The Rukwa Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Joachim Wangabo has given district commissioners and council Directors 10-day ultimatum to ensure all the 6,250 special identity cards are distributed to small scale traders. He cancelled his four days working tour in Kalambo District in the first day to closely supervise the registration and distribution of the IDs to small scale traders. He ordered DCs and councils directors in the region to ensure that between January 15 and January 25 this year to have finalized the registration and issuing of the special IDs to the petty traders and machingas whose business turnover does not exceed 4m/- annually and not registered by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). RC insisted that after ten days ultimatum, evaluation of the exercise will be held under his chairmanship directing the DEDs to speed up the process of registration and issuing of the special IDs. Mr Wangabo issued the directives following slow pace of the registration and issuing of the IDs where only 150 IDs already distributed across the region in all four councils of Sumbawanga Municipal Council, Sumbawanga District Council, Nkasi and Kalambo respectively. He was irked by the such snail pace saying it was not healthy as December last year he issued 25,000 and directed them to be distributed to entrepreneurs but to date only 150 were issued. December last year, Dr Magufuli launched special IDs and handed out 670,000 IDs to small scale traders across the country whose turnover does not exceed 4m/- annually, insisting IDs holders would...

A 70 meter long, 4,000-tonne dredging vessel finally docked at the Kisumu port to help with the dredging of the port and remove the water hyacinth from the lake and improve maritime activities. This is part of the transformation of the lake related activities which include the construction of a new port as well as rehabilitation of the related lake shore infrastructure, which will provide a base for all service-related industries. Tomorrow H.E Rt Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga together with Kisumu County and national government officials, representatives of the Ugandan government and members of the Lake Region Economic Bloc will officiate the commencement exercise of the removal of the weed from the lake as well as the dredging of the Kisumu port and harbour. Speaking at the Kisumu Port, the Kisumu County Deputy Governor Dr Owili received the dredging ship from the Mango Tree Corporation on behalf of the County government. Source Amazing Kisumu

A section of retailers and suppliers drawn from Kenya’s expansive retail sub-sector on Thursday signed on a code of practice to facilitate the ethical undertaking of transactions between parties to include the prompt payment of suppliers for delivered goods. The code provides for a strong linkage between the sector and its network of value chains by including binding agreements to govern operations. The agreements — the Joint Business Plan (JBP) and the Supply Agreement (SA) — include provisions that facilitate swift payments to suppliers while prohibiting retailers from involving suppliers in marketing costs. The provisions further require both parties to commit to keep trade information confidential and further prohibit retailers from asking handouts from suppliers to better position their goods but for promotional purposes. Both retailers and suppliers expect the new code to foster transparency in transactions by cracking down on prevalent challenges in the sector. “The SA’s and JBP’s will create understanding across all transactions creating willing buyers and sellers for the interest of growth to the retail sector,” Chairman to the Retail Traders Association of Kenya (RETRAK) told Citizen Digital. “All debts incurred now will have a timeline as players have to adhere to the code of ethics. No one player especially supermarkets will have an opportunity to employ their position to oppress the small traders who supplies them,” Association of Kenyan Suppliers (AKS) Kimani Rugendo added to the suppliers voice to the assurances of the code. Players from the sector signed to the code on a voluntary basis...

Uganda Sugar Manufacturers Association (USMA) has said it is not excited about supplying sugar to Tanzania and Kenya because the two countries only turn to Uganda in times of crisis. Both Tanzania and Kenya are facing a sugar crisis resulting from increasing demand amid low supplies. Tanzania, which last year blocked Uganda sugar from accessing its market, early last week announced it would issue sugar permits to exporters of Ugandan sugar to close a surging deficit. Kenya has, since May, been relying on sugar supplies from Uganda due to an ongoing supply crisis. Speaking to Daily Monitor yesterday, Mr Wilberforce Mubiru, the USMA secretariat manager, said the Ugandan sugar sector had no reason to be excited about the anticipated demand because Tanzania and Kenya only turn to Ugandan when they are having supply deficits. “Tanzania is not getting any sugar from Uganda [at the moment], the information we have, is that and Tanzania said they will inform us when they have a deficit,” he said, adding that even if it allowed the sugar supplies to be exported it would only be limited quantity. Tanzania, he said, has agreements to trade with other countries, especially those in the Comesa and SADCA region. Early, this week, Business Daily reported that Kenya and Tanzania would have to compete for Ugandan duty-free sugar due to an increasing supply shortage in the two countries. Mr Mubiru said, Uganda had enough sugar to close the demand gaps in the country if they are given an opportunity....

