The first such consignment of rails which will be used in the construction of the rail stretch from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro have been imported from Japan Tanzania’s SGR project manager Maizo Mgedzi told the Guardian in an interview recently during a visit to the construction site at Soga, in Coast region, that the government was finalizing the rails’ clearance procedure to pave way for their offloading. He said the rails would soon be transported to the site ready to be fixed on the concrete sleepers. According to the manager, the rails have been imported from Japan because the country was well specialized in their manufacture. “People must be surprised that the rails have not been imported from Turkey, the country undertaking the SGR construction. Japan is globally renowned for the supply of quality rails and has been manufacturing rails for a long time,” he said. He said that unlike the metre gauge railway, the new SGR rails will be of 120 pounds to enable them adequately withstand bulky weight. Commenting on the progress of the project, he said it was at different stages of development, such as precast girder production, cutting and filling of gaps to make a level surface, and production and supply of concrete sleepers. According to the manager, the project had reached 22 per cent, noting that at that pace he was optimistic they would meet the deadline. For his part, TRC executive director Masanja Kadogosa said despite some challenges, such as this year’s heavy...

East African Community (EAC) member states are rushing against time to review and harmonise the Common External Tariffs (CET) to improve intra-trade initiatives and ease cost of doing business in the regional bloc. This comes amid concerns in Kenya over regional trade balance which declined sharply beginning 2012-2017, from Sh122 billion in 2012 to Sh71 billion last year, a 58 per cent dip. In that period, imports to Kenya from the region increased almost five fold from Sh13 billion in 2008 to Sh61 billion in 2017. In the past one year, each of the six member states has been carrying out comprehensive national reviews of their external tariffs and evaluating the impact of tariff regimes in relation to member states’ development objectives. According to Kenya’s Cabinet Sevretary for East African Community Aden Mohamed, members of the regional economic bloc have formed task forces to collect and analyse data and come up with a list of the goods that may require protection and applicable tariffs. “At the moment each country is reviewing their own common external tariffs, consolidate and harmonise the laws with a view to ensuring that they are consistent with the EAC laws. By next year June 30, we will have a regional forum to review the laws and tariffs from each state and harmonise them so that we can improve intra-trade in the region,” the CS said. CET is normally introduced by countries operating within a common union to end the re-exportation of goods imported goods within the...

President Paul Kagame has told a World Bank Financing Forum in Rwanda that Africa is on the right track to attain its investment targets, despite remaining with some distance to move Addressing the World Bank’s annual Development Finance Forum in Kigali on September 11, Kagame said that in Africa, there’s a chronic deficit of large scale economic funding but such forums by development partners signal there are a positive way to development. The World Bank’s forum brings together public and private sector leaders to explore initiatives towards increasing private sector investments in East Africa’s priority sectors. This year’s two-day forum taking place at Marriott Hotel Kigali has picked Agribusiness, Tourism and Housing as key priorities for funding in East Africa. “The three priority areas have been chosen with consideration. Housing finance, tourism and agribusiness are all expanding rapidly in our region. These industries can energize the economy as a whole particularly the service sector,” Kagame told delegates at the forum. He, however, reminded that the region and the continent as whole still lack the capacity to produce high quality products. “But despite the strong prospects we are far from tapping the full potential or even meeting existing demand for affordable high-quality products,” he said. But President Kagame added: “It is gratifying to see such strong participation from around East Africa and even beyond joining the very substantial delegation from the World Bank Group. The focus this year is investment opportunities in the East African Community.” “The heart of the Bank’s...

