Following its launch late last year, US-based technology and trade firm Kountable is partnering with SMEs within the East Africa region in its bid to secure early traction. Kountable has already signed an agreement with the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) to open the platform to its SME members to ensure their businesses do not fail in supply by matching them to other companies offering the same goods and facilitating the trade. The company is focused on ICT, healthcare, industrial and energy equipment, and plans to cover other verticals. "At the end of the day, it is how quickly you can make goods trade faster and make transactions in the supply chain easier," said Bramuel Mwalo, Kenyan Country Manager at Kountable. Speaking at the Global Trade Review Africa conference in Nairobi, Mwalo said, "The supply chain trade in Africa is at US$3 trillion. Banks in trade finance only finance thirty percent of that. Some of the SMEs do not have collateral or the power to move supply goods from offshore countries." "These are the reasons why banks and financial institutions are unable to finance them. They do not take performance risk," he added. Kountable makes heavy use of cleaned data to ensure that SMEs fit the financing profile. They then pay upfront for the supplies and ensure they are successful. Mwalo said the lack of data in Africa represents a challenge to companies trying to establish a strong credit history, effectively locking them out of finance. "We...

Traders and cargo transporters have been forced off the Kigali-Katuna highway, a major trade route connecting Uganda and Rwanda, after a landslide damaged part of the road on May 14. Following the heavy rains, part of the Gatuna road in Rwanda, about 4km from the Ugandan side of Katuna border, trucks have now been diverted to the Mirama Hills One-Stop Border Post (OSBP). Although the trade and cargo movement through the Mirama OSPB is booming, traders at Katuna want the government of Rwanda to quickly repair the damaged road. Officials at Mirama say they have realised a clearance turnover of 200 per cent. Before the rains washed away Gatuna road, this OSBP had much less traffic. Ronald Kweezi, the Uganda Revenue Authority in–charge at Mirama, said apart from the additional kilometres one has to travel now, the business between Uganda and Rwanda has not been greatly affected. ‘We are lucky that this occurred since now we have got an occasion to prove that we are competent and have a more preferable route to use. Business between the two countries doesn’t need to stop,” Kweezi said. This OSBP is one of several built using funding from the UK’s Department for International Development through TradeMark Africa at a tune of the $13 million. Until now, Mirama Hills OSBP had been underutilised even though it can take more trucks and passengers. Statistics URA Mirama Hills customs office figures showed that in a typical day, roughly 18 incoming trucks and nine outgoing trucks are cleared....

Since the start of the new millennium, sub-Saharan African economies have undergone a dramatic boom. This surge has been marked by rapidly increasing trade and investment on continent – sometimes described as the “new scramble for Africa,”, which has seen competition between the US, European nations and China. China, however, leads on many fronts, and its sharpening global competition with the U.S. is likewise playing out on the African continent. For the US, imperial tensions have been expressed most recently in the growing trade war with China. But China’s rise as a global power has accelerated this rivalry for several years. Beyond a struggle for mere access to resources, imperialism is the competitive drive for control over resources and markets. Africa is a critical component of China’s strategic objectives for economic growth and hegemony. China’s expansion across the continent has been dramatic, from trade to extraction to manufacturing. Chinese companies are responsible for approximately 12 percent of the continent’s industry, at a value of around $500 billion. In 2012, China became Africa’s largest trading partner and U.S.-Africa trade began to decline, with the U.S. making a sharp turn away from African oil imports to domestic production. Jobs created by Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2016 doubled from the year before and are more than triple the number created by U.S. investment. But as Brookings describes in a recent report, “China’s role on the African continent has been defined by the financing of more than 3,000, largely critical, infrastructure projects…. China has extended more...

