UNIDO and ITC launch first technical meeting for €200M Africa Trade Programme
Lusaka, 4 June 2025 – €200 Million EU funded Africa Trade Competitiveness and Market Access (ATCMA) Programme to Boost African SME Development.
African Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) stand to benefit from the newly launched Africa Trade Competitiveness and Market Access Programme (ATCMA), a €200 million initiative funded by the European Union. Designed to enhance trade and industrial capacity across the continent, the programme will help SMEs improve product quality, align with international standards, and gain access to new markets—particularly under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Jointly implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), ATCMA is structured around five regional components - COMESA, EAC, ECCAS, ECOWAS, and SADC - alongside a Continental Component led by the African Union Commission (AUC).
The ATCMA Programme launched its first Technical Partners Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, on the margins of the 13th African Union Industry Stakeholders’ Strategic Retreat and Africa SME Development Program Partnership Platform Meetings.
“The programme is closely aligned with the AU Agenda 2063 and its key continental flagship initiatives including the AfCFTA and AU SME Strategy, reinforcing efforts to boost regional integration, support small enterprises, and promote value chain development,” says Ron Osman Omar, Director of Industry at the AUC.
“The ATCMA Continental Component and regional initiatives aim to boost African SMEs’ competitiveness and market access by improving standards, removing trade barriers, supporting access to finance, and promoting value addition and green technologies for sustainable and inclusive industrial development”, says Steffen Kaeser, UNIDO’s Overall Lead on the ATCMA Programme and Senior Technical Advisor on SME at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
“The ATCMA is not just about trade,” said Aïssatou Diallo, ITC’s Overall Lead on the ATCMA Programme and Chief of Office for Africa at ITC. “It’s about people—creating jobs, improving livelihoods, and unlocking opportunities for women and youth.”
The initiative represents a shift towards coordinated, Africa-led development cooperation. “ATCMA harmonizes interventions at the continental level while empowering regional economic communities as the building blocks of the AfCFTA,” added Lana Zutelija from the EU Delegation to Zambia and COMESA.
The Lusaka meeting brought together key technical and regional partners to align delivery plans and set priorities. The Continental Component will build harmonized systems for Quality Infrastructure, trade facilitation and value chain development—laying the foundation for African SMEs to export value-added goods, instead of raw materials and will support diversification of trade within Africa and exports to international markets like the EU.
For more information please contact:
%20s.kaeser [at] unido.org (Steffen Kaeser)
UNIDO’s Overall Lead on the ATCMA Programme and Senior Technical Advisor on SME
