The Regional SME Technical Committee Meeting, that was fully sponsored by COMESA Leather and Leather Products Institute was conducted, at City Hill Hotel, Bujumbura-Burundi from 29th – 30th April 2014. The Regional Technical Committee had the mandate to monitor, promote awareness and provide input on SME matters of interest to COMESA/LLPI and its Board of Directors on a timely basis.
The objectives of the meeting were to review the progress of activities in Member Countries and come up with a road map for 2014. Participants were also trained in the following areas of Inclusive Market Approach of developing clusters, resource mobilization and Monitoring and Evaluation for Clusters Development. The meeting was attended by 22 participants drawn from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Reports on SMEs activities were presented from the above 10 countries.
From the presentations it was noted that quite appreciable successes were recorded by the SMEs Associations since the Syavonga Technical Committee Meeting. The Ethiopian SMEs Cluster (EIFFCCOS) secured huge order that exceeds its capacity, and is regularly exporting more than 10,000 pairs of shoe to Kenya and other neighboring countries; the Zimbabwe SMEs were formally registered, opened bank account and conduct regular savings; the Uganda SMEs association (FLEMEA), in cooperation with COMESA/LLPI, held exhibition and also secured a big space (building) for 10 years period from the Government for SMEs; the Zambian SME association was organized into clusters and formally registered; many more success were also reported.
The Meeting was highly successful and useful as it brought all participants together to understand their objectives, capabilities, activities, achievements and impacts since the first Syavonga - Zambia meeting held in 2013. The following nine point resolution was passed by the participants at the end of the two days meeting:
- Associations must be registered and enterprises formalized;
- Build strong relationships with respective governments;
- Support from government in leather strategy plan;
- Clusters or associations should approach organizations for resource mobilization at local level;
- Empower and educate cluster members by disseminating information;
- Celebrate any form of achievement and build up on it;
- Clusters and Associations that demonstrate recapitalization will be prioritized for assistance;
- Effective and efficient utilization of available resources through cluster initiatives;
- Engaging stakeholders who matter, eg. Government, academia, etc..
The Regional Technical Committee Members also attended the inauguration ceremony of the first shoe factory in Bujumbura. COMESA/LLPI the newly established shoe factory by providing training in shoe making to 25 of its employees.
