Sweacc - Swedish East African Chamber of Commerce

18/12/2025

SWEACC members and business friends in Europe, please notice that the Global Gateway Early-Stage Investment Mechanism now is open! You can visit it here:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/prospect-details/184659PROSPECTSEN

This is a new tool launched by INTPA (European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships) with the aim of providing financial support to EU companies for early project idea development in transport, artificial intelligence, energy and urban development. It is also hoped that this will help to bring relevant project proposals to the Investment Hub for further assessment and potential further support.

Deadline to apply is 2026-03-16 and this tool is directed to EU Chambers of Commerce and Industry members such as the Swedish East African Chamber of Commerce (SWEACC). It is not limited to East Africa, but this can be a useful tool and resource for SWEACC members when they want to establish and start a new project in Africa. We have many members interested in energy and urban development so please review and research this new research and tool to see if it can be useful for your growth in 2026.

Our strategy for 2026 and forward is not only looking for Swedish/East African partnerhips but also EU partnerships helping Swedish business grow in Africa. We have arranged a Investment Cluster meeting focusing on intellectual property law in Africa with EUIPO. We plan to arrange a SWEACC Investment Cluster meeting in April of next year, keep in touch so you also can get an invitation. We will discuss how can you finance your grown in Africa.

Merry Christmas all from us at SWEACC!

15/12/2025

This afternoon SWEACC concluded the last board meeting before Christmas holidays. Most of our board meetings have to be online for many of our board members travel the World. For reference, SWEACC board members now are Joachim Davidsson, Chair, Heaven Bereket, Vice Chair, Tom Walsh, Nerima Tamara, Mercy Mbabazi, Sauda Luzze and Jessica Magnusson (not available for today’s meeting).

Most of this year we have been focusing on strategy and how we organize and operate in Sweden and in East Africa. This work has been led by Jessica Magnusson. We have concluded several good cluster meetings, other event and being part of arranging the Ethiopia-Sweden Business Forum 2025 in Addis. More interesting event to come in 2026.

If you have an interest working closer with SWEACC we have an opening for Nomination Committee work and Accountant before Annual General Meeting 2026. We welcome old and new members if they are interested leading a cluster or being a board member inside our Chamber. Contact us by email to info@sweacc.se and tell us your interest.

Now the Board take the chance to wish all a Merry Christmas and great ending to long year.

See you again in 2026!

12/12/2025

SWEACC is developing a Healthcare Cluster as we want to mobilise more companies to partner up for health and life science opportunities in East Africa. Healthcare in this region is burden by infectious diseases that we in Sweden are not always specialist in. There is also no universal healthcare for all in this region. SWEACC will focus, at least for now, on cancer, heart and vascular diseases, general MedTech innovations and telemedicine or as we describe it, digital health. This can change depending on projects and interest from market.

Some approach healthcare from an NGO perspective, as they want to do impact, improvements, for people in this region, others from a pure commercial, B2B, approach. As a Chamber we welcome both impact and commercial, but our focus is B2B preferable with some positive impact. As a Chamber we will also seek EU partnerships as many projects need more then one or two companies, many must join forces and why not, EU partners. Of course, we also welcome regional partnerships in East Africa and interest from the diaspora community in Sweden.

Interested to join our cluster and efforts. Reach out to me directly as Chair of SWEACC, you can reach me by e-mail chairman@sweacc.se

05/12/2025

Benjamin Dousa, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, have today announced that Sweden will allocate funds from Africa to the need in Ukraine. In regard to Africa the financial aid from Sweden to Liberia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Moçambique will be phased out during 2026. The Embassies in Liberia and Zimbabwe will also be shut down during 2026.

SWEACC have no further comment about the Swedish Governments decision and priorities but only want to inform members and others about this decision as it might affect some in Africa during next year. Minister Benjamin Dousa have said during the press meeting that it will not affect crisis aid, most healthcare related aid but governance, aid to trade, some environmental and others will be cancelled.

02/12/2025

We have received an alert posting from the Swedish Migration Agency that from December 15th Citizens from Tanzania cannot anymore apply for visa at the Embassy in Dar es Salaam. They have also taken away that service from Harare (Zimbabwe) and Maputo (Moçambique). For those in Tanzania you have to visit the Swedish Embassy in Nairobi (Kenya).

If you live in Zimbabwe or Moçambique you need to visit the Swedish Embassy in Lusaka (Zambia) or Pretoria (South Africa).

This new procedure is valid from December 15th.

27/11/2025

Interested in ICT (information and communication technology) in Kenya? There is a Digital Tech Delegation Series taking place in December that are hosted by IPD in collaboration with R.S Advisory and Expand Abroad Services. Focus is what is going on in the ICT sector in Kenya and what business and investment opportunities this can develop for companies in Sweden and Nordic.