Dar es Salaam — The average dwell time for local containers for the last five years at the Dar es Salaam Port has missed the five-day target set by the Big Results Now (BRN), the Annual Performance Monitoring Report 2017 shows. The report, Promoting Efficiency in Transport, Logistics Value Chain and Trade in the Region for April 2018, revealed that the average dwell time in 2013 was 9.94 days, 7.74 days in 2014, 3.58 days in 2015, 3.73 days in 2016 and 5.58 days in 2017. "This shows that according to BRN's target of five days, the local dwell time in 2015 and 2016 met the target, but there was an increase in 2017," according to the report. The average transit container dwell time continued to decrease from 2013 to 2016, but records shows that it increased hugely in 2017. The averages recorded are 12.1 days, 11.7 days, 8.84 days, 8.82 days and 12.08 days from 2013 to 2017 respectively. The report suggests that a brief survey should be conducted to find out what caused an increase on average for transit dwell time in 2017 and why the set target has been unattainable. When comparing 2016 and 2017, an increase of 3.26 days was observed, which is equivalent to a 37 per cent increase. According to the report, the rise in dwell time may have been caused by increased transit cargo at the Dar es Salaam Port in 2017, delays caused by duties payment under the Single Customs Territory (SCT)...

NAIVASHA, Kenya, May 22 (Xinhua) -- An east African bloc said on Tuesday that its members have agreed to ratify a protocol that will allow pastoralists to freely and legally drive their livestock across borders in search of pastures. Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states, who are holding a two-day meeting in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, challenged respective governments to move with speed and ratify the protocol so that the livestock corridors could be opened up. "Currently we have close to 1 million cattle from Kenya grazing in Moroto area of Uganda, and this is part of achieving this transhumance protocol," said Adan Yussuf Haji, chairman of the Kenyan parliament's Livestock Sub-sector Committee. Haji said that once the protocol is enacted, the issue of cattle rustling along border points would be a thing of the past. He noted that in most cases the movement of pastoralists and their livestock was caused by lack of pastures and water. The lawmaker challenged respective governments to move with haste and ratify the protocol so that the livestock corridors could be opened up, noting that parliament had embarked on the process of setting up a Livestock Development Authority. "This country has never had such an authority which will come in handy in addressing challenges facing members of the pastoralists' community which rely on livestock," he said. The meeting was organized by the Center for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD), IGAD's specialized institution for pastoral areas and livestock development, to discuss and...

FOOD  KAMPALA - The East African Community has launched the Regional East African Trade in staples (REACTS-II)project that will increase production of staple food to reduce  importations from non-member states. The three-year project worth sh22.2b agricultural covers Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda. It is aimed at helping 300,000 small holder farmers across the three countries. The project is funded by Kilimo Trust with support from Alliance from Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Speaking at the launch on Monday, the Deputy Prime minister, Moses Ali, presiding over the event said the project was timely as it will provide alternative guaranteed markets for farmers and formalise business in agriculture in the EAC partner states. “At the moment our farmers are held hostage by the middlemen and Uganda has no arrangement to buy from farmers as it was before liberalisation, in the 80s. We thought that with the introduction of the Warehouse Receipt System, this situation would be addressed,” Moses noted. He added that this will reap maximum benefits from national and regional trade. Moses further added that concerted efforts must be made to address the supply side constraints related to quantity, quality and regular supplies at competitive prices compared to imports from outside the region. He also noted that Kenya and Rwanda always experience an annual deficit of more than 400,000MT and 150,000MT respectively yet Uganda normally has a surplus of food. “Uganda has a comparative advantage having suitable agro-ecologies for production of maize and beans and a ready market for these products in...

China has asked East Africa countries to consider its free trade proposal, saying it will be of great economic benefit to the region. Chinese Embassy's economic and commercial affairs counsellor, Guo Ce further downplayed claims that Kenya had declined the plan, noting that they are yet to receive any formal response on the proposal from any of the EAC member countries. "Claims that Kenya has opposed free trade proposal are not true. Not a single country has responded to this proposal. The proposed trade arrangement will deepen economic and cultural ties between China and East Africa, opening numerous opportunities for business operators,’’ said Guo. Last week, Trade PS Chris Kiptoo told a local daily that Kenya will not sign a free trade agreement that China is advancing with EAC but instead propose for a preferential trade agreement with the Asian economic giant. Kiptoo said that the free trade pact will worsen the huge trade imbalance between the two countries and would further benefit China at the detriment of Kenya's economy. According to Economic Survey 2018, Kenya’s imports from China narrowly missed the Sh400 billion mark to hit Sh390 billion, accounting for 23 per cent of total imports. The glaring trade imbalance between Kenya and China resonates across Africa, with data from China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) showing that the continent sold $34 billion (Sh3.4 trillion) with China on a total trade of Sh17.2 trillion in 2015. "It is time we review our trade partnership with China if we want to...

