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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Insights from Henrietta H. Fore
FrontLines: August 2008
 On July 16, I spoke at the closing ceremony of the three-day African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) forum in Washington. We are now seven years out from the start of this initiative to help African entrepreneurs take advantage of free and open trade with the United States, and to increase their economic prospects at home. This past year has been especially rewarding.
Trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa increased 15 percent in 2007. Imports, in particular, increased 14 percent to $67.4 billion. AGOA grants more than 6,000 products from qualifying countries in sub-Saharan Africa duty-free access to the U.S. market.
Programs like those run by USAID’s four regional Global Competitiveness Hubs—located in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal—have played a major role in improving the business environment in African countries, increasing access to capital for start-up companies and, where necessary, providing training in skills that ready business owners for the challenges of running a company.
Our assistance gives African entrepreneurs the tools they need to make real, sustainable changes in their countries. Their efforts, in turn, create jobs, expand economic opportunities, and reduce poverty.
Attending this year’s AGOA forum was Peter Mabeo of MABEO Furniture, a company in Botswana that manufactures contemporary furnishings. One of the company’s pieces is now sold at Design Within Reach, the San Francisco-based seller of modern furniture with studios throughout the United States. Another success story is that of Gahaya Links, a Rwandan company that sells woven handicrafts made by women who survived the genocide in Rwanda. The company’s “Peace Baskets” are now sold through the Web site of the U.S. department store Macy’s.
In the next few years, USAID plans to assist more small and medium enterprises like MABEO and Gahaya so they can take advantage of the eased trade restrictions that AGOA made possible. Such businesses have proved successful at creating new jobs and driving economic growth in the developing nations on the continent. Through the African Global Competitiveness Initiative, a $200 million, five-year plan started in 2005 by President Bush, the Agency will continue to be a strong partner for Africa.
High-level representatives of many of the 41 countries benefiting from AGOA attended this year’s forum, which focused on mobilizing private investment to increase trade coming from the sub-Saharan region. We will continue to work with them as well as the men and women in Africa who are embracing entrepreneurship and creating economic vitality in their countries.
With serious problems across the continent, both natural and man-made, Africa can appear to be a challenging place to do business. But the reality is quite different. Motivated and ambitious entrepreneurs are ushering in a future that is brimming with possibility. I am pleased to tell FrontLines readers that USAID is providing a helping hand to support them.
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