For more information, visit here https://www.linkedin.com/events/digitaltechdelegationseries-ken7395011287295963136/

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27/11/2025

It has already been a year since the SWEACC Healthcare Cluster met at the Park Forskaren and during that meeting we focus on people with disabilities, especially how to work with people who has neuropsychiatric disabilities in East Africa. We been working on trying to find finance for a project working with disabilities in East Africa but not success just yet. Now I am back from visiting Ethiopia and Kenya, where I met people from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda to talk about healthcare in Africa. I also met the leadership of Kenya Health Federation to discuss business-to-business inside the healthcare sector.

SWEACC are very interested to see if we can use our Healthcare Cluster to create more partnerships for health-related projects in Africa. I know we have interest in cancer treatments, disabilities, diabetes but in general also medical devices and pharmaceuticals. From walking around in Nairobi I can see medicine is fairly expensive in comparison what people have in salary, and they it is the issue of lack of medicine.

Right now, I have two roles in SWEACC, I am Chair and I am for now also leading the Healthcare Cluster. Please reach out to me if you are interested to be a part of our Healthcare Cluster and future round-table-talks about projects in Africa.

Welcome to SWEACC!

Joachim Davidsson
Chair (chairman@sweacc.se)

25/11/2025

Dear SWEACC network members, the Stockholm Environment Institute invite you all to the Kenya–Sweden Bioeconomy Business and Innovation Fair, taking place December 8–9 at the SARIT Expo Center in Nairobi, Kenya. SWEACC Board Member Tom Walsh will be one of the speakers. Press here to know more about this event;

https://www.sei.org/events/kenya-sweden-bioeconomy-business-and-innovation-fair/

To receive more information about the Fair, including how to join online, getting information and contacts to biobased companies in Kenya and Sweden, how to connect with the participating companies, please register using the link below. Additional details will be sent to you after your registration

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=XRL-PYmlr0SfxxE_O_9Yc4t-X3Q7do1NjWrVkAH0U-lUOEdTRTJVUDZFTFdSMlBMUDRYUkMxQkpIWi4u

Don’t miss this chance to know more about sustainable business in Kenya and East Africa.

12/11/2025

✨️Thank You for a successful Ethio–Sweden Business Forum 2025✨️

Swedish-East African Chamber of Commerce (SWEACC) would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all attendees, speakers, and co-organisers who contributed to the success of the Ethio–Sweden Business Forum 2025 held in Addis Ababa on November 12–13th.

Our representatives, Sauda Luzze and Joachim Davidsson, were pleased to engage with leaders, investors, and innovators from both Ethiopia and Sweden, exploring new opportunities for sustainable trade and partnership.

We are grateful to our partners and hosts Embassy of Sweden, Addis Ababa for the warm hospitality and for fostering meaningful dialogue on strengthening economic cooperation between our two nations.

We look forward to continued collaboration and to building on the connections and insights gained during this important gathering.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia , ,

06/11/2025

Will we see you in Addis next week?

04/11/2025

Friends in East Africa, on 12–13 November 2025, SWEACC will arrange the Ethiopia–Sweden Business Forum 2025 in Addis Abeba together with the Embassy Of Ethiopia in Sweden, the Swedish Embassy in Ethiopia and Business Sweden. You can see from our poster that there are alot of Swedish companies coming to Addis looking to do business in East Africa.

This forum will bring together leaders from government, business, and the diaspora to explore new opportunities for trade, investment, and innovation between Sweden and Ethiopia. Last chance to join in, register here; https://events.business-sweden.com/events/deecdcc95e

If you need information or support, contact us at info@sweacc.se

21/10/2025

Today SWEACC Geen City cluster had a great meeting talking about green energy solutions in East African with some special focus on Ethiopia. Our host this was Tom Walsh, Cluster Manager for Green City but also CEO for Renetech, so we arranged this in Renetech office in Kammargatan 22 in Stockholm.

We had a great line up of speakers as we listen to Joakim Svahn from Nefco who inform us how we can finance new project in Africa, Malavika Venugopal from Carbon Limits presented how carbon market is evolving in East Africa, Per Ljungstrand presented how Green Coal Ethiopia create green goal from elephant grass to supply the cement industry, and finally Justein Abuga from Ecobura teach us how they will change cooking in schools and hospitals in Africal.

it was a great day as we all learn alot about opportunities in East Africa. Now next big event from SWEACC will be the Ethio Sweden Business Forum 2025 in Ethiopia November 12-13th. Read more and register here: https://events.business-sweden.com/events/deecdcc95e