GENEVA, Switzerland, (ITC News) – A landmark gathering of East African and European trade promotion organizations revealed a shared playbook: go digital, know your markets, map your clients, and use AI to get ahead.
A first for trade
Trade promotion organisations from across East Africa and Europe met together for the first time in April to discuss a shared challenge: how to help small exporters compete in global markets.
Three themes dominated the meeting in Dar es Salaam: digitalisation, AI, and smarter client mapping.
One of the event’s clearest takeaways was that digital infrastructure can remove the need for maintaining a physical presence overseas.
David Yamina, director of partnerships at Kenya’s export agency KEPROBA, explained how his country unlocked duty-free access for most of exports to China – and how digital platforms are extending that reach further.
‘It’s important for us to have a presence in other markets, and we learned we can bypass the cost of on-the-ground representation through chambers of commerce, foreign missions and the digitalisation of our services,’ said Yamina.
The event was organised under the EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade (MARKUP II) Programme.
At the event, a TPO Excellence Masterclass was organised in partnership with Trade Promotion Europe. This showed how e-portals and digital business platforms allow agencies to promote exports through online buyer-seller engagement, track product views, monitor purchasing progress, and spot emerging buyer trends in real time.
‘They showed us the number of buyers now using digital platforms – a path we definitely want to go on,’ Yamina added.
KEPROBA has already digitalized enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and is using both an e-portal and electronic government procurement in its national trade and branding campaigns.
Know your exporter. Client mapping matters
Beyond technology, participants stressed the importance of knowing exactly what their small business clients need. Deogratius Mbarara, an investment officer at the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, said tailored services are what separate effective TPOs from the rest.
‘TPOs need to have the capacity, knowledge and digital tools to help their SME clients export effectively,’ said Mbarara. ‘With the world evolving as it is, they need to understand the digital marketplace and provide expert market intelligence that is targeted and meaningful.’
AI as a competitive edge
With global trade under pressure from economic uncertainty, the Masterclass made clear that digitalisation and AI-powered tools are no longer optional. ‘Those TPOs who integrate these into their mechanisms will be at a serious advantage,’ said Mbarara.
The EAC is already building a regional e-portal to give exporters greater market visibility and access. By prioritising value-added products such as avocado oil, the goal is to strengthen regional value chains and to boost trade both within and beyond the bloc.
What’s next
For Yamina, whose country wants to double its 2023 income from exports by 2028, the priorities are clear: ‘We need to be thinking of our enterprises on this level.’
To keep up the momentum, a masterclass is planned for Nairobi, aimed directly at exporters and government officials to reinforce understanding of global market trends.
The Dar es Salaam event gathered TPO leaders from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and South Sudan. Their European counterparts came from Catalonia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The EU–EAC MARKUP II is funded by the EU as part of Global Gateway and implemented by ITC, EAC Secretariat and national partners.