MSME Participation in Global Trade Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Trade ministry officials, Export promotion managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EE-045

Before you join: Participants should have working knowledge of business operations, trade support, SME finance, economic development or supply-chain management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Micro, small and medium enterprises often have products and services with export potential but face obstacles that larger firms can absorb: unclear market information, costly compliance, weak records, limited working capital, fragmented logistics and buyer requirements that exceed current capacity. Informal businesses face additional barriers around registration, tax, legal identity, payment channels and access to trade-support services. Public agencies, financial institutions, business associations and corporate procurement teams need practical ways to identify these constraints and remove them without creating programmes that only reach already established exporters.

This course examines how MSMEs and informal enterprises enter, sustain and grow in international trade. Participants assess export readiness; select products and markets; interpret tariff, origin and standards requirements; build export prices; evaluate payment and trade-finance options; and map shipment processes. The course also addresses trade facilitation reforms, digital commerce, supplier linkages, formalisation pathways, women-owned enterprise participation and monitoring of trade-support programmes. Participants use evidence from enterprise diagnostics, trader feedback, customs processes and market data to set priorities and design targeted interventions.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with cases involving agricultural exporters, light manufacturers, service firms, border traders and online sellers. Group work applies tools such as export-readiness scoring, landed-cost models, shipment compliance checks and results frameworks to realistic institutional situations. Participants leave with a structured MSME trade participation toolkit: an export-readiness diagnostic, product-market screening analysis, compliance checklist, financing model and implementation plan that can be adapted for a ministry, bank, chamber, development programme or corporate supplier-development initiative.

The course is suited to professionals who design trade policy, finance exporters, deliver enterprise support, manage value-chain programmes or source from smaller suppliers. It is equally relevant for managers preparing their own MSME for export growth.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose MSME export readiness using a structured scoring matrix
  • Screen product-market opportunities using trade data, tariffs and demand criteria
  • Interpret Incoterms 2020, origin rules and core export documentation requirements
  • Build an export price and working-capital model for a small-firm transaction
  • Map customs, logistics and border procedures from order confirmation to delivery
  • Design formalisation and inclusion measures for informal and women-owned enterprises
  • Assess digital commerce and lead-firm supply-chain routes to foreign markets
  • Develop a results framework and 90-day action plan for MSME trade support

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Assess whether an MSME is ready for export investment
  • Explain trade costs and compliance requirements to non-specialist stakeholders
  • Prepare credible export pricing and cash-flow assumptions
  • Identify practical routes from informal activity to formal trade participation
  • Lead evidence-based discussions with customs, banks, buyers and enterprise-support providers

For your organisation

  • Improves targeting of export-support budgets toward firms with credible potential
  • Reduces failed shipments caused by documentation, standards and logistics gaps
  • Strengthens bank assessment of MSME trade-finance applications
  • Expands supplier-development options for corporate and public procurement programmes
  • Produces measurable inclusion indicators for women-owned and informal enterprises

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can diagnose enterprise-level barriers and prioritise MSMEs for targeted trade support.

  • MSME segmentation by firm size, formality, ownership, capability and market orientation
  • Export readiness assessment using product, capacity, compliance and financial criteria
  • Trade-cost mapping from factory gate to foreign buyer delivery
  • Informal enterprise constraints: registration, records, payments, premises and legal identity
  • Gender and youth barriers measured through sex-disaggregated enterprise data
  • Prioritising firms with a transparent export-potential scoring matrix
  • Baseline indicators for export value, survival, jobs, productivity and formalisation

Participants can assess how trade rules and administrative reforms affect smaller firms.

  • World Trade Organization rules affecting goods, services and small-firm market access
  • WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement provisions on publication, release and border agencies
  • National Trade Facilitation Committee roles, consultation channels and implementation tracking
  • SME-test procedure for assessing disproportionate regulatory compliance burdens
  • Regulatory impact assessment evidence for licensing, inspection and registration reforms
  • Public-private dialogue agendas built from documented trader pain points
  • Monitoring reform results with time, cost and trader-satisfaction indicators
  • Informal-sector transition incentives: simplified registration, tax thresholds and social protection

Participants can identify and assess export markets suited to MSME products and capabilities.

