The International Trade Centre (ITC) together with Business France has on 26 September 2019, ended MOPSE 6 Workshop hosted by the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA) at Golden Tulip Hotel in Freetown.
MOPSE is a capacity-building project by ITC designed to strengthen the operational management of export promotion programs for twenty one (21) selected national Trade Promotion Organizations (TPO) in Sub-Sahara African Countries. The workshop was a follow-up on the Export Promotion Action Plan (EPAP) and Strategy Planning that has been in progress during the previous MOPSE trainings.
Therefore, the MPOSE 6 focused on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure the relevance of the MOPSE Program and its real impact on the performance improvement for the twenty-one beneficiary TPOs:
- Progress made in the implementation of the Leadership Action Plan
- Elaboration of the TPO Strategy consistent to the mission of the Organization and qualified objectives (KPI)
- Quality of the implementation of the pilot export promotion action and active follow-up by each parties involved, through the actions’ result measurement
- Finally, the capacity of each TPO to elaborate and formally validate before end 2019 by all stakeholders (Government, Board of Directors, ETC.) the 2020 export promotion plan under the form of objectives’ contract or equivalent
The Chief Executive Officer of SLIEPA, Mr. Sheku Lexmond Koroma, During his statement, he affirmed that the training was beneficial as it built the capacity of the participants to formulate a workable EPAP that accelerates their performance in achieving the goal of their organizations. He appreciated the experience sharing sessions and the networking among the TPOs; noting that under the New Direction Government, led by H.E the President, Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, Sierra Leone is ready for business and that SLIEPA has an open door policy to accommodate investors, partnership and collaboration.
During his closing statement, he told the participants to feel safe in Sierra Leone, as the Country is peaceful and has kindhearted people. Mr. Koroma on behalf of the President, Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, thanked the participants, ITC, and Business France for giving Sierra Leone the opportunity to host the MOPSE 6 Workshop.
Mr. Philippe YVERGNIAUX, Director, International Cooperation at Business France and one of the facilitators of the workshop, said that they had positive result with most of the Agencies that participated in the workshop. He noted that they have worked with most of them for the past 18 months and they have good vision of what had to be delivered looking at their priorities, objectives and the type of services exporting companies need. “There is a lot of skills and competence in the staff to deliver good services, but in many cases, what affects these Agencies is lack of budget,” he said.
Other facilitators included, Mr. LEGILLON Christophe, Deputy Director, International Cooperation at Business France and Mr. IMAMO Ben Mohamed Imamo, Senior Programme Officer of ITC.
Like other participants, Mr. Henry Fofanah, and Mr. Bobson Magai, SLIEPA Export Development Acting Director and Manager respectively, co-presented the Agency’s Export Promotion Action Plan (EPAP) and Strategy Planning.
Following the end of the workshop, ITC and Business France visited the SLIEPA Head Office at Tower Hill to understand the Agency’s activities, strengthen collaboration and to share their experiences of international best practices.