Rimsom Associates recently began taking the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) training to the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.

Initiated by Rimsom Associates and adopted by the United States Ambassador, Ms. Robin Renee Sanders in partnership with the Bank of Industry, the AGOA zonal campaign is designed to extend the benefits of AGOA to every region in Nigeria and sensitizing the businesses in those regions about the inner workings and benefits of AGOA. So far two successful workshops have taken place.

The first zonal workshop, developed for the North Central region, was hosted by the Niger state Government from the 30th of July to the 31st of July 2008. The U.S organizations on ground to teach participants about taking advantage of AGOA included: US Agency for International Development (USAID), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. West African Trade Hub.

Over six hundred entrepreneurs benefited from this initiative as the workshop paved the way for smaller break-out sessions and one-on-one consultations with the participants and instructors.

The second zonal workshop was hosted by the Taraba State Government from the 13th – 14th November 2008, and was designed to cover the North Eastern zone of the country. The U.S. organizations present and educating participants were US Agency for International Development (USAID), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S West African Trade Hub. The World Cocoa Foundation was also present to give a presentation.

Over one hundred and fifty participants were accounted for as beneficiaries of this workshop, on topics such as:

The workshop later broke into smaller break-out sessions that enabled the instructors hold one-on-one consultations with participants.