Talking Trade Webinar – November 2021 Edition: “The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – Opening African SMEs to a New
World of Business Opportunities.”
Date and Time: Saturday, November 6th 2021
12pm (US & Canada)
5 pm (West Africa Time)
Guest Speaker: Kara Diallo, AGOA Specialist for the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub
Moderator/Anchor: Lady Kay
Host/Convener : Olufemi Boyede, CITP
About The Talking Trade Webinars
The Talking Trade with Femi Boyede Webinars has been set up to discuss, in a professional manner, all the angles related to the various issues that a firm, an individual, or a country can expect to confront as they design, implement or modify their strategic processes to manage global trade. It is a virtual platform for engaging discussions on international trade; its components, the values international trade offers to individuals, corporations, and countries, such as the reduction of poverty, creation of employment, increased corporate profitability and the growth of national economies, among others.
Here are some resources from the November 6th webinar The theme was “The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – opening African SMEs to a new world of business opportunities.”
Outcome: Participants in this webinar will leave with a solid understanding of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, why it was created, what types of products are covered under it, and what they must do to effectively take advantage of the opportunities offered by AGOA. They will also learn about assistance offered through the Trade Hub to help them become export-ready or start exporting through AGOA. Also, Kara and the AGOA team have already successfully helped West African SMEs take advantage of AGOA. He will share some insights and lessons from his experiences so far assisting companies.
Please see the full webinar video below.
AGOA – Opening African SMEs to a New World of Business Opportunities
Here are the keynote presentation slides (Please click below on the image to view the flipbook) Use the arrows to navigate the flipbook and you can also download the pdf.
Guest Speaker - "The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – opening African SMEs to a new world of business opportunities." - Kara Diallo, AGOA Specialist for the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub
Mr Kara Diallo is the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Specialist for the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub. He is based in Dakar, Senegal, and provides technical assistance and training to export-ready businesses across the region on AGOA and U.S. import requirements.
In addition to this work, Kara also assists U.S. companies in finding, vetting, and doing business with West Africa-based companies, thus providing critical market linkages between these two entities. He also collaborates with governments and private sector representatives on the development of national AGOA export strategies.
Mr Diallo’s experience within the region and deep understanding of AGOA comes from his work for the former Trade Hub (2016–2017), where he coordinated and supported the activities of the AGOA Trade Resource Centers (ATRCs) in West Africa.
Mr Diallo also previously served as Trade Advisor at the ATRC in Bamako, Mali, from 2010 to 2012, where he led all AGOA-related activities. Mr Diallo is a citizen of Mali and holds a master’s degree in agricultural sciences from the University of Blida in Algeria.
Expected Outputs and Outcomes
The outputs of the Trade Webinar series will include:
a. Webinar Report: A summary of key findings and policy recommendations distilled from each session, combinations of sessions, papers, and keynote speeches.
b. The proceedings of the webinars, incorporating relevant comments and feedback from peer review and webinar participants will be published after the episode or quarter.
c. Presentation of these findings and recommended solutions will be made to relevant governments agencies, ministries and parastatals as well as other identified stakeholders.
d. Our inhouse team will track results of the webinar series, and make updates available to subscribers and stakeholders.
The Moderator /Anchor
Kemi Amusan popularly known as Lady Kay is a linguist (French and English), an Editor, a Crisis Prevention Intervention Trainer and a community leader (leading several thousands of blacks) as the immediate past president of the Nigerian-Canadian Association in Greater Toronto Area, Canada. She currently works as an Assistant Registrar in a great university in the Caribbean. Lady Kay gives back to the community as the Senior Advocate of Global Women Ambassadors, Canada. In this role, she organizes programs to educate, elevate and facilitate many socio-cultural, entrepreneurship, immigration, educative, empowerment programs for families. Lady Kay is also the host of Agbajo Owo and Ask Lady Kay – the broadcasting arms of Global Women Ambassadors that seek to ‘build the community, one family at a time’.
The Host /Convener
Olufemi Boyede, CITP has over thirty years of professional experience in international trade and strategy, policy advocacy and human capital development. He has broad expertise in trade and business environment improvement, regional integration frameworks, trade linkages, services exports, public-private dialogue and advocacy on non-oil exports and enterprise development issues.
He has a strong background in private sector management positions and consulting roles in the business, trade and logistics communities, and more recently has held numerous senior trade and export development positions in Nigeria’s public and private sectors. In addition to several Consultancy assignments with International Agencies including the World Bank, DFID, GIZ, USAID, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Trade Centre (ITC).
‘Femi’s 30 years of international trade expertise places him in a leveraged position to provide professional advice to worldwide with clients (both importers and exporters) helping them to successfully navigate the day to day complexities of the international trade industry.
His passion to increase awareness and equip international trade stakeholders forms the basis for these series of webinars.