Nairobi, 9 November 2026 - The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) today launched a four-day Training of Trainers workshop to strengthen national expertise in measuring trade in services and analyzing the contribution of financial services to regional and global value chains.
Taking place in Nairobi from 9 to 12 November, the workshop brings together government focal points, national consultants and experts from Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria and Tanzania, alongside representatives of ECA, Regional Economic Communities and United Nations Resident Coordinator Office. The training marks the start of Phase III of ECA’s programme on promoting trade in services and strengthening the financial services sector’s integration into regional value chains.
These four-country initiative will support evidence-based policies and deeper integration of financial services into regional value chains
Services are central to Africa’s economies: they have accounted for more than half of the continent’s gross domestic product over the past two decades and provided nearly 40 per cent of total employment in 2025. Yet gaps in data and analytical capacity can make it difficult for policymakers to assess the sector’s full contribution and its connections with other industries and regional and global markets.
At the opening of the training of trainers seminar, ECA Regional Integration and Trade Division’s Joseph Baricko, Economic Affairs Officer, welcomed delegates from Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria & Tanzania. He highlighted a critical need: policymakers must have clear evidence of how their nations participate in regional value chains (goods & services) to drive successful AfCFTA implementation.
Attending also the training, Kenya’s UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Garry Conille opened the workshop saying: “Despite rapid global growth, Africa is still underrepresented in services exports. And noted that reliable data is key to unlocking this potential, improving trade negotiations, and strengthening Africa's role in global value chains.”
“A trained expert is not a national capacity until a national institution keeps them,” he added, before calling for institutionalizing ECA training skills within Central Banks & Statistics Offices to build long-term capacity and evidence-based policy.
Addressing the workshop, Ms. Jacqueline Yvonne Atta-Nyamekye from Bank of Ghana thanked ECA for organizing this training of trainers which will provide the participants with in-depth knowledge on trade in services and trade in value added (TiVA) techniques. And she emphasized the need for Africa to work together in particular during the current geopolitical context and tensions, calling for the continent to come together and rely on itself.
The workshop will equip participants with quantitative and qualitative methods for examining value chains, with a particular focus on trade-in-value-added (TiVA) analysis and financial services. The programme combines theoretical sessions with practical exercises and group work using the Eora database.
Participants will build skills to support national data collection and analysis, conduct studies on the role of financial services in value chains, and contribute to national action plans. These plans will help inform evidence-based policies aimed at developing financial services and strengthening their integration into value chains anchored in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The programme is being implemented by ECA in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), with financial support from the United Nations Development Account. Earlier phases provided technical assistance to African countries to strengthen institutional capacity, assess services value chains and develop policy recommendations.
Phase III is expected to run from November 2026 to December 2027. The Training of Trainers workshop will prepare country experts and officials to support subsequent national capacity-building, analytical work and consultations in the four participating countries.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org