  • Market selection using demand, tariff, distance, competition and entry-barrier criteria
  • International Trade Centre Trade Map data for product-market screening
  • HS nomenclature classification and tariff-line interpretation for export products
  • Rules of origin under preferential trade agreements and certificates
  • Competitor benchmarking with unit values, import growth and supplier concentration
  • Buyer personas for distributors, retailers, processors and institutional purchasers
  • Market-entry hypotheses tested against minimum order quantities and payment terms

Participants can prepare a practical compliance pathway for an MSME export shipment.

  • Incoterms 2020 allocation of cost, risk, carriage and insurance
  • Commercial invoice, packing list and transport-document data requirements
  • Product standards, conformity assessment and technical regulations distinguished clearly
  • Sanitary and phytosanitary controls for agricultural and food exports
  • Traceability records linking inputs, batches, processing and destination markets
  • Export control, sanctions and restricted-party screening fundamentals
  • Customs valuation, tariff classification and origin evidence aligned
  • Corrective-action logs for rejected shipments and recurring compliance failures

Participants can map shipment processes and identify logistics cost and delay drivers.

  • End-to-end shipment process from purchase order through proof of delivery
  • Freight-forwarder selection using service scope, transit time, liability and price
  • Customs clearance workflow, declarations, inspections, release and post-clearance audit
  • Land border, port and airport bottlenecks mapped through time-release studies
  • Consolidation, packaging and container utilisation for small export consignments
  • Digital single-window services and electronic document submission
  • Cargo insurance decisions based on Incoterms exposure and shipment value
  • Logistics cost sheet separating fixed, variable, border and last-mile charges

Participants can evaluate whether an export order is profitable and financeable.

  • Export price build-up incorporating production, logistics, finance and market costs
  • Contribution-margin analysis for domestic versus export sales decisions
  • Foreign-exchange quotation, spread and currency-risk exposure measured
  • Payment methods: advance payment, open account, documentary collection and letters of credit
  • Working-capital cycle calculated from inventory, receivables, payables and transit days
  • Trade-finance options: purchase-order finance, factoring, guarantees and receivables insurance
  • Credit assessment using buyer information, country risk and payment history
  • Cash-flow forecast for seasonal orders, deposits and shipment milestones

Participants can assess digital channels, operating requirements and risks for cross-border sales.

  • Digital commerce models: marketplace, direct-to-consumer, B2B platform and social commerce
  • Cross-border marketplace onboarding requirements, fees, fulfilment and returns
  • Product listing content: searchable titles, specifications, images and localisation
  • Digital payments, fraud controls and chargeback exposure for small sellers
  • Data protection, consumer rights and electronic-contract obligations
  • Digital marketing funnel measured through traffic, conversion, repeat purchase and acquisition cost
  • Platform analytics used to refine assortment, pricing and target markets
  • Cybersecurity controls for account access, customer data and payment credentials

Participants can structure MSME supplier-development pathways for domestic and international buyers.

  • Lead-firm supplier requirements for quality, delivery, ethics and traceability
  • Supplier capability assessment covering capacity, quality systems, finance and workforce
  • Responsible business due diligence and buyer codes of conduct
  • Social and environmental certification costs assessed against buyer demand
  • Aggregation models: cooperatives, clusters, producer groups and export consortia
  • Anchor-firm linkages structured through specifications, forecasts and supplier development
  • Public procurement set-asides and supplier-registration pathways for MSMEs
  • Contract terms reviewed for liability, quality claims and payment timing

Participants can design practical measures that include informal, women-owned and smaller enterprises.

