A meeting by experts to assess the implementation of the strategies for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was started this Tuesday in Mombasa to engage different sectors and look into how Kenya can benefit from the agreement. The meeting that will take place for four days has been organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa together with the Kenya State Department for Trade and Enterprise Development and TradeMark Africa. The experts who are participating include officials, trade economists, academia, development partners and youth and women’s representatives. Mr Geoffrey Manyara, who represented the ECA stated that Kenya and East Africa will benefit greatly from the liberalization of trade under AfCFTA. The Deputy Director for International Trade at the Kenya Ministry of Industrialization, Ms Gladys Kinyuah, said that the government has already focused on implementing the agreement by considering the recommendations from the private sector. Trademark East Africa is confident that, the AfCFTA holds great potential for Kenya, which exports 40 per cent of its total exports within the continent. Frank Matsaert, the Team’s CEO stated that “For the full benefit of the trade deal to be realized, it is essential that Kenya prioritizes key and high potential sectors and markets and backs this with a well thought-out action plan and strategic interventions”. A study conducted by ECA and Trademark East Africa concludes that the trade treaty will lead to an important expansion of East African economies, a US$ 1.1 billion boost in inter-regional trade, creating more than 2...

TRADE Mark East Africa (TMA) has said that the East African region must focus on recovery, building resilience for job creation after the Covid-19 pandemic. “The disease has proved to be daunting, complex and universal. It is not just a public health matter but also affects progress in the fight against poverty, due to its direct impact on jobs and economic performance,” TMA Chief Executive Officer has said.. Mr Frank Matsaert said people are living in times of great uncertainty, fuelled by the onset of Covid-19. "Despite this, we have maintained our focus on supporting trade and building prosperity, creating jobs, and reducing poverty in Eastern Africa,” he said. He said Covid-19 has catalyzed rethinking of global supply chains, shaken traditional patterns of partnerships and stimulated unanticipated innovation. “It has magnified the importance of trade as a driver for development and building resilient economies," he said. Mr Matsaert said it was noteworthy that projected economic growth has more than halved in many countries, particularly in East Africa. Thus, TMA has responded by creating a Covid-19 mitigation programme that leveraged their 10 years of experience, in addition to accelerate core programming with higher levels of innovation and forged new partnerships to address challenges to eastern Africa's recovery. In 2019/2020, TMA begun with an overview of the innovative Safe Trade Emergency Facility (Safe Trade) that it developed and rolled out when Covid-19 first hit East Africa. That was rolled out with the support of its development partners in the European Union, Finland,...

An experts’ meeting to review Kenya’s implementation strategy for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is ongoing in Mombasa to discuss a range of sectors that could help the country benefit from the agreement. About 40 experts are attending the four-day meeting organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with other partners. A study conducted by Trademark East Africa (TMA) and ECA forecasts the trade treaty will lead to significant diversification of East African economies, a $1.1 billion boost in inter-regional trade, creating more than two million jobs. According to TMA, one of the partners, the AfCFTA holds great potential for Kenya, which already exports 40 per cent of its total exports within the continent. Speaking on behalf of ECA in Eastern Africa, Geoffrey Manyara recalled that liberalisation of trade under AfCFTA will harbour great benefits for Kenya and East Africa at large. “Everyone will gain, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)” Manyara said. Earlier this month Kenyan stakeholders ended another review meeting on the same implementation strategy in Naivasha after incorporating new components with wide ramifications for the economy. They included topics such as e-commerce, climate change and Covid-19, which since last year disrupted production and trade flow across the world, to enable the East African country to derive maximum benefits from the agreement. Frank Matsaert, TMA CEO, on Tuesday, said that for the full benefit of the trade deal to be realised, it is essential that Kenya prioritizes key and high potential sectors...