There is an old story, probably apocryphal, that shines a light on the way the East African Community and its interstate relations have evolved. It says that when the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was about to retire as president of Tanzania, his then Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, had a conversation with him about it. Apparently, Museveni was concerned that Mwalimu was retiring at a time when the region still needed his leadership, especially on matters of regional integration. He reportedly asked the sage whom he expected young leaders like him to work with, now that he was leaving. Mwalimu reportedly assured Museveni that there would be no problem at all. He would work “na wengine” (with others). Watchers of the evolution of the East African Community since its revival must recall that Museveni has been the loudest advocate of regional integration. Even when analysts doubted that the revived EAC would make easy progress in the domain of free trade, he was already looking into the future, to when member countries would have a common currency and how they should transition quickly to political federation. Perhaps nowhere else in the region did this leap of the imagination arouse as much suspicion of his motives as it did in Mwalimu’s own Tanzania. Over there, observers tended to read his pronouncements as evidence of his ambition to become the first President of East Africa. Even back in Uganda, speculation was rife that he would step down only if he were assured of moving...

Kenya’s key strategic assets at home and abroad will not be protected by “sovereignty” and risk being seized by the Chinese government should there be a default in repaying the Standard Gauge Railway loan, a copy of the contract seen by the Sunday Nation reveals. The initial agreement for the Mombasa-Nairobi railway signed on May 11, 2014 also details how the pact will be governed by Chinese laws with all disputes being arbitrated in Beijing. In addition, the contract, and a subsequent one on the Nairobi-Naivasha phase, also have a confidentiality clause gagging Kenya from making the deal public “without prior written permission of the lender (China)”. This comes more than two weeks after President Uhuru Kenyatta, responding to a question from NTV’s Mark Masai during a live television interview on December 28 last year, promised to release the SGR contract to put to rest any “porojo” (rumours) that the Chinese could seize the Port of Mombasa. This week, State House spokesperson Kanze Dena, in response to our enquiries, said the contract “can be released anytime, even this week”. Immunity However, the signed SGR deal seen by the Sunday Nation suggests the risks go beyond the port. “Neither the borrower (Kenya) nor any of its assets is entitled to any right of immunity on the grounds of sovereignty or otherwise from arbitration, suit, execution or any other legal process with respect to its obligations under this Agreement, as the case may be in any jurisdiction,” Clause 5.5 of the Preferential Buyer Credit Loan Agreement on...

Uganda’s oil and gas industry is expected to rake in investments worth over US$ 1 billion this year,according to senior energy ministry officials. The outlay for this year is part of the close to US$20bn that the government expects over the next three years as the joint venture oil company partners step up activities to commercialize Uganda’s petroleum resources which were discov¬ered over a decade ago. The development of the upstream proj¬ects are being taken forward by the three joint venture partners, CNOOC Uganda Ltd, Total E&P Uganda and Tullow Uganda Operations Pty Ltd. Eng. Irene Muloni, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development said recently that the government expects a pick-up in activity in the sector this year following a calm 2018 that involved designs of key production infrastruc¬ture such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and the two central processing facilities. She said the government has also revised its timelines for first oil by 24 months to 2022 following a series of missed deadlines. According to the government’s original road map, first oil was scheduled for 2020 but the joint venture oil companies failed to submit their final investment decisions in time. Muloni said the gov¬ernment had expected the key decisions to be made latest end of 2017 or in the first quarter of 2018. “Unfortunately, it has not happened and 2018 has come to an end,” Muloni said, “That means Uganda’s first oil shifts.” At the time the government announced the 2020 first oil timeline; many...

