The four eco hoppers are part of the Mombasa port improvement programme providing more resilient infrastructure facilities with an aim of reducing carbon emissions and helping the port, its users and other stakeholders adapt to the effects of climate change. The eco hoppers will provide dust and spillage-free unloading through a dust control system that minimizes escape of dust during discharge and reduces running expenses on average by 30%. The eco hoppers were procured at a total cost of Kshs 623.21 Million (USD 6.2 Million) and financed through UK Government’s International Climate Fund Mombasa, Kenya, 3rd June 2018 - Kenya Ports Authority’s (KPA) equipment acquisition efforts for the Port of Mombasa got a major boost on Saturday following the arrival of four eco hoppers. The Four (4) new eco hoppers supplied by Samson Materials Handling Limited are the first equipment of their kind not only in Kenya but also the entire East and Central Africa region. The eco hoppers funded by TradeMark Africa through the UK government’s International Climate Fund (ICF) were procured at a total cost of Kshs 623.21 Million (USD 6.2 Million). TMA has supported port improvements particularly in mitigation and adaptation to climatic change impacts through the Mombasa Resilient Infrastructure Programme (MRIP) which is financed fully by DFID. The program aims to transform the port of Mombasa into a modern and competitive regional hub that is more productive with efficient operations in a sustainable environment. Successful delivery and discharge of the eco hoppers completes in part the...

Kenya has reached out to Botswana, again, in a bid to raise trade volumes that have stayed below targets for both countries two years after they signed a trade deal. Foreign and International Trade Cabinet Administrative Secretary Ababu Namwamba told a forum the two countries should take advantage of cordial political relations to foster business. Mr Namwamba who was speaking at the second Kenya-Botswana Diaspora Investment Forum held on Saturday at Fairgrounds Holdings, Gaborone, said it was disappointing that trade volumes have not improved despite existing transport networks and good ties between the two countries. “We have agreed to revisit a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding that clearly stipulates how our two countries can trade better and increase the volumes which as we speak remain way below potential,” Mr Namwamba said. MoU He was referring to the November 2016 MoU signed between Nairobi and Gaborone to build their trade and Investment partnerships in agriculture, agribusiness, Information and Communication Technologies, horticulture and manufacturing among others. This agreement had followed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s June 2016 visit to Gaborone when he attended the Botswana-Kenya Business Forum and held talks with then Botswana’s President, Ian Khama. Yet that deal appears not to have spurred trade volumes. Kenyan sold to Botswana goods worth Ksh451 million ($4.5 million), according to records available at the Foreign Affairs ministry in 2016. This was nearly half the volume recorded in 2014. Much of the problem has been that both countries trade similar goods. Kenya’s main imports from Botswana are general...

Nairobi has given Tanzania and Uganda one more month to lift a ban on duty-free entry of Kenya-made sweets or face retaliatory action from July 1. Dar and Kampala slapped a 25 per cent import duty on Kenyan confectionery, juice, ice cream and chewing gum earlier in the year, claiming use of zero-rated industrial sugar imports. Trade Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo said revenue and standards bodies from both countries will separately visit Kenyan factories from June 11 in a bid to resolve the trade spat. “We will make the decision after the verification. We will retaliate (because) that’s always there for us any time, but first let’s allow this process to go on,” he said following the five-day EAC Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (SCTIFI) meeting in Arusha that ended last Wednesday. “A decision will be made by June 30 and communication will be made by the EAC secretariat on the findings of that verification. But we don’t want the verification process to be a moving the goal posts exercise.” The verification process, to be supervised by the East African Community’s secretariat, will extend to factories making other products such as cement, lubricants, cosmetics and wooden pallets which have also had difficulties gaining free access into Tanzania. Dr Kiptoo said Tanzania and Uganda have own lists of Kenyan products they suspect do not meet the rules of origin, which forms the basis for qualification for duty-free market access within EAC under the common market protocol of July...

