Senator Gerba’s six recommendations to the House trade committee

On April 14, 2026, the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT), chaired by MP Judy Sgro, resumed its study of Canada’s trade with North and West Africa. Its witnesses included Senator Amina Gerba, who told MPs she has devoted 25 years of her professional life to developing trade between Africa and Canada, and Sylvain Tétreault of Blackburn Tétreault and Associates.

Six recommendations

Citing the March 2025 Africa Strategy and the Senate’s report Canada–Africa: Seizing a Strategic Opportunity, Senator Gerba opened with six concrete proposals:

• Make Africa an explicit priority of Canada’s trade diversification strategy, naming priority countries and sectors such as agri-food, clean energy, infrastructure, training, health, financial services, critical minerals and digital technology.
• Strengthen financial tools: expand FinDev Canada with a clearly defined share for Africa, review Export Development Canada’s risk assessment mechanisms to reflect African realities, and create an investment fund dedicated to the African diaspora.
• Organize high-level trade missions coordinated with the Trade Commissioner Service.
• Begin the preliminary work for potential trade agreements with African countries or regional economic communities, in support of Agenda 2063.
• Help build regional value chains in Africa through co-production and local processing.
• Analyze how Canada’s membership in La Francophonie and the Commonwealth can open doors on the ground.

She added that visa predictability remains a problem, suggesting that a visa for francophones could be a pragmatic, immediate step.

The EDC “blind spot”

Asked about blind spots, Senator Gerba named risk analysis first. Drawing on her own exporting experience across francophone Africa, she said she had found EDC’s view of risk in African markets exaggerated, and described the difference between the insurance she was offered for the U.S. market and for Mali.

She also described the diaspora as the economic bridge Canada is looking for, while warning that it lacks information and resources — noting, for example, that many diaspora entrepreneurs are unaware FinDev Canada is active in Africa. And she backed the idea of a Canada–Africa summit, observing that Japan, France, China and Italy already hold them.

Why it matters for the CACT community

This testimony is the clearest statement yet of what a diaspora-informed Africa trade policy would look like: financing designed for African risk realities, a diaspora investment fund, and missions with political weight. Her point about information gaps is also a call to action for networks like CACT — connecting members with FinDev Canada, EDC and trade commissioners is work the community can start now.