Nairobi is set to be a flurry of activities starting this weekend, as delegates for COMESA events to be hosted at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) jet into the country.
The flurry of high-level delegates in the country will culminate with the 24th COMESA Heads of State and Governments Summit set for October 9, which will bring 21 Heads of States to the capital, injecting more economic gains for city hoteliers, transporters and other sectors.
This follows the highly successful hosting of the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in August.
The Ministry of Trade and the COMESA Secretariat are the organisers of the events in Nairobi, offering Kenya yet another opportunity to display its growing reputation for hosting high-profile events.
To kick off the week will be a two-day COMESA EU Horticulture Connect, a seminar that will bring together various stakeholders in the sectors in Africa and Europe. This will take place at the KICC, between October 6 and October 8.
At the heart of the connect is to foster business partnerships between European buyers and horticulture producers, through networking, discussing market access, and enhancing participation in global value chains, with a particular focus on supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
On October 7, the focus turns to the 18th COMESA Business Forum, which brings together regional and international stakeholders from both the public and private sectors with the goal of interrogating Africa’s trade in the world of digitisation.
Under the theme of ‘Leveraging Digitalisation to Deepen Regional Value Chains for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth’, the forum comes at a crucial point for the region as countries seek alternatives for goods that often found their way to the US market through AGOA.
According to COMESA, the forum will cover enhancing trade through digitalisation, strengthening cross-border value chains, boosting Agricultural Productivity in COMESA through Agritech, and Agro-processing and Value Addition.
The forum will also discuss ways to expand opportunities for SMEs and women-led enterprises and ways to drive inclusive economic development across COMESA member states.
But all eyes will turn to the main event, the 24th COMESA Heads of State and Governments Summit on Thursday, October 9.
Here, presidents from the 21 member states, including Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius and Rwanda are expected to attend. The others are Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
As the host, Kenya is expected to assume the chairmanship for the year 2025/2026 as is the custom. This will grant Kenya the opportunity to shape policies affecting the movement of people and goods in the market with a population of over 500 million people.
