EIPA welcomes Eswatini’s retention into AGOA

The Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) has noted with great interest the retention of Eswatini on the list of countries eligible to benefit from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). In its capacity as a Trade and Investment Promotion agency, EIPA would like to highlight the importance of this milestone for the nation in enhancing export trade.

EIPA CEO. Mr. Sibani Mngomezulu comments, “We would like to applaud the government of eSwatini, through our guiding Ministry, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade for the commitment and unwavering support to create a stable business environment for traders and investors to operate within our borders. The retention of Eswatini under AGOA means that businesses in the country will continue to enjoy preferential trade terms when selling their goods to the American market and in so doing, lays the platform for an increase in exports. Such achievements enable EIPA to more effectively carry out its mandate to attract, promote, encourage, and facilitate local and foreign direct investment and trade in Eswatini for Economic Development.”

Eswatini’s annual export figures through AGOA in 2022 stood at just over $23.5 million (USD). Export trade from Eswatini through AGOA is largely dominated by the export of sugar followed by textiles and apparel, nuts and processed food stuff, handcraft and cosmetics.

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Some of the more recent training opportunities EIPA has made available through support from its partners include a recent collaboration with the USAID Africa Trade and Investment Southern Africa Buy-in Activity where Export Readiness Training targeting local domestic traders and aspiring exporting MSMEs was hosted. The training, which is given free of charge is aimed at capacitating local traders with the skills and technical knowledge required to export to the US. Some of the areas which have been covered include how to export handcraft, cosmetics, and food and beverages to the USA, import requirements for the USA for the above products, linking local traders with buyers in the USA and vendors in platforms such as Amazon.com and training traders on how to use e-commerce to access USA market and digital marketing. The training has also included product development, export standards, export logistics, export finance, and marketing your business for export.

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Another support mechanism includes EIPA’s collaboration with Business Eswatini though the support of the USAID Africa Trade and Investment Southern Africa Buy-in Activity in hosting the Annual Eswatini Exporter Awards. The awards seek to recognize and reward the outstanding performance and noteworthy efforts of local exporters in overcoming market entry barriers and as a result, achieving successful and consistent export trade. This year, a number of women owned, youth owned and MSME’s formed part of the list of exporters who won awards for their exports to AGOA and other markets around the globe.

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Mngomezulu continues, “Though Eswatini has over 50 000 MSMEs, currently less than 200 MSME’s in Eswatini are exporters with most of these trading only in the domestic market. This gives us an opportunity to increase the number of companies who are active in this space while supporting the need to see Eswatini continue to become an export led, private sector driven economy. This makes opportunities for training critical in aligning trade with our current economic growth objectives.”

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Trade finance has also shown itself to be an area that some exporters struggle with when it comes to producing and delivering large orders to their customers abroad. In an effort to create healthy debate and provide the information needed on this subject, EIPA has facilitated trade incentives training with a number of partners including financial services institutions, industrial financiers and others. Some of the topics unpacked have included the Export Credit Guarantee Scheme, how exporters can enhance their competitiveness through Trade Incentives and other available credit facilities, MSMEs Credit Guarantee Scheme, insuring stock in transit and access to funding for youth owned businesses.

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Mngomezulu concludes, “As EIPA we would like to encourage local businesses to take advantage of the AGOA trade agreement. Our doors are open for those with export ready businesses to come forward and get the help they need to make their export goals a reality. Businesses who want to export under AGOA should do the necessary research and make sure that the goods they have to offer are appealing to the market they intend on selling to. We have a great opportunity to take further advantage of AGOA as a country now more than ever.”