Like many other farmers across the region, Alice Akabera, the president of Gwiza cooperative, which works with over 290 cereal farmers in Rwamagana District, faced challenges related to post-harvest storage. Often, the farmers would count losses when their cereals went bad for lack of proper storage. The farmers also had limited access to markets and lacked financing. “As farmers we work so hard, but these challenges have always affected our efforts to thrive in the agriculture sector. One of the biggest problems has been lack of finance,” she said. The cooperative’s challenges are not unique to it; across the country, players within the agriculture sector have continuously decried lack of funding as financial institutions are reluctant to take on the risks associated with the sector. However, farmers can now access short-term funding from banks under an initiative by East Africa Exchange (EAX), a regional commodity exchange based in Kigali. This is possible through the warehouse receipt system operated by EAX. Under the system, farmers cooperatives working with EAX can get funding from partner financial institutions, including Urwego Opportunity Bank, Ecobank, KCB, Equity bank, BRD, and BPR, among others. “For the past nine months, our cooperative has secured Rwf21 million from KCB and we have almost paid off the loan. This is because EAX accepted to be our collateral,” Akabera says. The farmers use electronic receipts issued by the commodity exchange as collateral, according to Clement Kayitakire, the EAX trading officer, an initiative that has so far seen thousands of farmers...

The governments of Rwanda and Ghana on Monday signed a Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) liberalizing commercial flights between the two countries. The agreement was signed between Rwanda’s Minister of State in charge of Transport, Eng. Jean De Dieu Uwihanganye and the Minister for Aviation of Ghana, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, at the Ministry of Infrastructure in Kigali. Uwihanganye explained that the signing marks the first and very important step towards the fulfillment of constitutional formalities, so that once the latter are complied with by their two countries, the agreement comes into force. He said the move will not only boost ties between the two countries but also provide more reliable and predictable air services, between and beyond. Dapaah said air travel is essential to Africa to enhance connectivity, trade, job creation, drive tourism and economic growth. She said: “Although the African air transport industry currently supports nearly seven million jobs and US$80 billion in GDP, it faces numerous challenges that hinder the potential growth of the industry.” The challenges, she said, include poor intra-Africa connectivity, inadequate infrastructure and weak human capacity. In April, the national carrier RwandAir, launched a new route to the Nigerian capital Abuja, operating flights four times a week between Kigali and Abuja, making it the airline’s second destination in the West African country, after the commercial hub Lagos. From Abuja the airline connects to Accra, Ghana’s capital city. Besides flights to Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, in Abuja, RwandAir also flies to many other West African countries...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) summit held in Kigali, Rwanda in March 2018 was supposed to be the culmination of former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of a truly united Africa. The CFTA, which was drafted in Niger in December 2017, envisages a trade area across the continent covering a market of 1.2bn people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion. According to research conducted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the agreement could boost African economic output to around $29 trillion by 2050, and increase intra-African trade significantly. Currently, it stands at around 18% of total trade, which compares negatively to 59% in Asia and 69% in Europe. But just days before leaders from across the continent were supposed to sign the agreement, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari announced that Africa’s largest economy would not sign up to the historic accord pending further discussions with local trade unions and the business community. The move surprised most delegates in the opulent conference hall of the Kigali Convention Centre, especially because part of the agreement was negotiated under the chairpersonship of Nigeria. The country’s absence was compounded by the fact that South Africa, which is the continent’s second-largest economy, also did not sign up to the agreement. The absence of the two largest economies, however, did not come as a shock to one of the architects of the agreement, David Luke, coordinator of the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) at UNECA. “It’s not all that surprising that we...