Next Friday 7 September at City Hill Hotel, Trade Mark East Africa will hold a workshop on the launch of a Challenge Fund for potential beneficiaries in Burundi.
The workshop will address what the Challenge Fund is, what it will serve and who will be the beneficiaries. The Trade Mark East Africa Challenge Fund (TRAC) is designed to boost innovative projects that can stimulate regional trade within the East African Community (EAC) as well as in the region’s trade with the rest of the world.
The Challenge Fund project is financed by Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA).
Projects proposed by private firms that have the potential to boost cross- border and international trade will be eligible for funding. These innovative projects will benefit large numbers of men and women and promote climate resilience and in environmental sustainability, according to project spokesperson Robert Amigo.
The Challenge Fund project will support service businesses that have developed to reduce the cost of trade in East Africa. The main grantees are likely to be providers of logistics and transport, financial, ICT and in professional cross-border services.
Lastly, this project will incentivise strong collaboration between the private sector and civil society organization across the EAC that can gather evidence of the way barriers to trade harm the public interest and mobilise public support for reforms that will lead to greater trade and regional integration, particularly those able to use new social media.
The fund of $7.5 million will be given to EAC member states. EAC member states will share this fund butno individual member state is allowed to spend over 40 per cent of the total budget of the fund.
