Rwanda Standards Board(RSB) has received $1 million (approximately Rwf900m) to help it keep up with global best practices and offer improved services to its clients to enhance food safety and trade. The signing of the financing agreement took place yesterday between Trademark East Africa and RSB in Kigali. According to officials, it will benefit farmers, pack houses, millers and transporters to enable them attain international standard requirements in food safety of local agricultural products, hence enabling them to access a wide range of markets both regionally and internationally. The money will also be used in interventions such as automation of RSB processes to improve service delivery and increase customer satisfaction. It will also be used to develop a seven year strategic plan that will guide RSB in keeping up with global best practices in standards for international sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS). “We want to ensure that we support standards and certifications to leverage the trading platforms and the improved physical and digital infrastructure,” said Patience Mutesi, TMA Country Director. Officials also said the emphasis was put in agriculture given that the sector accounts for 33 per cent of Rwanda’s GDP and employs 72 per cent of the working population. Also under the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1), the export sector should grow by 17 per cent annually and agriculture is one of the main players. “As productivity increases and regional and global tariff barriers are eliminated, standards and SPS issues tend to rise in prominence, given countries’ commitment to...

An MOU between TradeMark Africa and Ministry of Trade and Industry marks the official completion and beginning of operationalising the markets Upcoming activities including space allocation to traders Construction of Rubavu and Rusizi markets was supported by TMA with funding from DFID and the Embassy of Belgium Rubavu 21st March 2019: The Rwanda Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) and TradeMark Africa (TMA) have today announced the official completion of Rusizi and Rubavu Cross Border Markets. The two organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to symbolise completion and official handover of the markets from TMA to the government of Rwanda. The handover marks opening the market space to traders for business. TMA partnered with MINICOM and Rubavu and Rusizi District administration to oversee construction of the markets for the last 1 year. United Kingdom’s Department for Foreign Development (DFID) and Embassy of Belgium in Rwanda provide funding of USD$ 3, 302 ,255.35 and 2,165,250.17 for Rubavu and Rusizi respectively. Rusizi market is all-inclusive with 186 spaces for trading in goods while Rubavu has 192 spaces. Markets facilities include cold rooms, Creche, warehousing, banks and forex bureaus, sanitary facilities as well as service parking. These cross-border markets directly respond to Rwanda’s National Cross Border Trade strategy that calls for the development of CBMS to promote trade between Rwanda and neighbouring countries; and it is expected that the markets will promote cross border trade between Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. The MOU stipulates that TMA will provide a two-year technical assistance...

I hope by now we have all gotten a chance to experience that tantalising scent when some rain falls on dry soil: Petrichor is the word for it. For a while now the cries about the heat had grown into a huge regional chorus. The rains have finally showed up and the dry soil has been trying to quench its thirst as much as possible. I do hope that the harsh weather served as a good reminder for us to be gentle with mother earth. We need to plant more trees and reduce on our addiction for putting concrete in every space. It is sad that as we craved the rains, down south they faced the wrath of Tropical Cyclone Idai that hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi claiming close to 1000 lives with many still missing. We have gotten used to hearing about such disasters in far of places but with climate change it appears no one is safe from the wrath of Mother Nature. As if that is not enough, in South Africa it looks like the xenophobia wave was reignited once again. The reckless talk by politicians that incites people to go after immigrants needs to stop immediately. It is 2019 and we should be working with, not against each other. The news that warmed my heart the most was the announcement that RwandAir is set to launch direct flights between Kigali and Kinshasa the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a month’s time. This was one...

