The event is intended to highlight and publicise the achievements of South African companies in expanding their exports to the highly competitive US market under the US Africa Growth and Development initiative. It is an initiative of the U.S. government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the International Trade Institute of Southern Africa (ITRISA), the wider goal of which is to incentivise and encourage South African producers to explore innovative ways of improving their regional and global competitiveness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Looking for answers or unsure of what to expect?
1. General Questions
The event venue will be announced shortly and a maximum attendance of 60 participants via RSVP is applicable. The event will also be live-streamed and a link shared via various channels.
Corban Thomson – corbanthomson@itrisa.co.za
Competition Questions
Participating businesses must be privately owned and ultimately held by citizens/residents of South Africa. Participating businesses must actively be exporting to the U.S under AGOA.
Complete all sections of the nomination form.
Monday 6 June 2022.
Completing a nomination is estimated to take around 10 to 20 minutes.
You may enter any category which you believe applies to your company.
The judging panel will consist of a carefully selected group of professionals selected on the basis of their industry knowledge and experience. A detailed analysis of every application is undertaken, and each judge’s final selection is discussed by the panel as a whole, in order to choose a winner for each category and the overall ‘AGOA Exporter of the Year’. Winners and runners up will be notified individually.
Winners and runners up will be announced at the hybrid event held on the 29th of June 2022.
If you would like to nominate another company who you think is eligible for one or more of the award categories, please send us an email with the name and contact details of the business to corbanthomson@itrisa.co.za
What are the prizes on offer?
The overall winner will receive a trophy, substantial publicity, and a full bursary for one employee to ITRISA’s 3-year Diploma in International Trade Management (Exports) distance learning programme with both local and international accreditation to the value of R78 000.00. The overall winner will also be invited to participate in the Regional Exporter of the Year Awards event which takes place later in the year.
Winners of the small-, medium- and large-sized exporter categories will each receive a trophy, publicity, and a full bursary for one employee to ITRISA’s 1-year Higher Certificate in International Trade distance learning programme with both local and international accreditation to the value of R24 000.00.
The winner of the Female-, Youth- and Black-owned Exporter categories will receive a trophy, publicity, and a full bursary to ITRISA’s online 5-day Complete Export Administration course valued at R14 375.00 (inclusive of VAT).
All winners in each category will have a professional audio-visual team visit their premises to shoot a unique, company-specific winner video, and receive a range of promotional material for their future use, valued at R35 000.00.
