In Africa, ITC promotes services exports by women entrepreneurs.

Workshops in Nigeria, Mauritius and Mozambique took place in February as part of ITC's work to promote gender in trade development and increase exports of services from developing countries. The workshops were aimed at women entrepreneurs offering business services, such as information technology, legal, accounting, translation, design, etc. Business services represent the fastest growing component of international trade.

In Nigeria, the initiative was launched by the First Lady, Chief (Mrs.) Stella Obasanjo.

Over 150 entrepreneurs attended the sessions, which offered practical tips on topics such as international partnering, relationship marketing and effective networking techniques. Several strategies were also suggested to engage women entrepreneurs in he mainstream community since, average, less than 5% of participants in ITC's previously-offered services export workshops have I been...