Published by Alvyn Ulrish Shad Savrimuthu
On 8 July 2026, the Economic Development Board of Mauritius (EDB), as host institution of the SheTrades Mauritius Hub, opened a two-day workshop titled “Unlocking AfCFTA Opportunities for Women-Led Businesses in African Markets” at the Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel in Port Louis.
Organised in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), the workshop brought together women entrepreneurs, trade specialists, government officials, financial institutions, and logistics experts around a single purpose: equipping Mauritian women-led businesses with the tools, market intelligence, and strategic frameworks needed to trade and grow under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Africa Is the Next Chapter for Mauritius
Mr Sanjay Bhunjun, Chairman of the Economic Development Board, opened the workshop with a speech that set an unambiguous tone for the two days ahead. He invited the room to reconsider what Africa represents for Mauritius, moving beyond geography or market size to something more fundamental. “Africa is the next chapter of Mauritius,” he said. “Not because it is close. Not because it is big, though it is, with 1.4 billion people and over three trillion dollars in economic weight. But because Africa is young. It is determined. It is growing.” The question before the room, he argued, was not whether Mauritius would be part of that growth, but who from Mauritius would lead and benefit from it. Looking at the women entrepreneurs gathered, he was direct: the future of the country will not be built in boardrooms alone, but in marketplaces, workshops, and cross-border trade routes, through the quiet, stubborn decisions of women who refuse to wait for permission.
He was candid about what still stands in the way. Access to finance remains a mountain, access to information a maze, and access to networks a closed door for too many, he argued. He made a pointed promise in return, committing the EDB not to talk at participants but to walk with them through the “unglamorous practical work of getting a product from Mauritius to Lagos, Nairobi, Casablanca, or Abidjan”. He was equally direct about how success would be measured: not by attendance figures, but by contracts signed, containers shipped, and foreign currency accounts opened. “Africa does not need our advice. It needs our products,” he said. “Africa does not need our speeches. It needs our services. Africa does not need our goodwill. It needs our goods.” He closed by asking participants to leave not as attendees, but as pioneers.
The Minister’s Keynote: a Declaration of Intent
The Honourable Dhananjay Ramful, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, described the workshop as more than a training event. “Today’s workshop is not just a workshop,” he said. “It is a declaration of intent. An intent for Mauritius to build the capacity of its women entrepreneurs to export on the African market.” He situated the event within a broader continental moment, noting that the AfCFTA, which came into force in January 2021, has expanded significantly in scope, moving from goods and services to encompass investment, intellectual property rights, competition policy, digital trade, and, crucially, a binding Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade, making the AfCFTA the first trade agreement with an autonomous and legally binding instrument on these issues. He also reported that at a recent meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers, a Ministerial Regulation on Preferential Market Access for Women and Youth in Trade had been adopted, a concrete step toward ensuring that the agreement’s benefits are commercially meaningful for all.
Minister Ramful also outlined the national policy context supporting women entrepreneurs. Recent budget measures include the removal of the requirement for spousal consent when women contract bank loans, which he described as a historic recognition of women as full economic decision-makers. An envelope of five million rupees has been allocated for a dedicated incubator for women under the SME scheme, alongside the establishment of a She-Invents Programme to promote women in research and innovation. “These policies are not just about fairness but also about empowerment,” he said. He reaffirmed the government’s intention to work closely with the EDB and UNDP to integrate women and youth into export-oriented, high-value sectors including fintech, textiles, and ICT services, and expressed confidence that the AfCFTA represents the continent’s most important instrument for navigating global uncertainties and building a unified, prosperous Africa.
Mauritian women entrepreneurs: already part of the Strategy
Dr Michelle Cristy, Programme Manager at ITC SheTrades, was direct in her framing of what the AfCFTA means for the women in the room. It is not an invitation into a strategy designed elsewhere. It is a framework they are already part of. “To the entrepreneurs here, you are not being invited into this strategy,” she said. “You are already part of it.” Mauritius ratified the AfCFTA in 2019 and has identified its competitive advantages clearly: textiles and apparel, agro-processing, jewellery, and services. Three of those four sectors are precisely where Mauritian women-led businesses already concentrate. She was equally clear about the practical challenge ahead. “The hardest part of the AfCFTA is not deciding to trade across the continent,” she said. “It is knowing how. How to comply with the rules and standards. Proof where your product is made. Move it, price it and get paid.” She also highlighted that the SheTrades Mauritius Hub, launched in 2023, has registered more than 360 women-led businesses, with over 100 actively engaged in export readiness coaching, and that the global SheTrades network places Mauritian entrepreneurs within reach of partners in Accra, Lagos, Johannesburg, and Nairobi. “Use this network,” she said, “and use it very often.”
A Platform for Action, UNDP’s Commitment
Ms Alka Bhatia, UNDP Resident Representative for Mauritius and Seychelles, opened her remarks by pushing back gently on how Mauritius is typically described. “Mauritius, we call it a small island, but I think it’s a big island,” she said. “Big in its entrepreneurial base. And AfCFTA for it is more than just a trade agreement. It is a platform to connect entrepreneurs to the continental market, build new value chains and position women-led enterprises at the centre of inclusive growth.” She outlined UNDP’s support to Mauritius since 2021, which has included national consultations on the AfCFTA Women in Trade Protocol, the National Strategy and Positive Action Plan for Women Entrepreneurship Development, export readiness training, and most recently the Export Accelerator Programme with the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry, through which 80 women-led SMEs have been supported in strengthening their market readiness and regional connections.
She identified five pathways she believes can accelerate women’s participation in intra-African trade: building sector clusters in agro-processing, sustainable fashion, wellness, digital services, creative industries, and niche manufacturing; treating digital trade as an equaliser through e-commerce and data-driven market intelligence; designing finance around women’s growth journeys through blended finance and export credit; making Mauritius a testbed for inclusive trade facilitation through women-focused export helpdesks and simplified rules of origin guidance; and ensuring partnerships open doors to real markets rather than general training. “AfCFTA is not a distant parliamentary framework,” she concluded, “but a practical pathway to more buyers, better finance, stronger logistics, smarter digital tools and deeper partnerships for women entrepreneurs.”
From Opening Addresses to Hands-On Work
The opening addresses gave way to a full afternoon of technical sessions covering the AfCFTA’s strategic landscape, rules of origin, customs procedures, and market identification using ITC intelligence tools, with participants leaving day one with a clearer picture of where their products fit on the continent and what compliance requires of them.
Day two will shift from policy and frameworks to the operational realities of regional trade, tackling financing, logistics, export strategy, and sector-specific opportunities. The running thread through both days is the same one that defined the opening: the AfCFTA is not a promise to be waited on. It is infrastructure to be used, and this workshop exists to make sure the women in that room know exactly how.
The workshop is organised under the SheTrades Mauritius Hub, hosted by the Economic Development Board of Mauritius in partnership with the International Trade Centre and UNDP. For more information, visit shetrades.edbmauritius.org/afcfta-workshop-2026.