Kenyas earnings from the United States horticulture market is set to rise to Sh10billion on direct Nairobi to New York flight scheduled to start in October. Kenya Flower Council chief executive Clement Tulezi said in an interview that the country is currently earning less than a billion from the US market. Earnings from the Horticulture sector hit Sh115 billion last year from Sh101 billion announced in 2016. Companies licensed to export the flowers also increased to 386 from 356 in 2016. The total export volumes increased by 26,303 tons to159,961 tons in the said period while the value rose to 82.25 billion from 70.8 billion. “We also expect that the direct flights would increase our Share of the US market from the current 0.4 per cent to 10 per cent,” Tulezi said. Outgoing head of the horticulture directorate Zakayo Magara said in a separate interview that the flight will open up the flower sector to a market of over 1 billion people. FLOWER EXPO In the forthcoming seventh edition of the International Flower Trade Expo planned to kick off on Wednesday in Nairobi, atleast 10 US firms will be present as buyers. Speaking to the Star, IFTEX chief executive Dick Van said the US firms will be scouting for deals ahead of the Nairobi-New York flights. He said the flights will cut the long process of getting the flowers to US via Amsterdam. Over 90 per cent of all flowers grown in the country will be exhibited at the trade...

President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday flagged off the first four tracks carrying 600 barrels of oil under the Early Oil Pilot Scheme at the Ngamia 8 oil well in Turkana County. The country is targeting to transport 2,000 barrels per day to Changamwe storage tanks under this scheme. This means the country's first oil exports are expected to begin in December given that it will take at least 400,000 barrels to fill one oil tanker ship. "Today, Kenya becomes the first country in East Africa to export oil. I thank all investors who believe in this project that is expected to turnaround social economic life for not only Turkana and Kenya, but the region at large," he said. The President thanked Turkana county leaders for accepting his invitation to discuss and agree on revenue distribution adding that the agreement would be ratified in parliament this week. Under the new deal, National Government will receive 75 per cent of proceeds from oil exports while the county government will receive 20 and five per cent respectively. The EOPS had been postponed since June 2017 due to disputes over how revenue would be shared. PIPELINE PLANS Last week, Tullow Oil picked Britain firm, Wood to design the proposed Lokichar to Lamu Crude Oil Pipeline. The firm will provide the first phase of front-end engineering (FEED) services, setting the technical requirements and estimating the installed cost for the pipeline system. “We are delighted to be working with the Pipeline Project Management Team on this project...

Kenya’s ambition to become one of the global oil producers was boosted yesterday following the flagging off of the first barrels of the resource destined for Mombasa from Turkana fields. President Uhuru Kenyatta led a host of local leaders to celebrate the feat that enabled the country to join Uganda as the only two oil-producing countries in East Africa. In a historic occasion held at Ngamia 8 oil fields in Turkana East, and attended by Turkana leaders who recently entered a truce with the national government over the sharing of oil proceeds, the President flagged off four lorries ferrying the lucrative resource to the Kenya Petroleum Refinery tanks in the coastal town. 2,000 BARRELS The crude oil is being transported in an experimental programme dubbed Early Oil Pilot Scheme. It will be kept in Mombasa as the country looks for viable international markets. Each truck ferried 156 barrels. The producing company, Tullow Oil, targets trucking at least 2,000 barrels a day. It already has 70,000 barrels stored in tanks in the fields. The oil was drilled from Ngamia 8 field. There are at least eight oil fields located in various sections of Turkana East and Turkana South. Aware of the protracted disagreement on how the proceeds should be distributed, President Kenyatta warned of the curses that could come with the oil. He promised that all concerns raised by residents would be attended to. “The economies of countries that have failed to manage their resources have also suffered the ripple effect...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya has launched a pilot scheme to export crude oil via Mombasa as part of efforts to capitalize on the country’s oil reserves. The East African country discovered commercial oil reserves in its Lokichar basin in 2012 and a 800-km (500-mile) pipeline is due to be built before production starts up in 2021/22. The national government and the regional administration of the northwestern Turkana region agreed last month on revenue sharing that will come into force when production reaches full capacity by 2022. That agreement paved the way for the passage of a law on petroleum production, which will enable Tullow Oil - which operates the Kenyan fields - to start shipping oil that has been held in storage tanks for a year. “The benefits of the project will be shared and no one will be left behind,” Deputy President William Ruto said at the launch of the export initiative under which 2,000 barrels will be transported to Mombasa by road for shipment each day. Tullow has hired Wood Group to design the pipeline needed to bring crude from Lokichar’s onshore fields to a port in Lamu along the Indian Ocean coast. The cost of the pipeline is estimated at $1.1 billion, with a further $2.9 billion needed for upstream operations, the company says. Tullow has said the Amosing and Ngamia fields in the basin have estimated contingent resources of about 560 million barrels, with plateau production potentially reaching 100,000 barrels per day. Source: Reuters