  • Formalisation pathways comparing legal form, tax regime, licences and social insurance
  • Graduated compliance plans matched to enterprise size and administrative capacity
  • Women-owned enterprise constraints addressed through finance, networks and procurement access
  • Home-based and seasonal businesses included through adapted registration evidence
  • Financial records: sales ledger, expense log, inventory card and bank reconciliation
  • Business development services targeted using diagnostic results and referral criteria
  • Grievance channels for harassment, informal payments and discriminatory treatment
  • Safeguards preventing exclusion when digital systems replace paper procedures

Participants can build a measurable implementation plan for MSME trade participation initiatives.

  • Results chain linking reforms, services, firm behaviours and trade outcomes
  • Logframe indicators defined with baselines, targets, sources and reporting frequency
  • Enterprise cohort tracking for exports, jobs, sales, survival and formalisation
  • Additionality assessment distinguishing programme effects from market-wide growth
  • Cost-effectiveness analysis comparing outreach, conversion and sustained exporter outcomes
  • Sex-disaggregated and size-disaggregated data used for equity monitoring
  • Risk register covering policy reversals, border disruption, finance and demand shocks
  • 90-day action plan assigning owners, milestones, evidence and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. MSME export-readiness diagnostic and scoring matrix
  2. Product-market screening analysis using tariff and demand data
  3. Export shipment compliance and documentation checklist
  4. Landed export-price and working-capital model
  5. Formalisation and inclusive trade participation action plan
  6. Trade-support logframe and 90-day implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Trade ministry officials — design MSME export and trade-facilitation measures
  • Export promotion managers — target services toward firms with viable export potential
  • Development programme managers — build inclusive trade interventions with measurable results
  • Bank relationship managers — assess exporter cash cycles and trade-finance requirements
  • Business association advisers — support members with market entry and compliance issues
  • Corporate procurement managers — develop smaller suppliers for international value chains

Skills and tools covered

Export readiness assessmentTrade compliance managementExport pricingTrade finance analysisMSME formalisationProgramme results measurement

Tools and standards

WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, Incoterms 2020, Harmonized System, International Trade Centre Trade Map

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to establish trade concepts, followed by case work, group exercises, process mapping and facilitated simulations. Participants assess realistic MSME profiles, compare market-entry choices, build export-price assumptions and diagnose compliance failures. Cases draw on agricultural exports, manufactured goods, cross-border traders, service providers and online sellers. Instructor feedback links each tool to participant roles in government, finance, enterprise support or procurement. Application planning converts course outputs into actions, owners, milestones and evidence requirements for the participant’s organisation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working knowledge of business operations, trade support, SME finance, economic development or supply-chain management. Familiarity with basic financial statements, pricing or import-export processes is useful, but specialist customs knowledge is not assumed. Participants should be comfortable interpreting simple tables, percentages and business documents such as invoices or purchase orders. The course does not require econometric modelling, prior export-management experience, legal training, advanced spreadsheet skills or experience with a specific country’s customs system.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need general familiarity with business, trade support, SME finance, procurement or economic development. The course explains customs, documentation and trade-finance concepts from first principles, so specialist trade experience is not required.

Participants should bring a laptop for working with templates and case materials. If permitted, they should also bring a current MSME programme, exporter profile, supplier-development challenge or policy issue from their organisation.

The course is intended for trade officials, export promotion staff, development practitioners, bank managers, business association advisers, procurement teams and MSME managers. It suits professionals who influence how smaller firms reach foreign buyers or enter formal supply chains.

General import-export courses commonly focus on transaction procedures for established trading firms. This course concentrates on the institutional, financial, operational and inclusion barriers that prevent MSMEs and informal enterprises from participating and remaining in trade.

Participants can use the diagnostic, pricing model, compliance checklist and results framework to review a real enterprise portfolio or programme. The final action plan identifies priority interventions, responsible owners, milestones and evidence for management review.

The programme provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between instructor briefings, applied cases, group analysis, simulations, tool-based work and action planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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