Kenya is losing about Sh100 billion yearly in freight charges for imported cargo, which is paid to foreign shipping lines docking at the Port of Mombasa. Last year, the port made a cargo record of 1.3 million containers leading to a freight payment of Sh78 billion. Each of the standard containers is paid a minimum freight rate of $500 (Sh50,000). Also every year, the port receives about 130,000 units of second-hand vehicles which attract freight charges of Sh10.4 billion, all of which is repatriated back to foreign countries where the shipping lines ferrying them are registered. The reason Kenyan is not getting a share of this huge amount of cash is simple; the country does not have a national shipping carrier that would enable it to benefit from the charges levied on imported cargo. Experts say such a local carrier will be to shipping what Kenya Airways (KQ) is to the aviation industry. To address this situation, cargo importers and other players are calling on the Kenyan government to introduce the Cabotage law to save them from paying billions to foreign firms. ‘Cabotage laws apply to merchant ships in most countries that have a coastline, to protect the domestic shipping industry from foreign competition, preserve domestically-owned shipping infrastructure for national security purposes, and ensure safety in congested territorial waters. The Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa, Car Importers Association of Kenya (CIAK) and independent maritime and shipping sector players say Kenya lags behind in applying the laws that the...

Tanzania has announced that financial deals for the construction of the second phase of the standard gauge railway (SGR) are close to be finalised. The Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Phillip Mpango, disclosed that discussions with a consortium of development finance institutions to finance construction of the railway line were at advanced stages. Tanzania SGR Tanzania is constructing a standard gauge railway that will link Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo to the Dar es Salaam Port. The first phase of the railway line covering 202km from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro is in its final stages. Construction of the second phase of the standard gauge railway line is expected to start from Morogoro to Makutupora area in Dodoma Region. “I am sure of getting the money. So far we are moving on well,” said Dr Mpango, who was leading a delegation from Tanzania at the forum organized by the African Development Bank to tilt the flow of investments to Africa. Infrastructure development Similarly, Trade and Development Bank, Africa Finance Corporation officers confirmed they were raising funds for infrastructure development in Tanzania. The President and Chief Executive Officer for Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, Admassu Tadesse, confirmed that they were pooling resources for Tanzania. Mr. Tadesse revealed that they had already approved US $500m syndicated loan for Tanzania. The Bank’s mandate is to finance and foster trade, regional economic integration and sustainable development through trade finance, project and infrastructure finance, asset management and business advisory services. Tanzania was among the...

Tanzania will increase land under coffee by attracting new farmers from the southern regions of the country as it seeks to raise production from 66,646 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes in the next four years. Some 10,000 hectares of land have been set aside for both small and large scale formers. To attract new growers, the government scrapped some 17 levies and taxes imposed on coffee to stimulate production. It costs $1,000 for a licence to sell coffee in markets outside the country, and $20 to purchase parchment dry cherry coffee, while a processing licence costs $250. While outlining the government’s strategy to revive the coffee sector, deputy minister for Agriculture Omary Mgimba said poor farming methods and low prices in the world market were to blame for the sector’s poor performance. Since most of the coffee varieties being grown now are vulnerable to diseases and pests, the government will provide farmers with 10 million seedlings of new high yield varieties to boost production. He added that the government will start a campaign to uproot old coffee trees and replace them with the new varieties. Tanzania has earned $123 million this year alone from coffee exports. Until the year 2000, coffee used to contribute at least five per cent of Tanzania's export earnings with Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions accounting for 20 per cent of the total export. Under the patronage of Tanzania Coffee Board and private stakeholders, the government’s new coffee strategy, Tanzania is also lobbying local and foreign investors to...

Source: Youtube

Tanzania is beginning to mark strides as a major buyer of Kenyan goods making orders worth Sh15.91 billion in the first seven months to July, even before President Uhuru Kenyatta's visit. Central Bank' data show that this represents an 11.48 per cent increase compared to Sh14.27 billion value of goods imported in seven months to July 2018. In 2018, the neighbouring country bought goods worth Sh29.93 billion in items including plastics, iron and steel, machinery, animal and vegetable fats electrical equipment and vehicles among others. At the time, imports from Tanzania to Kenya were registered at Sh34.52 billion. Cereals, wastes of the food industry, paper and paper board, beverages, spirits and vinegar are among goods that Kenya imports from Tanzania. Kenya has been gearing to improve trade with the country whose relations has been tensed over the years due to a high number of tariff and non-tariff barriers. In 2018, Tanzania imposed a 25 per cent import duty on Kenyan confectionery, including juice, ice cream, chocolate, sweets and chewing gums, claiming Kenya had used zero-rated industrial sugar imports to produce them. The country still remains opposed to the issuance of work permits to Kenyan nationals looking to work in around its borders. The trading imbalance in favour of Tanzania is set to reduce if bilateral talks between the nations is anything to go by. The countries held bilateral meetings in Arusha, in April, to resolve the trade issues and barriers affecting the movement of goods across the borders including rules of origin for some products...