Rwanda has offered to facilitate Russia’s relations with Africa by offering to be its “channel of communication”, Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said on Sunday. It was a brother-sister mood as Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo received Sergey Lavrov – Russia’s Foreign Minister who paid a one-day visit to Rwanda. “Just welcomed to Rwanda my Russian counterpart and friend, Sergey Lavrov, here in Kigali for bilateral discussions,” Minister Mushikiwabo tweeted earlier today. It is the first time Lavrov – Russia’s Foreign Minister visits Rwanda since he was appointed to the post in 2004. Shortly after arriving in the country, Minister Lavrov and his delegation visited Kigali Genocide Memorial – where 250,000 victims of the genocide against Tutsi are laid to rest. At the time Rwanda went into abyss of the 1994 Genocide which claimed over 1 million Tutsi, Minister Lavrov was Russian Representative to the United Nations (UN), where he served from 1994 to 2004. From the Genocide Memorial, Minister Lavrov headed to Village Urugwiro where he paid a courtesy call to President Paul Kagame. Thereafter, foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo led her counterpart to Radisson Blu and Convention Centre for extended bilateral talks with other officials from both countries. Minister Lavrov’s visit comes when the two countries celebrate 55 years of diplomatic relations. His visit signals Russia’s new era of deepening relations with Africa, which analysts say is good and timely as Africa is also looking for new strategic partners, amid changing geopolitical dynamics. After bilateral talks, both Ministers Mushikiwabo and Lavrov...

Kenya has reached out to Botswana, again, in a bid to raise trade volumes that have stayed below targets for both countries two years after they signed a trade deal. Foreign and International Trade Cabinet Administrative Secretary Ababu Namwamba told a forum the two countries should take advantage of cordial political relations to foster business. Mr Namwamba who was speaking at the second Kenya-Botswana Diaspora Investment Forum held on Saturday at Fairgrounds Holdings, Gaborone, said it was disappointing that trade volumes have not improved despite existing transport networks and good ties between the two countries. “We have agreed to revisit a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding that clearly stipulates how our two countries can trade better and increase the volumes which as we speak remain way below potential,” Mr Namwamba said. TRADE DEAL He was referring to the November 2016 MoU signed between Nairobi and Gaborone to build their trade and Investment partnerships in agriculture, agribusiness, Information and Communication Technologies, horticulture and manufacturing among others. This agreement had followed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s June 2016 visit to Gaborone when he attended the Botswana-Kenya Business Forum and held talks with then Botswana’s President, Ian Khama. Yet that deal appears not to have spurred trade volumes. Kenyan sold to Botswana goods worth Sh451 million, according to records available at the Foreign Affairs ministry in 2016. This was nearly half the volume recorded in 2014. Much of the problem has been that both countries trade similar goods. Kenya’s main imports from Botswana are general electricals,...

June 3, 2018 (JUBA) – At least $4m has been set aside for the upgrade of key infrastructure connecting Uganda to South Sudan through Nimule border, TradeMark Africa announced this week. The money, an official told Uganda’s Daily Monitor, will help establish a one-stop border post at Nimule, help to upgrade the road infrastructure between the two countries in about six months, which will in turn improve trade. The TradeMark Africa South Sudan director, John Kalisa said the move would promote transparency and accountability among the two respective countries and agencies operating at the borders. The project, he added, also seeks to improve market access and fasten border processes leading to elimination of non-tariff barrier. The money will be reportedly also be used to construct a parking yard, access roads, examination shed and drainage systems. Currently, it takes traders an average of three days to clear goods through the Nimule border post. South Sudan has, in recent years, emerged as the largest importer of Ugandan goods. Over 150,000 Ugandan traders reportedly operate across the border with South Sudan, generating an estimated $900 million in business annually. Source: Sudan Tribune