East Africa—Trade and Investment Hub

Growth in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda has been robust but uneven, with millions of people left behind in poverty. Women, youth, smallholder farmers, and the poor are not fully represented in policy making or implementation nor integrated into the wider economic community.

The East Africa Trade and Investment Hub was the U.S. Government’s flagship project under the presidential Trade Africa initiative, which works to increase U.S.-Africa trade and investment, regional integration, and competitiveness. The Hub assisted the region’s private sector to engage with the government in finding practical solutions to constraints to trade and investment. The team also built awareness around opportunities for African and U.S. firms to increase trade, expand business partnerships, and invest in East Africa.

Watch this video of Kanini Mutooni, the director for investment at the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, to see how the project worked:

Sample Activities

• Improve the policy environment for East African Community integration, trade, and investment.
• Bolster regional trade in staple foods.
• Improve information flows and promote the use of available global technology.
• Promote intra-regional trade and export trade, particularly under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

Select Results

• Facilitated Eastern Africa Grain Council forum, where 58 contracts were signed to sell 279,000 metric tons of Ethiopian food grain surplus to neighboring East African countries with food shortages; total value of contracts was $93 million.
• Brokered partnership with American Apparel and Footwear Association, which represents more than 1,000 brands generating $361 billion in annual U.S. retail sales, to address constraints to competitiveness and expansion of the industry in East Africa while creating jobs in East Africa and the United States.
• Supported $249 million in exports through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
• Facilitated $56.2 million of new private sector investment and more than 1,700 buyer-seller export linkages.
• Created more than 38,000 new full- and part-time jobs.
• Supported more than 700 food security producers and organizations.
• Assisted in drafting four policy and regulatory reforms.
• Provided export capacity-building assistance to more than 1,200 firms.
• Facilitated $186 million in grain contracts between African food surplus countries and countries in need.