How DHL’s GoTrade Fellowship helps MSMEs enter global markets

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a central role in most economies, yet in countries like Uganda, they encounter significant barriers. Challenges such as limited financing, inadequate infrastructure, and limited understanding of international trade often slow their progress. Young entrepreneurs around the world face similar difficulties, but in developing markets, these obstacles are often greater.

For women in Uganda, starting a business comes with additional challenges due to patriarchal structures and traditional gender roles. Gaining access to capital and earning the trust of male partners and suppliers can be especially difficult.

DHL’s GoTrade Global Business School Network (GBSN) Fellowship Programme helps micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) overcome these challenges by providing business guidance and logistics support. At the same time, the programme offers learning opportunities for students who work closely with entrepreneurs to solve real-world problems.

The fellowship pairs postgraduate business students with MSMEs for nine months. DHL employees also contribute by offering step-by-step support on shipping, documentation, and customs procedures. This structure brings together academic knowledge, entrepreneurial insight, and practical logistics expertise.

One example is Belinda Esaete, founder of fashion brand BelDeluxe in Uganda. She began making silk sleepwear during the COVID-19 lockdown and opened a small showroom in Kampala. In 2022, she joined the fellowship and was paired with Collins Ayoo, a business student from Kenya. Together, they redesigned her strategy to focus on exports and online sales. With DHL’s guidance, Belinda learnt how to manage cross-border shipments and grow her customer base internationally.

The fellowship changed the way she ran her business. She expanded from ten products to more than 400, hired a team of 20, and began receiving international orders, including a recent shipment to Australia.

These outcomes reflect the core aims of the GoTrade GBSN Fellowship Programme. It teaches entrepreneurs the value of cross-border trade and gives them the tools to access international markets. At the same time, it offers students the chance to work in less structured business environments, where they learn how to adapt strategies and make decisions in resource-limited settings.

"Our focus is to address the most pressing problems SMEs face. The core areas of need are often finance, technology, knowledge, and logistics," stated Dr. Sarah Meinert, Global Head of DHL GoTrade

The GoTrade GBSN Fellowship Programme is guided by four key principles. First, perspective matters — a fresh mindset can reveal new paths to growth that entrepreneurs may not have considered on their own. Second, connection is key, as ongoing collaboration between students and MSMEs fosters shared learning and practical problem-solving. Third, the programme values local insight with global reach, combining deep community knowledge with international business and logistics expertise to help small businesses access new markets. Finally, success is shared; when MSMEs grow, they create jobs, strengthen local economies, and contribute to broader development goals.

Since 2022, the programme has supported more than 240 MSMEs in 14 countries. In 2025, DHL plans to expand its impact by working with partners in finance and technology to help entrepreneurs manage digital operations and improve access to funding.

For entrepreneurs like Belinda and students like Collins, the GoTrade GBSN Fellowship has created not just business outcomes but long-term skills that connect people and markets in new ways.