The new facility will provide another connection between Ethiopia and global markets, and a transshipment hub where large container ships can offload their freight to feeder ships able to negotiate the Horn of Africa's shallow ports. The recent announcement by the Port Berbera in Somaliland of major progress has opened up a new competition for the Lamu port as the two facilities target Ethiopia as their main transit market. Lamu port has already completed its first three berths, waiting commissioning while Berbera port has announced finishing the construction of 400 metres quay and a 250,000-square-metre extension. There has been an ongoing initiative to open up another corridor for Ethiopia- the Berbera Corridor Project that is set to connect the country to Somaliland. In a strange turn of events, with the Arab Gulf States growing interests in the Horn of Africa region, due to geopolitical and strategic consideration, in May 2016, DP World, a global mega port operator agreed to develop Berbera port and manage the facility for 30 years. The groundbreaking ceremony was held early last year, by the Somaliland president, who said the investment would “bring economic stability and create employment opportunities for our youth”. According to authorities, it was expected that the project would increase trade volumes with Ethiopia by 30% when it is completed fully in early 2022. Port Berbera is now the closest sea route to Ethiopia, a journey of 11 hours. The expansion will give the port capacity to handle up to 500,000 containers yearly....

The African logistics sector is on an upward trajectory as startups in the sector secure growing amounts of funding as the potential for the space to power a commerce revolution on the continent becomes clearer and clearer. According to the latest edition of the African Tech Startups Funding Report released each year by Disrupt Africa, logistics startups had a record-breaking 2019. Twenty-three logistics startups secured investment, up 91.7 per cent on 2018 numbers, which in turn were an increase of 140 per cent on the year before. Total funding increased by 264.6 per cent to US$69,627,000, with logistics startups securing the biggest share of investment by any sector bar fintech. Total annual funding in this sector has been growing at hugely impressive rates, jumping an astonishing 6,746 per cent since 2016. Though much of the logistics sector’s growth funding-wise over the last few years has been driven by two companies, with more than 80 per cent of the space’s investment total in 2019 raised by Nigeria’s Kobo360 and Kenya’s Lori Systems, we are seeing a trickle-down effect, and startups raising at all levels. Powered by opportunity The development of the sector and its increased attractiveness to investors can be attributed to the size of the opportunity. The ability of e-logistics solutions to power the growth of African commerce – and e-commerce – as that undergoes a revolution of sorts is key. Tonye Membere-Otaji is founder of Nigerian company MVXchange, a tech-driven maritime platform that matches vessel charter requests with available Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs), helping users...

In light of the DR Congo’s interest in joining the East African Community (EAC), the East African Business Council is undertaking a study on the opportunities for trade in the vast neighbouring country "to increase knowledge on trade opportunities" mainly for SMEs in the region. This comes after DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi on June 8, 2019 wrote to the EAC Chairman, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, expressing his country’s wish to be a member of the regional bloc currently comprising Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan and Tanzania. Peter Mathuki, the Chief Executive Officer of the EABC told The New Times that the study is being conducted in collaboration with GIZ. The study is slated to be launched virtually on Wednesday, August 19. He said it will, among others, help identify the key supply markets of the DR Congo, "thus enabling SMEs to gauge or even benchmark on the competition." Mathuki added: "The DR Congo has applied to join the East Africa Community as the seventh partner state. This study is set to find out the market opportunities that SMEs in EAC can tap into, to export commodities urgently needed for the development of the country such as plastics and rubber, processed foodstuffs, textiles and leather." "The study will enable SMEs in the EAC to realign and focus their operations to match the growing opportunities in the DR Congo." The regional "business for development project," Mathuki explained, is a joint initiative by the Federation of German Industry BDI; the Federal German Ministry for...

COMESA will start conducting national launches of a digital platform known as the 50 Million African Women Speak (50MAWSP) Project specifically designed to address the information needs of women in business in the region. According to statement from COMESA, the trade bloc will roll out the Platform in 14 Member States between August and November 2020 largely through virtual means owing to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The launches are tentatively scheduled to kick off in Zimbabwe followed by Seychelles on 25 August. The platform which Is accessible at www.womenconnect.org primarily seeks to economically empower women by providing a one-stop shop for a wide range of financial and non-financial services that women need to start and grow successful businesses. It is jointly implemented by COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and is funded by the African Development Bank. Continentally unveiled during the Global Gender Summit in November 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda, the platform enables women in Member/partner States of COMESA, EAC and ECOWAS and other African countries to find information on how to run businesses, where to access financial services, how to create business opportunities online and where to access training resources. Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe has described the initiative as a very practical way of speaking to the general agenda of empowering women with its business resources and custom-built social networking features already attracting thousands of women and connecting them to do business with each other  and share experiences in ways...

The renewed push by manufacturers in Kenya for higher taxation of finished products imported into East African Community (EAC) bloc is a double-edged sword that requires sober reflections. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) says Kenya’s decision to apply a 30 percent Common External Tariff (CET) on imported finished products distorts the regional market because other partner of the EAC Customs Union such as Tanzania and Uganda had settled on 35 percent. To that extent the lobby has a point because a lower CET on finished products comparative to Tanzania and Uganda technically means that such products are likely to be dumped into the Kenyan market despite its sufficient manufacturing capacity for items such as iron and steel products, wood products, textile products, paper and paperboard products, and vegetable oil. In theory, when a higher tariff is imposed, the additional costs loaded upon the affected items discourage imports, which in turn sways the balance of trade. Globally, tariff protection is a preferred policy response by countries seeking to protect infant domestic industries from international competition, providing them ample time to nurture and grow into competitive entities and safeguard jobs. Tariffs are also popular in stances where a country is experiencing import surges from countries known to adopt unfair trade practices such as export rebates. In the case of Kenya, the current CET structure is based on three bands which set a zero percent tariff on raw materials and capital goods, 10 percent on intermediate products and 25 percent on finished...

Health workers taking a saliva swab for coronavirus testing in Kenya On March 11, 2020, the director general of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that “Covid-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.” He went on to warn that “Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.” Historically, mankind has faced pestilences from time to time. But according to Ghebreyesus “we have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time.” True to his word, for more than four months since the declaration, Covid-19 has literally brought all countries to their knees, including the high and mighty. It is also during this period when we have realised that solidarity amongst nations has never been more pertinent. Covid-19 has put regional integration efforts to test, with some realising belatedly that there is no way this war could ever be won by countries acting singly.  It all started in the European Union even before we consider our own East African Community. At the height of the pandemic, around April, countries in Europe, notably Italy and Spain, were experiencing an unprecedented crisis, losing up to 1,000 persons a day. Apparently many countries had chosen to tackle the pandemic unilaterally....

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The demand for air cargo on African airlines have dropped further in June compared to previous month, a new report by a global airlines trade association has shown. The demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres, for the African airlines contracted by 13.8 percent in June. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) data for global air freight markets shows that this was a weaker performance than the 7.3 percent fall in demand in May. IATA said the decline was attributed to the risk of increased spread of the coronavirus on the continent especially in the month of June, causing economic shocks to the lower and middle incomes countries. Analysts worry of a rampant spread of the virus due to weak health systems and adoption of prevention measures including social distancing in the continent’s overcrowded cities and slums. More than a third of Africa's population is said to lack access to adequate water supplies and nearly 60 percent of urban dwellers live in overcrowded slums - conditions where the virus could thrive. “African airlines reported a 13.8 percent year–on-year decline in international cargo volumes in June, up from a 7.3 percent fall in May,” IATA stated. “The Asia-Africa trade lane continues to grow swiftly (from 3.0 percent yoy in May to 20.1 percent in June), but the pandemic became more severe in Africa during June.” Some of the African airlines in cargo freight operations include Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways (KQ), South African Airlines and RwandAir. And while the aviation industry was among the...

The demand for air cargo on African airlines have dropped further in June compared to previous month, a new report by a global airlines trade association has shown. The demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres, for the African airlines contracted by 13.8 percent in June. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) data for global air freight markets shows that this was a weaker performance than the 7.3 percent fall in demand in May. IATA said the decline was attributed to the risk of increased spread of the coronavirus on the continent especially in the month of June, causing economic shocks to the lower and middle incomes countries. Analysts worry of a rampant spread of the virus due to weak health systems and adoption of prevention measures including social distancing in the continent’s overcrowded cities and slums. More than a third of Africa's population is said to lack access to adequate water supplies and nearly 60 percent of urban dwellers live in overcrowded slums - conditions where the virus could thrive. “African airlines reported a 13.8 percent year–on-year decline in international cargo volumes in June, up from a 7.3 percent fall in May,” IATA stated. “The Asia-Africa trade lane continues to grow swiftly (from 3.0 percent yoy in May to 20.1 percent in June), but the pandemic became more severe in Africa during June.” Some of the African airlines in cargo freight operations include Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways (KQ), South African Airlines and RwandAir. And while the aviation industry was among the...

Collective support can help communities with financial backing, advice and information Violeta Gonzalez Behar is Head of Partnerships, Outreach, and Resource Mobilization, Enhanced Integrated Framework, World Trade Organization  Toyin Abiodun is Strategic Advisor to Ministry of Trade and Industry, Rwanda It’s March 2020 and a quarter of the world is in lockdown. In the small landlocked African country of Rwanda, the borders are unusually quiet. Instead of the bustle of thousands of cross border traders carrying all manner of goods on foot and by bicycle, now only cargo trucks are permitted to ferry essential goods such as food items between countries. These measures, while necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19, have come at a great cost to traders, their families and cross-border communities. Most of Rwanda’s cross border traders are women and rely on cross border trade as their sole source of income. Roughly half of Rwanda’s cross border traders are members of a cooperative, which enables them to receive financial backing, training, advice and information. To keep their businesses operating during COVID-19, all cross border traders have been required to consolidate their products and pay for space on border-crossing trucks. Traders who belong to a cooperative have not only been able to pool resources to cover the cost of cargo truck transportation, but they have also been able to access dividend payments and short-term low interest loans from their cooperatives to help them get through this challenging period. It’s taken time to build trust in this new system - communication with trading...