U.S. Commerce Secretary Ends Africa Trade Mission

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker wrapped up her trade mission to Africa with a stop in Ethiopia that focused on AGOA renewal.

AGOA, the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act, “is one critical tool to continue deepening trade and investment ties between the U.S. and Africa,” the Commerce Department said in a May 27 news release.

Pritzker led a delegation of 20 U.S. businesses on a trade mission to Ghana and Nigeria May 18–23 focused on Africa’s energy sector.

The trip included these outcomes:

• The Electricity Company of Ghana selected Charlotte-based renewable energy company SEWW to lead a $25-million-a-year, seven-year upgrade and expansion project in the Greater Accra Region that will aim to improve the transmission and distribution of electricity and train local citizens to operate and maintain the new infrastructure that the project will install;

• In Nigeria, University College Hospital in Ibadan signed an agreement with Environmental Chemical Corporation, based in California, for the finance, design and construction of a new, state-of-the-art cancer institute;

• Also in Nigeria, multiple deals were signed with Ellicott Dredges, a Baltimore-based firm, to provide dredges in the country.

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Press Release, May 29, 2014