Unique Solutions has emerged as one of the winners at the just concluded Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship held in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to the recognition the company received a  prize of $50,000. Mr. Papa Yusupha Njie received the award on behalf of the company.

Commenting briefly upon receiving the award, Mr. Njie said “I Thank Allah the almighty for his continued guidance and benevolence. A big thank you also to my great family and the same goes to the board, management and staff of Unique Solutions. I am deeply honored and humbled for being winners at the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship. All finalists were winners and stood out in their own way as a testament to what is good about Africa. These awards clearly demonstrate that there is indeed business excellence in Africa. It does not matter the size of your country, population, gender, politics, infrastructure or otherwise; entrepreneurship still thrives in these most difficult of circumstances. The home of Entrepreneurship is indeed in Africa. I dedicate this award to spirit of the Gambian people in helping me standout and be counted in this great continent of ours. Long live the Gambia!”

The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship recognises and rewards business leaders who embody the entrepreneurial spirit and qualities required to succeed in business and who are the inspirational role models for the next generation of African Entrepreneurs.

The grand prize went to SECURICO, security services firm that provides guarding services and electronic security solutions. It was also the first security company in Zimbabwe to be ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) certified. SECURICO has more than 3,400 employees, 900 of which are women, making it the largest employer of women in the private sector.

Congratulations to Unique Solutions Ltd!

Speaking at the opening, Under Secretary-General and ECA’s Executive Secretary, Abdoulie Janneh said that Africa’s share of global trade remains low at about 3% and continues to be dominated by primary commodity exports.

He pointed out however, that there is cause to be more upbeat about Africa’s trade prospects if we look at developments at the sub-regional and national level.

He also noted that there is much that can be done to reap gains from intra-African trade and expressed optimism on the scope for expansion in regional trade, with intra-Africa trade at just about 11% of total trade as compared to 72% in Europe and 52% in Asia.

“Africa must perforce explore and utilize the benefits of regional value chains starting with the important agro-processing sector,”he opined.

According to Janneh, thisinaugural African Trade Forum provides the African trade constituency with an opportunity to build on the success stories in intra-African trade in spite of various constraints.

He also highlighted what he saw as encouraging signs emerging from ECA’s analysis to be published in the forthcoming Economic Report on Africa 2012 and said some regional economic communities have exceeded the average intra-African trade growth.

“The intra-COMESA trade is growing by at least 35.4 per cent between 2009 and 2010, rising from US$12.7 billion to $17.2 billion,” he added.

He further lauded the efforts by the EAC, COMESA and SADC for committing themselves to realizing by 2014 a Free Trade Area (FTA) that will be based not just on market integration, but on shared benefits through industrialization and infrastructure development.

He emphasized that harmonization of RECs trade policies through a continental FTA would result to an additional US$34 billion in intra-African exports, “just from eliminating current intra- and inter-RECs tariffs,” He said.

He added that when the non-tariff barriers are also tackled through improved trade facilitation, intra-African trade could rise to about 22% in the next 10 years, “all of which goes to show that if we do what is required, we can optimize intra-African trade.”

Deputy Chair of the African Union Commission, Mr. Erastus Muencha expressed optimism at the prospect of increasing both intra-African trade and trade with the rest of the world and noted that the coming month is crucial as African leaders work towards establishing a Continental Free Trade area by 2017.

“The establishment of the EAC, COMESA and SADC FTA is a win-win, he said and added that there is already evidence of growing diversification within the FTA, which should in turn help in identifying our competitiveness vis a vis global trade.”

“Furthermore, these efforts can go along way and help position ourselves better vis a vis the stalled Doha Rounds,” he added.

Source uneca.org