It is our collective responsibility to ensure that Africa is not left behind in the digital revolution that is sweeping across the globe. Our focus should not be about just being part of this revolution, we should be leading it. Come this May, the 2019 Transform Africa Summit, the most important gathering of global ICT minds and leaders on the continent will convene in Kigali, Rwanda, to discuss how Africa can leverage digital innovations to drive economic growth and long term development. This year’s Transform Africa Summit will take place from May 14 to 17, 2019 at the iconic Kigali Convention Centre (KCC) and it is expected to bring together over 4,000 delegates from over 90 countries across the world. The Transform Africa summit is Smart Africa’s flagship event which was put in place as a vehicle to put ICT at the centre of Africa’s socio-economic agenda. This year’s summit will be the 5th edition and will run under the theme “Boosting Africa’s Digital Economy”. This particular summit is exciting for us because it comes at a time when the continent is holding candid conversations on how our countries can harness technology and digital innovations to boost their economies and usher an era of sustained development. The timing is optimal because today, the world is embracing the fact that technological disruption has impacted on the way we do things. It comes at a time when the world is coming together to drive the digital economy agenda. This is very important...

Ethiopia’s ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was received with much applause as a significant step towards effecting the agreement. This is a year after the initiative was launch in Kigali in March 2018. Now only one country remains to ratify the agreement, which could be any time now, completing the required 22 ratifications for AfCFTA to enter into force. This one country could either be Egypt, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Togo, or Sierra Leone. Each one of them is set to ratify following approval from their respective parliaments. With the agreement coming into force being so imminent, one can almost feel the jubilation; it may be expected the moment of reaching the 22 ratifications will be received with much fanfare. The gaze is already on the future and how the AfCFTA will be implemented. Remember that a foundation already exists, with the regional economic communities (RECs) expected to be the building blocs for the continental free trade area. The AfCFTA is, really, an REC writ large leading some observers to hold the view that if the East African Community, the most successful of the RECs, can make it, there is no reason AfCFTA should not. It is a measure of its accomplishments – both the good and the questionable – that EAC has become something of a yardstick with which the AfCFTA’s future prospects are being measured. First, the EAC is the most integrated of the five regional economic communities. Some of its major achievements include a common...

The East African Community (EAC) chairman, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, has warned that the regional bloc is headed in the wrong direction as squabbling between member states persist. Mr Kagame, who recently assumed the EAC chairmanship, on Friday expressed his dismay at the pace of regional integration, noting that the agenda had increasingly lacked a regional focus. “We have to listen to the people and to the businesses; and it is only by working together that we will be able to spur economic growth in our region,” he said in his opening remarks at the Strategic Retreat of the EAC Council of Ministers and Heads of EAC Organs and Institutions at the Kigali Convention Center in Kigali, Rwanda. The retreat was themed: ‘Renewing our commitment to the objectives of the Community, accelerating our integration agenda.’ President Kagame said there was need for the EAC partner states to “put our house (the union) in order” so as to enhance transparency and accountability. The retreat ended without any mention on the recent spat and hostilities between Rwanda and Uganda after the closure of the major border posts. But earlier, during the Africa CEO Forum 2019 last week, the Rwandan leader was quoted as calling for an end to the tension between his country and Uganda. His remarks raised hope that a solution could be finally reached to end the latest stalemate that has shaken the Community. Burundi and South Sudan did not send representatives to Kigali. The reasons were understandable for...

Kenya and Uganda raised the stakes in East Africa’s infrastructure development race after Nairobi offered Kampala land to construct a dry port in Naivasha, 100km west of Nairobi, where the second phase of Kenya’s standard gauge railway line terminates. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta made the offer in Mombasa on Thursday during a meeting with Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni who was on a three-day tour of the country. “We have agreed that we shall make land available in Naivasha for Uganda to develop a dry port for its cargo,” President Kenyatta announced, adding that the railway will have reached Naivasha by August. Besides giving impetus to the joint railway project, the land deal is seen as President Kenyatta’s effort meant to lock Uganda into the project, whose fate appeared uncertain in the wake of Kampala’s recent dalliance with Tanzania. In 2017, President Museveni upset East Africa’s balance of economic power when he abandoned an earlier agreed plan to jointly build an oil pipeline with Kenya in favour of one through Tanzania. A recent diplomatic spat between Uganda and Rwanda that has since seen the two landlocked states close their common border appeared to make things even worse for Kenya. Rwandan President Paul Kagame visited Dar es Salaam last month in the heat of the diplomatic spat with Kampala, a move that was seen as a firming up of diplomatic ties and to ultimately deepen Rwanda’s use of Tanzania as its main route to and from the sea. That would leave Kenya’s Mombasa...