Kenya and Canada share an identity when it comes to gender equality. They are among the few countries that adopted gender responsive measures in the fight against Covid-19. On one hand, Kenya invested in investigating the cause of rise in teenage pregnancies and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and established a multi-agency team to tackle the problem. Canada on its part, invested $100 million to support indigenous women and children experiencing violence and financed women's shelters, sexual assault centres and other organisations providing SGBV services. As the world shifts focus to redeeming the lost gains and building stronger economies of economically, politically, culturally and socially stable women and girls, we speak with Canadian High Commission to Kenya, Ms Lisa Stadelbauer to pick her mind on the way forward. Studies have shown women-led countries outperformed men's in Covid-19 response, what does this mean? That is interesting and it is a moment in time we need to sit down and think why it is the case. One theory that has been put forward is that men are risk enthusiasts. And so countries that took a more cautious approach tend to have come out of the pandemic a little better. Women also tend to lead from a place of empathy and compassion. They put people first and that seems to be the approach that delivered better outcomes. The other thing about women is "what does it mean for women and girls?" In my own country, we have 10 provinces and three territories, and each has...

One of the worst things that can happen to a cryptocurrency is a wallet hack. That, and a few more mishaps, is what happened to IOTA since 2017. As a result, IOTA lost momentum and market cap: from 4th overall, with a market cap of $13,2 billion in 2017, to 25th, with a market cap of $4 billion today. background pattern: IOTA is reinventing itself, with what it calls "A new dawn" for the project © ZDNet IOTA is reinventing itself, with what it calls "A new dawn" for the project Today IOTA is rolling out the beta version of its new wallet. But that really is just the tip of the iceberg in a massive new technology rollout that will get things right this time, IOTA Foundation Co-founder and CEO Dominik Schiener told ZDNet. Blockchain for nothing and transactions for free? Lots of water has flowed under the bridge since 2017. Crypto was just entering the mainstream then, and ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) were all the rage. Fast-forwarding to today, and the world at large is still trying to figure out crypto, most ICOs have gone awry, and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are all the rage. The real question, however, is how much the technology and the people behind and into it have matured. For the IOTA Foundation, a lot of things have changed, including the core team. As Schiener put it: "The IOTA project in 2021 is a completely new project compared to 2017 because as you can probably...

KENYA’S exports to key markets in Africa rose to an eight-year high in 2020, provisional international trade data show, defying delays at border points caused by efforts to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Data collated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) indicate value of goods that were sold to other countries on the continent amounted to KSh243.68bn, (about $2.3bn) a 9.07 percent growth over the previous year. The growth in value of trade between Kenya and Africa to the highest level since 2012 (KSh247.60bn) was largely driven by demand in smaller exports destinations on the continent. Nairobi is championing a plan to remove trade barriers among African countries to grow movement of goods, services and labour through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which aims to create a market of at least 1.2 billion. Kenya, whose sales to Africa accounted for 38 percent of total global exports of KSh641.21bn, lost to Accra in race to host the AfCFTA secretariat in July 2019, a pointer to its push for intra-Africa trade which remains at a lowly 10 percent of Africa’s total trade with the world. ‘For the full benefit of the (AfCFTA) trade deal to be realised, it is essential Kenya prioritises key and high potential sectors and markets and backs this with a well-thought action plan and strategic interventions,’ Frank Matsaert, the CEO of Trademark East Africa, told a meeting to review Kenya’s AfCFTA implementation strategy on Monday. The CBK data, sourced from the Kenya Revenue...

It is no brainer that many foreign countries have been eyeing Africa for trade and investments purposes. Africa is known of its rich mineral land and unexploited resources that mother countries have lacked required capital and technical skills to do it themselves from oil, diamonds, gold not to mention all the agricultural products such as coffee, tea, cocoa etc. United States of America, one among the biggest ranked economies in the world has had interests in doing business in Africa since time immemorial, at the time when Vice President Richard Nixon after winding his trip in Africa recommended to then President Dwight Eisenhower of the greater potential of drawing attention in Investing in Africa and so has been that not with U.S.A but the likes of China, United Kingdom, and other countries such as Japan as had their good sharable investment steps in doing business in the continent. The Obama administration championed to suite U.S. initiatives by Introducing and running a campaign of Doing Business in Africa, Power Africa, and Trade Africa, while the Trump Administration transformed the Overseas Private Investment Corporation into the Development Finance Corporation, beginning negotiations for a free trade agreement with Kenya, and launched Prosper Africa – a U.S. government initiative that was meant to increase trade and investment between the United States and Africa. However, the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance that was formed by the current U.S administration headed by President Biden made its way clear of partnering with dynamic and fast-growing African economies...

