The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa have signed a three-year partnership to help African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) navigate and scale within intra-African trade, with a special focus on women- and youth-led businesses.
The memorandum of understanding, signed on Sunday, 14th of September, 2026, in Addis Ababa, establishes a framework for cooperation under DHL’s GoTrade programme. It aims to equip entrepreneurs with practical skills in logistics, digital trade, customs procedures, regulatory compliance, market access and trade finance so they can better leverage opportunities created by Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
As a flagship first engagement, ECA and DHL are launching a joint virtual training series designed to guide African SMEs through practical trade hurdles. The programme will cover customs procedures, logistics, e-commerce, digital trade, regulatory compliance, market access and trade finance, with applications open until the 18th of September 2026.
The partnership also commits to capacity building for women- and youth-owned businesses, digital transformation and innovation in trade, joint research and analysis, and knowledge sharing on cross-border commerce across Africa. By focusing on these areas, ECA and DHL say they want to move beyond one-off interventions and build sustained SME participation in regional and continental value chains.
The ECA-DHL collaboration sits within a wider expansion of DHL’s GoTrade initiative across Sub-Saharan Africa. In early September, DHL signed a separate MoU with Absa Group to extend GoTrade’s logistics, training and trade-support services to SMEs in multiple African markets, building on earlier partnerships in South Africa with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, Standard Bank and MTN.
Together, these initiatives aim to address long-standing barriers that limit SME growth, including restricted access to finance, export-readiness gaps, limited digital adoption and difficulties accessing international markets. For ECA, the partnership with DHL is another tool to operationalise AfCFTA’s promise for small businesses, turning policy frameworks into practical support that entrepreneurs can use to move goods and services across African borders
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