THE Congolese Minister for External Trade, Lambert Matuku Memas, on Monday evening toured Northern Province where he was briefed on various economic activities that can benefit citizens of both countries. The minister was in Rwanda for a working visit to witness how rural residents put into practice various policies meant to boost trade activities. As part of his visit to the province, regarded as the country’s food basket, he toured different development activities in Rulindo District, including businesses owned by individuals who promote the Made-in-Rwanda initiative, through agro-processing. The minister observed how juice, wine and biscuits, among other products, are made out of farm produce mainly, passion fruit, at Urwibutso Entreprise owned by Sina Gerard. He also heard from some businesses from the district on how the Government provides them incentives when starting their business through tax holidays and finding them markets abroad. Matuku reiterated his government’s commitment to strengthening ties with Rwanda, particularly through boosting trade between the two countries. He particularly requested that products from Urwibutso Enterprise and other locally made products, including foodstuff, should be regularly exported to Kinshasa. Speaking toThe New Times, the Governor of Northern Province, Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi, who accompanied the visiting minister, said the province was ready to take advantage of the DR Congo market. “We have a new cement plant which will be functional by September that will be supplying high quality cement to Goma and in other parts of Eastern DR Congo. We also have Burera garment factory, which is set...

The Kenyan government has now resorted to vetting of importers and exporters of consolidated cargo in the latest move to curb tax evasion. This comes in the wake of recent piling of cargo at the Nairobi Inland Container Deport (ICD) as authorities opted for 100 per cent verification on containers with consolidated goods. This is on suspicion of under-declaration and misdeclaration by traders in a tax evasion racket that has been denying the government revenues amounting to billions of shillings. Rogue state officials have been accused of colluding with unscrupulous traders to facilitate false declarations, denying the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) requisite taxes, such as import duty, a move said to have led to a loss of over Ksh100 billion(US$987.8million) in the recent past. They are also said to allow in counterfeits into the market and through the transit route into the hinterland in exchange for kickbacks. The verification process has led to delays in cargo clearance at the ICD which has been receiving large consignments of goods in the wake of increased haulage by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Cargo consolidation The method involves assembling small shipments into a large container for delivery. Commonly seen in international export, it involves packaging, or bundling, multiple small shipments into one large shipment for distribution to the same end location. Instead of individual companies paying substantial shipping costs and dealing with slower shipping speeds, cargo consolidation (sometimes also called freight consolidation) puts items from multiple shippers into one shared shipping container. Speaking during a...

Tanzania and Zambia plan to build a refined products pipeline to transport petroleum between the two countries at a cost of $1.5 billion, Tanzania’s Energy minister said on Tuesday. Zambia, Africa’s top copper producer, imports most of its petroleum requirements, mainly from the Middle East, through the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. Medard Kalemani said in a presentation of his ministry’s 2019/20 (July-June) budget that the pipeline would run from the commercial capital Dar es Salaam to Zambia’s mining city of Ndola, some 1,349 km away. Kalemani, speaking in Tanzania’s administrative capital Dodoma, did not give a time frame for when the project would kick off, but said that in the coming fiscal year, they planned to complete a feasibility study. He also gave no details on how it would be financed. “The project will reduce challenges in transporting petroleum products in the countries that use our ports to import fuel and open up business opportunities ...” he said. “The project will be implemented jointly by Zambia and Tanzania.” Kalemani said the pipeline would also have take-off points at Morogoro, Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya and Songwe regions on the Tanzanian side. Tanzania and Zambia already have a crude oil pipeline between them transporting oil to Zambia, where it is refined in Ndola for local use. Source: Reuters

Construction works on the Rwandan side of the proposed Gatuna One-Stop Border Post will be completed by the end of next month, a top official has said. “We are in the final touches,” Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, the minister of state for transport, told The New Times on Monday. “We hope the remaining work will be completed by the end of next month.” In March, the Government closed Gatuna border to heavy vehicles allowing only light traffic to use the crossing as construction works began in earnest. However, there are concerns that completion of the Rwandan side of the border infrastructure won’t necessarily mean that the new facility will start serving its purpose immediately because not much progress has been made on the Ugandan side. “Completion of works is one thing but functioning is another altogether,” Uwihanganye said. “For One-Stop Border Post to function, it has to be both sides. So, what about the other side?” The project is being funded by the Government of Rwanda, with local firm  NPD Cotraco the contractor. When The New Times visited the border post on Monday, workers were mostly involved with the finishing aspects such as levelling the compound, fixing the drainage system, planting grass, among others. A site supervisor told this newspaper that the remaining work may take about three weeks to complete. “I would say we are over 90 per cent done,” the engineer said on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorised to speak to the media on behalf of his employers. Works on...

EAST African Community (EAC) partner states have been urged to continuously respond to emerging challenges to cope with aviation and non-aviation demands as well as strive to meet international standards. Speaking at EAC consultative meeting on air transport facilitation here recently, Principal Air Transport Officer with Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Benjamin Enyenze reminded the forum participants of the key role that air transport plays in promotion of trade, tourism and economic growth in the region. “Air transport facilitation is important aspect of aviation and the EAC airports have to continuously enhance capacity of existing infrastructure to ably cope with future aviation demands, meet international requirements and contend with ever changing threats against civil aviation,” he argued. The aviation expert underscored the importance of EAC Air Transport facilitation forum in ensuring smooth movement of passengers, goods and aircrafts at all EAC international airports. The two-day forum was attended by representatives from ministries, departments and agencies, civil aviation and airport authorities, airlines, customs, immigration and other stakeholders from all the EAC partner states. Among other things, the regional consultative meeting delved on issues that affect air transport in the region to comply with Annex 9 (Air Transport Facilitation) and Annex 17 (Aviation Security) of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. During the forum, the participants also suggested areas of improvements at the airport including, among others, the need to screen imported goods at the cargo terminals for security reasons, to put in place quarantine area for contaminated animals and ensure...