Business leaders, financiers and policymakers will today convene in Kigali to discuss ways to accelerate access to finance for investments in housing, agribusiness and tourism in East African Community (EAC) countries at the 2018 Development Finance Forum. The summit, organised by World Bank Group seeks to mull ways to accelerate private investments in three sectors that have proven to drive growth and job creation. The summit’s organisers say the focus on affordable housing is aimed at addressing the shortage of affordable housing in the region and at the same time creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. “Eliminating the housing shortage would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them suitable for young workers, boost economic growth, and improve the lives of millions. This event will bring together thought leaders and executives from both public and private sectors to look at regulatory, supply, construction, and financing issues across the housing value chain,” the organisers noted. For instance, in the case of Kigali, a 2012 study by the City of Kigali, the Ministry of Infrastructure, and the European Union showed that Kigali could face a housing deficit of 344,000 homes in 2020. Presently, between 800 and 1,000 housing units are constructed annually, the majority targeting high-income earners, leaving the majority of city dwellers without decent housing options. To address the housing shortage, the city needs to build at least 31,000 housing units annually, according to the study to ensure city dwellers get quality shelter. Low and middle-income earners were found to...

The conference, which will be hosted in Kenya for the first time, will be held at the Pride Inn Hotel in Shanzu Mombasa from Tuesday to Friday this week. Kenya Ports Authority acting Managing Director, Daniel Manduku, said over 40 countries will be represented at the conference. The experts are expected to present about 100 highly technical research papers on maritime, shipping and port issues. KPA Human Resources General Manager, Amani Komora, adds that Kenya and Africa will immensely benefit from the deliberations of the conference. “The annual IAME conference is an opportunity for academicians and maritime experts and practitioners to meet and discuss current and emerging research issues and contribute to the development of maritime economics and disciplines,” said Manduku. The issues of piracy and security, fishing in the high seas, inland waters, port matters and generally all issues around the blue economy will be part of the discussion. Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia will on Wednesday officially open the conference, whose theme is, “Sustainable Maritime, Port and Logistics Industries in Emerging Economies: Towards a Path of Blue Economy.” According to the conference programme, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi will on Wednesday give a keynote address covering technical aspects. KPA Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, Martin Mutuku, who is also the chairperson of the IAME local organizing committee, said the over 100 research papers that will be presented in the conference are significant to Kenya. “The conference is expected...

The Government of Uganda is shaking the foundations of Tanzania with enticing incentives to the traders. The Parliament of Uganda is increasing its competitive level in the East African region and is already gaining grounds after convincing import traders to import Chinese goods via the country. Dar es Salaam port is on the verge of missing out on many businesses should President Magufuli fail to make the necessary adjustments to maintain stability in the business environment. Already some Tanzania traders have shifted their focus to Uganda than importing their commodities via Dar Port. Several importers have lamented of the tax conundrum affecting their businesses and threatening the business environment of the country. They have argued that it is cheaper to import goods via their neighbouring state than the maritime commercial facility available at their disposal. In a bid to lure more foreign investments, increase its business competitiveness and build a stable economic empire, Uganda under the governance of Head of State Yoweri Museveni has identified changes to be made to achieve the country’s objectives. The business environment needs to be more accommodative to make the ease of doing business in the nation favourable. High taxes have discouraged business leaders from venturing into bigger markets. Many charges on the port have made traders opt for alternatives to ship their consignments at minimal cost. The hefty taxes imposed on imported goods end up sky-rocketing their prices in the market. The ripple effect turns off the consumer purchasing power leading to a surplus...

Standard Chartered Bank is releasing a total of $1.46 billion to boost second phase construction of Tanzania SGR, Bill Winters the Standard Chartered Bank Group Chief Executive has confirmed. The Railway will connect Morogoro to Makutupora in Dodoma region. “We will build it up to Makutupora in the second phase. In the later phases we will connect the SGR to Isaka and Mwanza- and ultimately to Rusumo working in close cooperation with our Rwandan counterparts until it reaches Kigali,” Tanzania’s Finance and Planning Minister Phillip Mpango said. The new development comes even as Tanzania announced that a ship carrying 7,100 tonnes of rails to be used in the construction of the SGR has docked at the Dar es Salaam port awaiting offloading. Maizo Mgedzi, the SGR project manager told local media that plans were underway to allow clearance of the rails that have been imported from Japan. “We expect offloading to start in the coming few days. The rails wll then be transported to the site where they will be fixed on the concrete sleepers,” said Mgedzi. Commenting on why they were importing the rails from Japan and not Turkey the country constructing the SGR, Mr Mgedzi sad,” Japan has immense experience when it comes to rail manufacturing. Besides the firm has been involved in the business for a long period of time.” Tanzania is upbeat that the Standard Gauge Railway will be the best in Africa upon completion. The country is banking on the Speed of passenger trains, the material used in the...

