doing cross border trade.

“Effective cross border management and trade enable women benefit from cross border trade through increased income and generate more revenue for the governments,” said Atieno.