Friday November 7, 2025
Cooperatives and MSMEs Development CS Wycliffe Oparanya /HANDOUT
Kenya plans to use this year’s East African Community MSME expo in Nairobi to push for the speedy implementation of the joint East Africa Market Protocol, which continues to face headwinds.
This comes as Nairobi also welcomes the International Trade Centre (ITC), which is officially launching its new regional office in the capital, a continental hub for Africa, further solidifying Kenya’s role as a gateway for facilitating continental trade and supporting MSMEs.
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The 10-day regional trade fair, which kicks off today, will feature a high-level opening session by our President William Ruto on Monday, November 10 and a ministerial roundtable with ITC to discuss the domestication of the global MSMEs.It will also serve as a major platform for “call to action” and address unresolved challenges such as Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), with participation from EAC ministers, AfCFTA and major development partners.
The EAC Common Market Protocol commenced on July 1, 2010, after being signed in 2009, to enable entrepreneurs to operate freely across borders, serve a unified market of over 300 million consumers.
However, its adoption has been slow with almost all member countries still running their trades as separate and distinct markets, keeping their economies disconnected amid protectionism.
The latest move was by Tanzania, which in July this year banned foreigners from participating in trading across 15 services, including the operation and ownership of Micro and Small Industries.
It however softened the stand for Kenya after bilateral-talks albeit back-to-back cross-border trade stand-offs, which have also been seen between Kenya and Uganda in the past.
Kenya and Uganda in August this year also agreed to eliminate existing tariff and non-tariff barriers to facilitate trade, but barriers still exist.
Speaking ahead of the expo, currently in its 25th edition, Kenya’s Cooperatives and MSMEs Development CS, Wycliffe Oparanya, said the Nairobi meeting will serve as a call to action for partner states to accelerate the implementation of the East Africa Market Protocol, to enable free movement of entrepreneurs.