Therefore, the government Agency is currently working around the clock to revamp the farms for effective and efficient production of the much needed and quality seeds. In particular, ASA is also among the leading team of experts, which includes the Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute (TARI), Tanzania Official Seed Certification Agency (TOSCI), private sectors, Kigoma region Agriculture officials and the farmers to revamp the oil palm in Kigoma region and in the country at large. This is a follow-up to an implementation of the Prime Minister’s directives issued in July during his working tour in Kigoma region to sensitize production of the crop as a continuance of the Agriculture Sector Development Program phase two (ASDP II). Our Correspondent Gerald Kitabu interviewed the new ASA’s Chef Executive Officer, DR. Sophia Kasheng . Excerpts: QUESTION: Briefly tell us about the government seed farms and their status. ANSWER: ASA has eight seed farms of which we are using to produce different kinds of crops and among these farms we produce seeds for different varieties of cereal crops such as maize, rice and sorghum, we do also produce cassava, vegetables, sunflower and sesame as oil crops seeds. It is true that some of these farm areas are currently not well utilized but we have plans to slowly extend and well utilize these farms to increase seed production in the country. One of the efforts to put these farms under seed production is to work very closely with private seed companies so that they utilize some...

Arusha. The East African Community (EAC) will embark on another bid to woo investors during the forthcoming regional business conference following a sharp drop in foreign direct investments (FDIs) to the bloc in the last two years. Statistics released here last week indicate that FDI inflows to the six-nation bloc went down to $6.6 billion last year from $8.8 billion in 2016, a 25.3 per cent drop. The situation is equally not rosy for intra-EAC investments during the same period. They plunged by 22.3 per cent from $254.1 million in 2016 to $197 million last year. Existing business opportunities in the region aimed to counter the declining trend will be key during the third East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition slated for Kampala, Uganda end of next month. “The conference will showcase investment opportunities in the region,” said Lilian Awinja, the chief executive officer of the East African Business Council (EABC), which is organising the event. Statistics issued by EABC and seen by The Citizen showed another worrying scenario – decline of combined exports from the region to the outside world by 9 per cent from $16.2 billion in 2016 to $14.3 billion last year. No reasons were given by the Arusha-based business body on the reasons for the sharp fall of investments from abroad to the bloc. Efforts to reach officials at the EAC Secretariat to comment on the same were not successful although one of them downplayed the statistics, saying the region was still attractive to...

The first such consignment of rails, which have been imported from Japan, will be used in the construction of the rail stretch from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro. SGR project manager Maizo Mgedzi told the Guardian in an interview recently during a visit to the construction site at Soga, in Coast region, that the government was finalizing the rails’ clearance procedure to pave way for their offloading. He said the rails would soon be transported to the site ready to be fixed on the concrete sleepers. According to the manager, the rails have been imported from Japan because the country was well specialized in their manufacture. “People must be surprised that the rails have not been imported from Turkey, the country undertaking the SGR construction. Japan is globally renowned for the supply of quality rails and has been manufacturing rails for a long time,” he said. He said that unlike the metre gauge railway, the new SGR rails will be of 120 pounds to enable them adequately withstand bulky weight. Commenting on the progress of the project, he said it was at different stages of development, such as precast girder production, cutting and filling of gaps to make a level surface, and production and supply of concrete sleepers. According to the manager, the project had reached 22 per cent, noting that at that pace he was optimistic they would meet the deadline. For his part, TRC executive director Masanja Kadogosa said despite some challenges, such as this year’s heavy rains,...