This week, hundreds of Rwandans will flock the annual ‘Made in Rwanda’ trade fair to shop their favorite locally-made products and services. It has become a tradition every year for Rwandans to attend such fairs and for local producers to showcase their products. According to the Private Sector Federation, the chief organisers of the event, last year, the trade fair saw 450 exhibitors showcasing their locally produced products. That was an 80 per cent increased growth in its four-year history. This year, more than 500 exhibitors are expected to showcase their products and services. That has a genesis. In 2015, the Government embarked on a campaign that was aimed at promoting domestic consumption of Made in Rwanda products, with the intentions of stimulating the demand for domestic production. That was expected to increase export volumes and revenues and ultimately help to offset the trade deficit, which had been rising significantly at the time. At the same time, the Government laid out the ‘Domestic Market Recapturing Strategy’ to identify priority areas that would quickly contribute to Rwanda’s market recapturing. Those sectors were construction materials, light manufacturing and agro-processing. In 2017, the Made in Rwanda policy was introduced, highlighting specific steps and actions through which the country would step up efforts aimed at promoting domestic production and consumption. Today, there is a host of local producers racing to lure Rwandans to buy their products, while others are already exporting their products to regional and international markets. Diane Mukasahaha, a businesswoman based in Kigali, points particularly to the...

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has signed an unfunded $250-million (Shs920bn) Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) facility with ABSA – a pan-Africa financial institution with a solid presence in 12 African countries. The 3-year RPA facility was signed November 12, on the sidelines of the Africa Investment Form through its trade finance operations. Under this 3-year RPA facility, the Bank and ABSA will share default risk on a portfolio of eligible trade transactions originated by African Issuing Banks (IBs) and confirmed by ABSA. Leveraging the Bank’s AAA rating, ABSA will underwrite trade transactions issued by African issuing banks across key sectors like agriculture, energy, and light-manufacturing with a special focus on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s)  in fragile and low-income African countries. The Bank’s commitment under the RPA is to assume up to 50% (and 75% in special cases) of every underlying transaction issued by the IBs, while ABSA will confirm such a transaction and bear not less than 50% of its underlying risk. Working with strategic partners like ABSA, the Bank’s  trade finance operations aim to facilitate inter and intra Africa trade by reducing the trade financing gap on the continent. Since 2013, the Bank’s RPA program has supported over 16 issuing banks with about US$650 million  limits in Southern Africa alone, with special focus on SMEs and local corporates in manufacturing, agribusiness, import/export and energy sectors. In the same period, the program supported over $4billion in trade volumes across Africa, with $938 million of that being intra-Africa trade....

For the first time, Africans need visas to travel to less than half of other African countries, the report finds. A record 87% of African countries either improved or maintained their score, an increase of 9 points from 2018. The biggest improvements were made by Ethiopia, which moved up 32 places to join the top 20 in terms of openness, mirroring the country’s progress in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. Senegal’s move to introduce visas on arrival for some African countries and removing visas required before travel pushed it up into the top 10. Yet the freedom of movement that will be needed to make the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) a success remains a work in progress. Africa’s infrastructure deficit was a central theme at the AIF, which highlighted the need to attract investment into large-scale railway and road projects. Such projects will both require and further stimulate the free movement of people. Only two African countries, Seychelles and Benin, offer visa-free access to all Africans. Higher income African countries are among the laggards. Seven out of eight of Africa’s upper-middle income economies have low visa openness scores, the report finds. Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Cameroon remain near the bottom of the table. Trust deficit The absence of the protocol for free movement of persons was a notable omission from the agenda at the African Union Summit in Niger in July, according to a paper by Mehari Taddele Maru of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute in Florence. The AfCFTA was launched at...

With its first dry port, Rwanda is looking to create a gateway of trade to Kenya, Tanzania, and beyond, sparking interregional trade across the continent. Source: Marketplace Africa

First international digital road freight platform to be launched in the continent; Provides shippers and carriers a one-stop platform for road freight connections for domestic shipments within South Africa and international movements to several neighbouring countries; Further expansion to connect shippers and carriers within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is planned for early 2020. Digital freight forwarder Saloodo! a subsidiary of DHL Global Forwarding, the leading international provider of air, sea and road freight services, today launched its digital logistics platform for shippers and transport providers in South Africa, bringing the first digital road freight solution to the region. An efficient road freight network is a key conduit of trade within a geographically wide-spread country such as South Africa but also with 16 landlocked countries within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, much of the region’s road freight operations remain fragmented and highly traditional, missing out on the visibility, efficiency and security that logistics technology offers. “Digital transformation is a top priority for the industry and given the demographics, we expect demand for digital transformation to be driven by emerging markets globally,” said Tobias Maier, CEO of Saloodo! Middle East and Africa. “Africa is the world’s youngest continent with 60% of the continent below 25. This is a dynamic generation of digitally-minded young adults, demanding smart, digital solutions both on the business and home front.” With South Africa as its launch pad into Sub-Saharan Africa, Saloodo! is the first digital logistics platform available in the region that offers a single, simple and reliable interface...