Seychelles and Comesa Reaffirm Partnership as Women and Youth Programme Launches
📷 Photo: State House (Seychelles)
VICTORIA, Seychelles —
President Dr Patrick Herminie and the Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Mrs Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, used a courtesy call at State House on Monday to take stock of cooperation between Seychelles and the 21-member regional bloc, even as her visit delivered the formal launch of a new training programme for women and youth entrepreneurs.
The meeting, held on 20 July 2026, ranged across trade facilitation, regional connectivity, gender equality and entrepreneurship. According to a State House release, the President thanked Comesa for funding, through the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Programme (RECAMP), the training and industrial equipment that have strengthened the Seychelles chapter of the Comesa Federation of Women in Business (Comfwb). He pointed to the makeup of his Cabinet, the National Assembly and the wider Government as evidence of the priority his administration places on women and youth.
In a separate report, the African Press Agency (APA) said the President also used the meeting to brief the Secretary General on the launch of Seychelles’ electronic Certificate of Origin (eCO) system on 17 June, which made the country the sixth Comesa member state to adopt the digital trade tool. He linked the rollout to the Revenue Commission’s wider digitisation drive and to national efforts to ease the conduct of business.
He also renewed his call for the full operationalisation of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, urging Comesa to champion the priorities of Small Island Developing States within the bloc. The President thanked Comesa for the joint African Union and Comesa Election Observation Mission deployed during Seychelles’ general elections last year and for funding the recent participation of two Seychellois Electoral Commissioners in a capacity-building workshop in Kenya. He raised fisheries as an area for closer technical cooperation, and acknowledged recent Comesa donations to Seychelles, including a desktop computer for the National Bureau of Statistics and metrology equipment for the Bureau of Standards.
Mrs Kapwepwe thanked the President for the meeting and congratulated him on his election, then outlined the purpose of her mission. She briefed him on a Comesa-backed training programme aimed at increasing the economic participation of women and youth, which has already proven successful in other member states and which Seychelles will now host. Delivered through the Comfwb Incubation and Innovation Hub, the initiative will equip women- and youth-led start-ups and small businesses with business management, training and capacity-building skills, while preserving traditional production skills and fostering entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. According to the Comfwb Seychelles chapter, the Incubation and Innovation Hub project has been in preparation since at least May 2026, when Minister for Industry and Enterprise Geralda Desaubin met Comfwb chair Claudette Albert to discuss its scope.
The Secretary General also briefed the President on the Comesa Medium-Term Strategic Plan 2026 to 2030, due to be formally launched at the Comesa Summit in Harare in October. Its priority areas for island states include regional connectivity, the Regional Shipping Line, maritime security, the Blue Economy and climate change. On the Regional Shipping Line, the President said the initiative had become paramount in light of instability in the Middle East, reiterating Comesa’s important role in helping facilitate trade across the region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora said the Minister, Mr Barry Faure, the Minister for Industry and Enterprise, Ms Geralda Desaubin, and the Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Ambassador Ian Madeleine, also attended the meeting. Closing the engagement, the President wished the Secretary General every success with the remainder of her programme in Seychelles, while Mrs Kapwepwe expressed confidence that the partnership would continue to deliver tangible benefits for the Seychellois people and for the wider region.
Sources cited: 1. State House Seychelles, “President Herminie and COMESA Secretary General Reaffirm Partnership as Women and Youth Programme launches”,