Rwandan tea outperformed Kenya’s at the Mombasa auction last year on the account of high quality that saw increased demand from buyers. Data from Tea Directorate indicates a kilogramme of Rwandan tea on average fetched Rwf2,520.88 against Kenya’s Sh2,301.26 last year. Rwanda, according to brokers at the auction, produces some of the best teas regionally, which attract a premium price from buyers at the auction. “Rwandan tea normally fetches good price at the auction because of good quality that results from best agronomical practices that they have invested in,” said one of the tea brokers. “To them (Rwanda) quality is more important than the volumes that they bring at the auction,” he added. Over seven countries sell their tea through the weekly Mombasa auction, destined for international market. The auction is managed by the East African Tea Traders Association. Earnings from Kenyan tea exports are projected to rise this year resulting from low volumes and high auction price. The Tea directorate says the volume of the beverage will this year drop from a high of 450 million kilos that realised in 2018. Tea prices have been on the decline in the last quarter of the year, with an average price in the last auction held last week remaining within a two-year low range. The directorate had attributed a string of poor prices on Kenyan tea to increased volume in the market due to high production from farmers. Source Newtimes

The East African Community (EAC) has secured a lion’s share of funding from development partners that will be used in the improvement of energy and infrastructure in the region. In his press briefing held here on Monday, EAC Secretary General Ambassador Libérat Mfumukeko revealed that the African Development Fund (AfDB) and the African Development Bank (ADB) had approved 5.7trilion for the implementation of new and ongoing priority infrastructure projects in the region. The funds will go towards enhancing regional transport connectivity, regional energy infrastructure, ICT connectivity and management of trans-boundary water resources, according to the EAC boss. “The bank will also support projects aimed at accelerating implementation of the EAC single market, trade development including tackling of non-tariff barriers, and putting in place policy frameworks for industrialization and the regional promotion as single investment destination,” explained Ambassador Mfumukeko. The EAC Secretary General pointed out that it was no mean feat for the Secretariat to land the deal. He revealed that all the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) were all competing for the funding from the continental bank. “I wish to bring to your attention to the fact that the EAC and other RECs were all competing for the AfDB funding from an envelope of about 9.2trillion, out of this envelop, the EAC banked 5.7trillion from it, more than 50 per cent of what all RECs were competing for,” he disclosed. According to Ambassador Mfumukeko,...

The beginning of 2019 has seen exchanges between the Rwandan government and China’s Alibaba Group, as the two sides discussed agro-products exports in Rwanda and a dozen Rwandan officials visited Alibaba’s headquarters in China. These came after Alibaba co-founder and Chairman Jack Ma’s first visit to Africa in 2017 and later visits in 2018, which received a huge attention from African countries and African people. So what is the significance of his footsteps in Africa?  Jack Ma and Alibaba’s presence in Africa can boost the friendship between China and Rwanda, said Yin Qingri, chairman of the Rwanda Chinese Association. As an eminent Chinese enterprise that can contribute to Africa’s development, Alibaba’s entering in Africa can also promote the image of Chinese people and Chinese enterprises in Africa, he said. Footsteps of Jack Ma and Alibaba in Rwanda will “definitely” further strengthen the relations between the peoples of China and Rwanda, said Ismael Buchanan, Dean of the School of Economics and Governance at the University of Rwanda. China has helped many countries in Africa to develop proper infrastructure among other things, most especially roads, railways, schools, ports, recreational facilities and office buildings, whose presence in Africa will help African countries achieve fast social and economic transformation, said Buchanan. Their entering into the Rwandan market will also help enhance the country’s visibility in the international stage as they have global influence, hence promoting Rwanda and China relationship, said Herman Musahara, an associate professor at the University of Rwanda. Through Alibaba’s platform, Rwandan products...