|
West African Business Association looking for new members
The West Africa Business Association (WABA) is a group of over 200 companies and entrepreneurs who have a business interest in, or with West and Central Africa. WABA is also linked quite strongly with the Southern Africa Business Forum (SABF) and the Eastern Africa Business Association (EABA) where joint events are often held. WABA, together with SABF and EABA is also an active member of the British Africa Business Association (BABA) which, through the Business Council of Europe and the Mediterranean (BCEAM), has a voice in the European Union.
The objective of the Association is to assist its members to successfully conduct business within the sub-region, to the benefit of both the members and the countries in which they are active. And it is expected that they will achieve their objective through five main areas of activity; information, networking, influence, help and promotion.
Information - sourcing and dissemination of authoritative information on the 22 countries comprising the sub-region, covering commercial, economic and political intelligence via confidential monthly reports and regular business briefings.
Networking - promotion of networking opportunities for members, drawing together offshore businessmen, their counterparts in West and Central Africa and luminaries in the sub-region's governments and public sectors.
Influence - propagation of the views of members on improving the business environment in the sub-region to both local and offshore governments and discreet lobbying of these governments and international organisations on behalf of the collective membership.
Help - practical assistance for members doing business with West Africa on administration problems (e.g. visas and airport pick-ups), specific business arrangements (e.g. intervention, often at Ministerial and Ambassadorial level), and local marketing and access to certain advantageous arrangements in local hotels etc.
Promotion - positive promotion of member companies through the Association's website, publications and events through the year together with its contacts with the media and other important trade, business, lobbying and African interested bodies.
The West Africa Business Association has its headquarters and Secretariat in London, with resident representatives in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The WABA also has subsidiary business associations with thriving local memberships in Ghana and Nigeria.
|
