Local entrepreneurs have missed a rare opportunity to shine at a regional exhibition organised as a precursor to the sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) to be co-hosted by Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta and visiting US President Barack Obama. 

The summit starts today in Nairobi and will close on Monday, with more than 2,000 invited global entrepreneurs expected to attend.

Obama, who arrives in Kenya this afternoon on his maiden visit to his ancestral homeland, as president, will grace the summit during which East Africa’s budding entrepreneurs will lobby for smoother trade ties with the economic superpower.

As a forerunner to the summit, the GES-2015 coordinating committee and the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) organised an exhibition to which entrepreneurs from the region’s five countries were invited to participate.

The three-day exhibition closes today.

The New Times understands that participants from other EAC member states used it as a platform to showcase their innovation as well as interact with a spectrum of innovators from outside the region.

Kenya invited entrepreneurs from Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi to participate in the exhibition through the permanent secretaries of the four countries’ Ministry of East African Community Affairs, on June 30.

An exhibition tent had been prepared for each of the four countries.

In the invitation, signed by Barrack R Ndegwa, the principle secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of East African Community Affairs, countries were urged to participate and use the opportunity to interact with a entrepreneurs and innovators from different parts of the world.

The invitation also explained that the exhibition would be an opportunity for participants to enter into new ventures and collaborative partnerships for purposes of growth and development of East Africa.

During the exhibition, two special sessions were also organised; a knowledge sharing seminar focusing on strategy promotion and entrepreneurship; and business-to-business and customer-to-customer handling.

The New Times is informed that officials at the Ministry of East African Community Affairs forwarded the invitation to the Private Sector Federation (PSF) on July 16.

But, according to PSF’s chief operations officer Yvette Mukarwema, it was decided they wouldn’t participate in the regional expo because it was on short notice and collided with preparations for the upcoming annual International Trade Fair due next week.

"We were invited, but the stand was that we wouldn’t participate because our members were already in high gear for the annual trade expo,” Mukarwema said.

Rwanda’s annual International Trade Fair, one of the biggest calendar events organised by PSF, kicks off on July 29, with more than 400 exhibitors from at least 16 countries expected to attend the bazaar.

Rwanda GES delegation

Meanwhile, the country’s private sector will be represented at the summit by 10 Rwandans who were directly invited by the US government but the identity of the invited delegates could not be readily established by press time.

PSF chairperson Benjamin Gasamagera said the federation was not involved in the process of deciding who would represent the country’s private sector.

The Rwanda Development Board’s office directly responsible for entrepreneurship and SME promotion also said they were bypassed.

Roger Webb, the spokesperson of the US embassy in Rwanda, too, confirmed the invite, saying; "I don’t have the list with me. They’re all private Rwandans who have previously participated in various programmes of the US government.”

With only 18 months remaining to the end of President Obama’s presidency, the global entrepreneurship summit is likely to be remembered among his most important legacies, especially by entrepreneurs worldwide, including Africa.

With Africa’s daunting problem of unemployment among its huge young population, entrepreneurship has never been more important to governments that are seeking all options available to create enough jobs for their graduates.

In Nairobi, the over 2000 participants at the GES will be discussing how entrepreneurship can be at the vanguard of creativity to generate the jobs needed for African youths.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw