The African Union-led agreement is designed to establish the world’s biggest free-trade zone by area, encompassing a combined economy of $2.5-trillion A truck and trailer drives into a Beitbridge customs and immigration control point on the SA border with Zimbabwe. Picture: REUTERS Nyoni Nsukuzimbi drives his 40-tonne Freightliner for just more than half a day from Johannesburg to the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe. At the frontier town — little more than a petrol station and a KFC — he sits in a line for two to three days, in temperatures reaching 40°C, waiting for his documents to be processed. That’s only the start of a journey Nsukuzimbi makes maybe twice a month. Driving 885km farther north gets him to the Chirundu border post on the Zambian frontier. There, starting at a bridge across the Zambezi River, trucks snake back miles into the bush. “There’s no water, there’s no toilets, there are lions,” says the Zimbabwean. He leans out of the Freightliner’s cab over the hot asphalt, wearing a white T-shirt and a weary expression. “It’s terrible.” By the time he gets his load of tiny plastic beads — the kind used in many manufacturing processes — to a factory on the outskirts of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, he’s been on the road for as many as 10 days to traverse just 1,600km. Nsukuzimbi’s trials are typical of truck drivers across Africa, where border bureaucracy, corrupt officials seeking bribes, and  myriad regulations that vary from country to country have stymied attempts...

Conference is being hosted jointly by Pakistan and Kenya and will also be attended by dignitaries from other African States. Conference will provide an important opportunity for Pakistani and African businesses to interface, identify the areas for enhanced engagement, and develop proposals for customized economic collaboration. During the visit, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will hold meetings with the Kenyan leadership including Cabinet Secretaries for Foreign Affairs & International Trade, African Community and Northern Corridor Development. Source: IPPMEDIA

The United States and the Kenyan government are set to hold negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries in early February 2020. Reports from financial news outlet Bloombergindicated that the negotiations would be the first-ever between the US and Sub-saharan Africa, the only other country benefitting from the agreement in the continent being Morocco. Foreign Affairs PS Ambassador Macharia Kamau confirmed to Kenyans.co.ke on Wednesday, January 29, that the country was indeed hoping to begin negotiations with the US in the near future. "We are waiting for Cabinet approval for the negotiations begin. There is no agreement between Kenyans and the US as of yet. It is just to see whether we will start negotiation on the same," he stated. Ambassador Macharia Kamau (pictured) confirmed to Kenyans.co.ke on Wednesday, January 29, that plans were indeed in the offing to start negotiations on the Open Trade Agreement between Kenya and the US. A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is defined as an agreement between two or more countries that outlines certain obligations with respect to trade in goods and services and provides protections for investors and intellectual property rights. FTAs not only reduce and eliminate tariffs but also help in addressing trade barriers that would otherwise impede the flow of goods and services; encourage investment and improve the rules affecting issues like e-commerce and government procurement. Macharia expressed optimism that if the negotiations go through as the Kenyan government anticipates, the country could benefit from the agreement in numerous ways. "We hope that it would...

Like in many other countries with a post-colonial history of struggling against dictatorship, the business environment in Kenya has not always been ideal. In addition corruption and government policies have often made the going tough for the private sector.These include openness to investment, whether that be through local firms or Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), public-private partnerships, or trust from international allies thinking of investing in Kenyan businesses.Though this has been a tough legacy to break, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his government have struggled to transform the business climate in Kenya in the last few years.In 2017 and 2018, Kenya attracted more FDI than at any other period in history. That was a direct result of competent and welcoming government policy.During his recent speech at the UK-Africa Investment Summit that took place in London, the president noted that “Kenya is one of the top 10 fastest growing economies on the continent and also one of the most pro-business nations in Africa.”Our business environment is now recognised as being among the top on the entire continent of Africa. As part of an effort to encourage foreign companies and investors to set up branches in Kenya, Uhuru committed to an audience of more than 20 African leaders as well as numerous other dignitaries that his administration will do everything possible to eliminate all roadblocks that are currently an obstacle to growth. Renewable energy But turning a profit and boosting the economy is not the only priority. It cannot come at the expense of the...

Kampala- Uganda leads the rest of East Africa in ease of access to foreign exchange, according to the 2019 Absa Financial Market Index. The country, according index, scored 70 out of 100 points compared to Rwanda’s 66, Kenya’s 65 and Tanzania’s 60. Burundi was not surveyed. Access to foreign exchange continues to be a pillar growth across the African continent. The Absa Africa Financial Markets Index evaluates financial market development in 20 countries, and highlights economies with the clearest growth prospects. The index seeks to position how economies can improve market frameworks to meet yardsticks for investor access and sustainable growth. Presenting findings of the index in Kampala yesterday, Mr Jeff Gable, the Absa chief economist said: “Uganda performs strongly … with almost the same score as top-ranked South Africa. It has a high level of foreign reserves relative to net portfolio investment flows and enough reserves to cover more than four months of imports.” Interbank foreign exchange turnover used as a measure of foreign exchange liquidity, he said was $20m in the year to June 2019, one of the highest in the index. Mr Gable said Uganda has enough foreign exchange reserves to cover its portfolio flows with net portfolio investment in 2019 standing at $97m, which is low relative to reserves of $3.4 billion. Easily accessible  According to the findings of the index, survey respondents said foreign exchange was easily accessible but the study noted that Uganda could score more points by adopting the Global Foreign Exchange Code of...