Policymakers and business leaders from across Africa, and representatives of Regional Economic Communities on the continent Monday started a two-day policy dialogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to map out a strategy for the successful implementation of the of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The dialogue is co-organised by the AU and the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA), a development platform for discussions and reflections. Participants are expected to map out a strategy for implementation of the trade agreement and set the pace for Africa’s aspirations outlined in Agenda 2063. Agenda 2063 is Africa's blueprint for transforming the continent into the global powerhouse. The first session on Monday was opened by the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, the Chairperson of the CoDA Board of Directors. The session looked into key elements required to establish an efficient and active continental free trade area, beyond tariff liberalisation. Expected outputs include identification and prioritisation of recommendations to remove non-tariff barriers as well as address trade-related infrastructure constraints. The AfCFTA was first signed by African leaders on March 21, 2018 in Kigali and 23 countries have since ratified the deal with up to 52 of the 55 AU member states signatories. Benin, Eritrea and Nigeria are the only countries that have not yet signed the agreement establishing the AfCFTA. Only 22 ratifications were needed for the agreement to go into force. Among other benefits, experts project that the AfCFTA will increase intra-African trade by over 50 per cent and boost the...

The ambitious African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which technically enters into force on 30 May could be the game changer for Africa’s hitherto lacklustre economy. Driven by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the process of reaching this point may well have broken all African records. African Union member states launched negotiations to create this huge market of 1.2-billion people with a GDP of over $3.4-trillion in only March last year. Jakkie Cilliers, head of African Futures and Innovation at the Institute for Security Studies, calculates that the AfCFTA, if properly implemented, would boost Africa’s economic growth and reduce extreme poverty more than any other single factor in the long term. In a forthcoming book on Africa’s future, Cilliers reports on the results of forecasts done using the International Futures software on the likely impacts of 11 major transitions: social grants, rejuvenated education, peace, a fourth wave of democracy, improved health, external support, a demographic dividend (a timely bulge in the size of the working-age population), an upsurge in local manufacturing, an African agricultural revolution, leapfrogging outdated technologies – and the AfCFTA. Cilliers found that other drivers such as social grants, agriculture, leapfrogging and manufacturing would make the biggest difference in the short term. But by 2050, the AfCFTA would clearly be exerting the greatest impact on GDP per capita and extreme poverty. For example in lower-middle-income countries it would be boosting annual GDP per capita by over $1 500, compared to the next biggest factor, technology leapfrogging, which would be...

Can the threats to the East African Community (EAC) trade bloc, including accusations of “trade wars” and border closures between Rwanda and Uganda, be turned into strengths through mediation by countries such as Kenya? And will the EAC continue taking a lead in Africa’s transformation into a continental economic bloc? The EAC is one of eight regional economic communities recognised by the African Union (AU). One of the ominous questions at its Council of Ministers meeting from 6 to 10 May in Arusha, Tanzania, was whether it would again survive the upheavals that brought it crashing down in 1977, at the height of a customs union success. Will political differences between leaders and feuds between member states halt the momentum achieved since its relaunch in July 2000? Will the new EAC remain possibly Africa’s most successful case for regional integration? Recent headlines highlighting the tensions between Rwanda and Uganda, and Burundi and Rwanda echo the difficulties that precipitated the collapse of the old EAC. These feuds threaten progress within the bloc of six countries with an estimated population of 195-million. The ministerial meetings were set to look at how regional integration could be strengthened. These included reviewing plans for a common currency and a political federation. Discussions of these proposals began at the February summit, where President Paul Kagame of Rwanda took over the presidency from his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni. The success of such plans will confirm the community’s reputation as the most rapidly integrating regional economic bloc over...

Rwanda is looking for $1.3 billion to fund the construction of the proposed Isaka-Kigali standard gauge railway that links Rwanda and Tanzania, a senior Rwandan official said Tuesday. The figure is higher than $1.2 billion revealed during the launch of the 400 km railway line on January 20, 2018 in Dar es Salaam. "The study for Isaka-Kigali SGR is completed," said Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, Minister of State in charge of Transport, while speaking at a local radio station talk show. "Rwanda is looking for a staggering around $1.3 billion to finance its portion with the aim of reducing logistics costs, boosting trade and easing the movement of people between Rwanda and Tanzania." Investing in transport projects is among the Rwandan government's top priorities as a way to attract investment in productive sectors, improve business environment and increase jobs opportunities, he said. Initial studies had shown that the project that will connect landlocked Rwanda to the Dar es Salaam port was estimated to cost $2.5 billion. Source: Rwanda Today

Egypt has announced that it plans to launch a regular maritime line from the port of Ain Sokhna, east of Cairo, to East African countries in October with the aim of ensuring the arrival of Egyptian goods as well as boosting exports to East African countries and landlocked countries, including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. In a press statement May 19, Public Enterprise Sector Minister Hesham Tawfik said the new maritime line will help boost trade to Africa, transport goods and provide logistical services to exporters and importers, with the aim of promoting trade between Egyptian and African countries and reaching new markets to support the national economy. The minister also said the new maritime line will help Egypt enhance its role as a northern gateway to African trade with European countries. He added that the line will provide elements of logistical support from transport, warehousing and insurance services. Construction for the line started this month; the line is to start in October. The government did not announce the cost of the project and said it will be paid for by the Holding Company for Maritime and Land Transport. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport announced May 19 that a committee was set up to study the available transport capacities and the development of maritime transport services, in light of the government directives in this regard, in cooperation with the relevant ministries. Economists and transport experts have praised the establishment of the new shipping line, arguing that it will give a push to Egypt’s exports...