Comesa delegation call on President Ramkalawan |01 September 2021

The Comesa delegation in a souvenir photograph with President Ramkalawan and Minister Radegonde (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

The secretary general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, yesterday paid a courtesy call on President Wavel Ramkalawan.

Mrs Kapwepwe, who was leading a five-member delegation from Comesa, is in the country, since Saturday, for the official launch of the Seychelles Chapter of the Comesa Federation of Women in Business (COMFWB) which took place yesterday at the Eden Bleu Hotel. The platform is to support women entrepreneurs to trade their products on the African market while they exchange ideas and experiences to set up or expand their existing enterprises.  

Speaking to the press after meeting President Ramkalawan, Mrs Kapwepwe said they discussed on having, with the empowerment and inclusion of women, the country to take advantage of being a bigger market in the Comesa while addressing pertinent issues, such as accessibility, transportation of goods, and value addition.

She said she informed the president on her meetings with various ministries where the discussions centred on how Comesa, through its various programmes, can support businesses, including the smallest of the MSEs in the country, to access the Eastern and Southern African market.

“There are a lot of products that are still being exported in the raw form and we have to look at the logistic side, which is a point the president brought up, that it is very difficult to move within Africa from one place to the other,” Mrs Kapwepwe said, noting that it was an area to be addressed so that goods, such as our fish products, can get to move quickly.

Mrs Kapwepwe added that with Seychelles accessing trading with the Comesa member states, it will allow our country access to cheaper products also.

Also present in the discussion were the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Sylvestre Radegonde; the principal secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador, Vivienne Fock-Tave; the chairperson of the COMFWB (Seychelles Chapter), Claudette Albert and other senior officials from the ministry.  

Other members of the Comesa delegation include Maureen Sumbwe, chair of COMFWB; Ruth Negash, chief executive of COMFWB; Lanka Dorby, director of information technology and networking and Providence Mavubi, director of industry and agriculture.

 The Comesa delegation also held talks yesterday with the Minister for Finance, Economic Planning & Trade, Naadir Hassan and with the Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change & Environment, Flavien Joubert.

Patrick Joubert