Speaking during a seminar dubbed ‘The first annual Islamic women conference on Tanzania’s industrialization Agenda,’ NBC’s head of affluent banking, Ashura Waziri said through its B-Club network, the bank has launched a special program now in its third year aimed at building capacity for entrepreneurs including women. The seminar which was crafted under auspices of the Muslim umbrella body Bakwata and sponsored by NBC, and held in Dar es Salaam last week, brought together over 3,000 women from diverse backgrounds and featured some of the country’s top female entrepreneurs. “We have succeeded to build capacity for many entrepreneurs through training done in partnership with stakeholder from institutions including Tanzania Revenue Authority, Tanzania Trade Authority, Small Industries Development Organisation,  Tanzania Investment Centre, Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Tanzania Bureau of Standards and National Social Security Funds, to name but a few,” she noted. “We conduct all our capacity building programmes for the business community through NBC B-Clubs hence would like to call on entrepreneurs with customized needs for business skills to get in touch with any of our branches spread around the country,” Waziri added. Opening the seminar on behalf of Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, Angela Kairuki who is Minister of State at Prime Minister’s Office said the government is ready to make extra efforts to create an environment conducive for women to invest in industrialization projects. During the event, Ilala MP and newly appointed Minister of State in President’s Office Environment and Union hon. Musa Azan Zungu...

There has been much hype about a major Africa investment summit being hosted by the UK. Attended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and an array of royals, a great deal of hopeful win-win-win rhetoric abounded linked to forging new partnerships for a post-Brexit future.At the summit, Ghana, it seems, is being given top treatment as a favoured destination, while Zimbabwe appears to have been snubbed despite being “open for business”.UK aid policy these days is focused on promoting UK trade interests abroad, with the government adopting a global business promotion approach for UK firms. The linking of aid and trade, of course, has a history in Britain.In 1994 the Pergau dam scandal – in which aid was used as a sweetener for an arms deal – led to the commitment to untie aid. It also led to the establishment of a separate development department and an Act of Parliament specifying how aid must be spent. This consensus on aid since the mid-1990s, however, is now under threat. Trade and investment can, of course, help reduce poverty, promote women’s empowerment and be good for children’s rights.But the opposite may be true too. There are many different business models – and so labour, environmental and rights regimes – with very different outcomes. We’ve been looking at some of these issues over the last few years across several projects.All were funded by the UK’s Department for International Development. The project compared three broad types of commercial agricultural investment: estates and plantations; medium-scale commercial farms;...

As the first UK-Africa Investment Summit came to end, African countries walked away with million dollar investments in renewable energy projects that are set to bring the African continent and the European Island even closer. Boris Johnson's government is set to invest over US $65.7m into renewable energy projects in Africa, as it works with selected African countries to develop sustainable energy sources. UK Prime minister Boris Johnson speaking during UK-Africa Investment Summit. (twitter/10DowningStreet) The approved projects include solar farms in Kenya, geothermal power stations in Ethiopia and clean energy storage in sub-Saharan Africa. “Our world-leading scientists and financial experts will work hand in hand with African nations to support their quest for energy security, powering new industries and jobs across the continent with a diverse mix of energy sources while promoting economic growth,” said UK’s Business and energy secretary Andrea Leadsom, construction review reported. The British Conservative politician added that close collaboration with African countries will be key as the UK prepares to host the UN climate talks (COP26) later this year. The African countries will receive funding and support as UK scientists and financial experts will work with their African counterparts to realise the continent’s significant renewable energy potential. The UK will further assist the countries with attracting investment for innovative renewable projects, such as wind and solar farms. Entrance to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation Aluto Langano Geothermal plant. The government announced the winners of the investment packages for the continent’s clean energy infrastructure at the African Investment...

Kenya is foregoing huge tax income from companies operating in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs), whose returns are not commensurate with the economy’s expectations and targets. This is as the firms’ key roles of creating employment and growing the economy dim. While the companies operating at various EPZs and their volume of export goods have been growing over time, their contribution to the economy has stagnated, according to the Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), a lobby against tax evasion.After analysing data from various State agencies, including the EPZ Authority, TJNA noted that the contribution of firms operating in EPZs to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) dropped over time, accounting for 0.96 per cent of the GDP in 2016.This is in comparison to 1.04 per cent in 2012, which has since gone down to 0.87 per cent in 2018.The decline in contribution to the economy is despite an increase in production, with the companies jointly accounting for 10.9 per cent of all exports out of Kenya in 2016, a rise from 7.72 per cent in 2012.In 2018, the firms exported goods worth Sh72 billion, a bulk of them being clothing items, which accounted for Sh41 billion of the exports.“Performance of EPZs from 2012-2016 raises concern on the significance and productivity of the incentives granted to the sector. They were expected to catalyse investments,” noted TJNA. “The export contribution of the EPZs to the total exports and over the period between 2012 and 2016 increased marginally, while the contribution of EPZ...

East African Kiswahili expert meeting was convened today to discuss on ways Kiswahili can be used in various sectors so that no one is left behind in the region due to language barriers. Cross-border traders say that if young people learn Swahili as language, it would be of great importance to them in the future because trade in this region improves and widens by more and more and Kiswahili is a prominent language in the trade. Source: Youtube