Building Bridges: SBA Support for U.S. Businesses to Strengthen Trade with Businesses in Africa

Event description

Join the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of International Trade, SBA Seattle District, and the African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest, for a webinar on boosting the sales of U.S. goods and services into Africa. Gain practical insights on navigating export challenges and fostering strategic partnerships for business growth.

During this webinar, you will learn about:

• SBA Trade Finance support for U.S. Companies including export loan and export grant programs
• Opportunities for market expansion for U.S. Businesses selling goods and services into Africa
• SBA support for U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents to set up Domestic Business operations within the United States

About the Speakers
John Brislin is SBA's International Trade & Finance Specialist (Export Finance Manager) for Washington State, Northern Idaho and Alaska. He has over 23 years of private-sector international banking and trade finance experience working at Bank of Boston (Bank of America) and Bank of California (U.S. Bank). John has over 12 years of public-sector export trade finance and risk mitigation experience working at Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington (EFACW), Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM Bank) and SBA Office of International Trade (SBA OIT). He looks forward to working with Small Businesses so they can turn their export opportunities into actual sales and to achieve the ultimate goal of getting paid—especially on time—for those sales.

Peter Gishuru is President and CEO of the African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest. Born in Kenya, Peter arrived in the United States in November 1963 and graduated from Seattle University with a Bachelor's Degree in general science. Peter has owned and operated many businesses and founded the African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest 25 years ago.