A delegation from Qatar Chamber of Commerce, including two board members from trade lobby’s body, have pitched tent in Kenya in search of investment and trade deals. The investors who arrived in the country on Thursday said their mission will take between two to three days. “The 20-member Qatar chamber delegation led by their board members will be in Kenya for about three days. They are basically scouting for deals in areas such as housing, shipping and logistics, agriculture, oil and gas among others sectors,” said Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) chairman Kiprono Kittony Friday. Mr Kitonny said that during their stay in the country, the delegation may also sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with KNCCI to promote trade between the two countries. Kenya and Qatar formally established diplomatic relation in December 2003. The Middle East country is currently among the leading importers of Kenya’s products. Kenya’s major exports to Qatar includes tea, coffee, vegetables, textile materials, jute, fruit and nuts, fruit and vegetable juices, meat and meat products among others. Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2017, Kenya’s total exports to Qatar and other small Middle East countries increased to Sh6.9 billion from Sh4.14 billion in 2016. The total imports from Qatar and other Middle East countries however stood at Sh3.82 billion in 2017 down from Sh8.18 billion in 2016. The total volume of trade between the two countries stood at 10.72 billion in 2017, in favour of Qatar. Source: Business...

The jury was still out yesterday as to whether Kenya may have got a raw deal from the flurry of economic pacts signed with Uganda during President Yoweri Museveni’s three-day visit. While some praised President Uhuru Kenyatta’s success at gaining his counterpart’s backing for the extension of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to Uganda in what is likely to unlock its funding from China, others felt this may have come at a much higher cost in the long run. The two leaders on Wednesday closed ranks on the need to extend SGR to Kampala via Malaba, ending months of uncertainty over the financing of the cross-border railway. China Exim Bank has maintained that Kampala has to get Kenya’s commitment to building the rail from Kisumu to Malaba as a pre-requisite for securing funding for the line running from Kampala to the common border. The standoff had prompted Uganda to shelve plans to build an SGR line connecting the capital Kampala with Malaba town. While the deal was seen as a win for Kenya in its bid to increase exports to the landlocked country, it had to make concessions that analysts and the wider Kenyan public deem detrimental to the economy in the long-term. President Kenyatta in return offered the Ugandan President land in Naivasha to build a dry port, conceded to allow a tripling of sugar imports from 36,000 tonnes to 90,000 tonnes and resumption of poultry imports that had been halted over concerns of avian flu. He also promised...

President Paul Kagame and President Yoweri Museveni are the most fluent rhetoricians within the East African Community in their argument for the place of economic growth in creating modern and strong states in this continent. Their speeches both at home and abroad are replete with economic development numbers and their national ambitions. The two countries being landlocked, these leaders have a more pronounced regional economic posture than the remaining member states of the East African Community (EAC) club have shown. This shared need for access to the ports of Eastern Africa explain the exuberance towards regional economic cooperation. But the economic logic of regional openness is under severe test now because the necessary access across the borders for traders from either country into the other is no longer assured. This situation confirms that for EAC countries, the logic of economic opportunity that integration portends will not suffice to keep borders open. EAC has been cited as an example because it has made fleeting progress but with the direction towards single market and monetary union being in the long term plans. Learning from the EU, it is evident that the single market is a worthy ambition but a monetary union would be a reckless experiment. No watchers can now state unequivocally that the EAC’s successes will continue for the foreseeable future. It is evident that the EAC has many bumps that must be navigated and that the economic logic alone is not sufficient to keep its momentum going, no matter what...