The business community in COMESA is set to benefit from €10m kitty provided by the European Union (EU) to support increased private sector participation in regional and global value chains. This follows the signing of a financing agreement between the EU and COMESA to implement the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Programme (RECAMP). This programme, signed on Monday in Lusaka, Zambia, is supported under the 11th European Development Fund. The programme aims to ensure that competitiveness and market access of small and medium enterprise (SMEs) and enhance sustainability of targeted value chains. Moreover, the RECAMP will facilitate networking, access to knowledge, vital market information, and support formal business linkages between SMEs, key regional suppliers, and lead firms. Further, it will support more formalised governance structures in the value chains and enhance capacities of SMEs and other actors in adhering to sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) and technical standards (TBT) to comply with regional markets requirements. As well as, the programme targets focusing on improving business environment for SMEs and other firms in the selected value chains by complementing current national strategies developed by member states for economic transformation through industrialisation. The Secretary General of COMESA, Chileshe Kapwepwe, said that the RECAMP will run for five years focusing on three priority value chains, namely agro-processing, horticulture, and leather products.