The government is satisfied with the work at the port of Mombasa and refuted allegations of congestion at the facility. National Development Implementation Technical Committee [NDITC] on the port efficiency and congestion resolution chairman Karanja Kibicho said the presentations at Kenya Ports Authority [KPA] board room are accurate before embarking on an inspection tour of the port of Mombasa facility over allegations of congestion. He said congestion at the port is not an issue and the government is not worried as they are happy with the work at the facility. He said the port handles four types of cargo with local consignments supposed to be removed to their points of destination. “The is different from cargo for transshipment and transit to neighboring countries,” he said. Kibicho refuted claims in the mainstream and social media that the facility is congested after the fact finding tour. He spoke during a media briefing after the fact finding tour at the port of Mombasa. The NDITC chairperson said they had tried to see how each component is being handled arguing they were unable to detect any congestion. Kibicho, who is interior principal secretary and who was accompanied by his Shipping and Maritime Affairs counterpart Nancy Karigithu and Industrial Commercial Development Corporations (ICDU) Chair John Ngumi, told journalists they are determined to ensure they improve on space of cargo being evacuated at the port. He said they never saw or detected any congestion at the county facility and at the Marshal yard the standard gauge...

Malawi High Commissioner to  Zambia Warren Gunda says the newly-constructed one-stop border-post at Mchinji/Mwami border will boost trade between the two countries. The diplomat made the remarks on Monday during an inspection tour of the new facility in Mchinji. “The project, although long overdue, will ease business transactions between the two neighbouring countries,” said Gunda. He cautioned the institutions manning the one-stop border-post to serve people crossing into either country professionally. On his part, roads and highway engineer Peter Kabalata, who is also the project’s acting team leader, said the facility, whose construction started in September 2018, will be operational soon after the current defects and liability period ends. Malawi Revenue Authority station manager Lucy Chikhawo said the facility will reduce inconveniences that traders from either side experience when clearing their goods. She said: “The one-stop border-post is unlike the current set-up where traders and travellers from Malawi and Zambia have to do repetitive paper work and engage with agencies such as Immigration from both countries separately. “The new facility will lessen redundancy as it will accommodate agencies from both countries in one roof, lessening the time taken for travellers and goods to be cleared.” Mchinji Border Post Immigration Department public relations officer Madalitso Banda said the one-stop border-post will be user-friendly. The facility is expected to open in June this year. The Mchinji/Mwami one-stop border-post project was funded by the African Development Bank. Read original article

THE Eastern and Southern Africa small-scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF) convened a meeting recently which brought together stakeholders from the private sector and government to discuss the Southern African Development Community (SADC) vision 2050 and the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020–2030. Participants to the conference which was themed: “Tanzania Awareness National Dialogue on the new SADC Vision 2050 and RISDP 2020-2030” came up with a number of policy recommendations geared to ensure successful implementation of the agreed development plans. The virtual meeting was supported by Southern Africa Trust (SAT) and German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). They suggested for SADC member states to speed up ratification and domestication of all SADC protocols and programmes at the national level including the SADC Development Fund and SADC Agriculture Development Funds. Stakeholders also advised the government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation to fast track the formation of the Tanzania SADC National Committee (SNC) as well as ensure fully participation of Non-State Actors (NSA) including the private sector, civil society organizations, farmer organizations and the media in the national and regional development agenda. On the RISDP 2020-2030, they suggested that SADC member states including Tanzania recognize and domesticate the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF) 2019-2028 which aims to shed new light on the important role family farmers play in eradicating hunger. Governments to increase joint trading by ensuring every member state identifies products of its comparative advantage to trade within the block. The stakeholders pushed for...