Funding will enable the agency collect and analyse data related to transport of goods and persons along the transport corridor, therefore informing decision making and advocacy for removal of trade barriers Nairobi, 17th April 2018: TradeMark Africa (TMA) and the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) today signed a financing agreement worth US$ 1.05Million. TMA will disburse the money to the NCTTFA secretariat over a 3-year period (2018 – 2021). The Northern Corridor is East Africa’s main transport corridor that begins at the port of Mombasa with two routes; one through Uganda to South Sudan and the second one through Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi to DRC. NCTTCA member countries include Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Democratic republic of Congo. NCTTCA oversees the corridor monitoring framework known as Northern Corridor Transport Observatory, which is a performance monitoring tool that informs interventions geared towards reducing costs and delays of transportation and other related logistics challenges. With the new financing, the Authority will improve monitoring of the Northern Corridor performance with regards to movement of people and goods. It will adopt modern technologies including mobile based and online systems to enhance its capability to monitor trade and transport flows, bottlenecks and impact of interventions. Data collected will support evidence-based advocacy and decision making, resulting to fit for purpose interventions in reducing costs and time along the Northern Transport corridor. This initiative will complement monitoring the implementation of the Mombasa Port Charter. TradeMark was represented by Country Director for Kenya, Ahmed...

The Standard Gauge Railway freight service received a major boost after the largest container shipping line ran two full block trains from Mombasa to Nairobi Inland Container Depot. This was the first time the SGR freight train was carrying cargo exclusive to a shipping line. The whole consignment belongs to clients who had nominated the Nairobi ICD as their final destination. The two trains, with 108 exclusive Maersk Cargo each, left Mombasa at 2:00pm and 4:00pm respectively, destined for Nairobi. Kenya Railways business, commercial and operations team leader James Siele said the cargo was being offloaded straight from the ship and loaded directly on SGR freight trains. “This saves time and we expect the first train to reach Nairobi before the ship sets sail from the port,” said Siele. He said Kenya Railways is now transporting daily freights and plans to increase to five trains. “We are now doing four trains that transport 432 containers daily. Next month we will increase to five trains,” he said. KPA general manager operations Captain William Ruto said the offloading of cargo straight from the ship to the SGR train shows improved efficiency in cargo handling. “The containers are being offloaded directly from the ship and loaded straight on the cargo train in what has proved to be advantageous in terms of saving time and cost,” said Ruto. He said KPA, working with KRC and Kenya Railways to ensure smooth flow of cargo. The national assembly committee on transport will follow up on the...

African governments need to recognise ports as facilitators of trade and growth instead of focusing on extracting revenue from them according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC asserted that contrastingly to China, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) “the business case for port expansion is often only defined once capacity is already constrained and thus many ports operate under severe pressure while investment decisions are being made”. This continual lag, which often lasts years, reduces competiveness and takes no account of the resulting reduced trade impact on African economies, it added. A 25% improvement in port performance in SSA could increase GDP in the region by 2%, its analysis found. Growing congestion in many African ports means that the continent runs the risk of sacrificing further growth through a lack of investment in port terminal infrastructure, it noted. Access to effective ports and interconnecting infrastructure would lead to reduced costs and improved overall freight logistics efficiency and reliability according to the ‘Big 4’ auditor. According to its estimates, US$2.2bn per annum could be saved in logistics costs if the average throughput at the major ports in SSA doubled. Andrew Shaw, PwC Africa transport and logistics leader, said: “The global transportation and logistics industry can no longer afford to ignore developments in Africa. “Efficient ports can make countries and regions more competitive and thus improve their growth prospects,” he added. “The reliability and efficiency of each port terminal, including minimising delay to shippers, is critical to enhancing future trade facilitation.” The report observed that currently...

THE new Head of European Union, EU, Delegation to Nigeria, Mr. Ketil Iversen Karlsen was at the State House, Abuja on April 5, to present his Letter of Credence to President Muhammadu Buhari. His main message was that the Economic Partnership Agreement, EPA, between the EU and the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, was designed to accommodate and protect economies that would find it difficult to compete. He told President Buhari: “We are hopeful that there will be a signature on the agreement.’’ He was referring to Nigeria’s refusal since 2000, to sign the agreement with the Europeans. It is worthy to note that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan were not convinced by the EU’s sugarcoated tongue and had despite tremendous pressures, refused to sign. President Buhari was also not going to break faith with the Nigerian and African people. He pointedly told the super envoy that Nigeria will not sign the agreement because there is the need to protect its economy, especially the industries and small businesses which currently provide jobs for majority Nigerians. He also stated that the agreement would expose Nigerian indust ries and small businesses to external pressures and competitions, which could lead to factory closures and job losses. Additionally, he said, Nigerian industries currently, cannot compete with the more efficient and highly technologically-driven industries in Europe. One should add that the EPA which would open our markets to unfair competition from Europe, would despite the EU’s promises, turn Nigeria...

Truck drivers plying the Uganda Juba route are calling on heads of state of the East African community to remind South Sudan of the policy on free movement of goods, services and people under the East African Community. Their call follows continuous harassment by South Sudan security officials through the many illegal road blocks along the way. For example, from Elegu/ (Nimule) to Juba, there are 18 road blocks. Out of these, only 6 are legal. At every illegal point, truck drivers have to part with bribes, fuel, food items. Failure to do so results into torture, shooting, sexual harassment on females, destruction of items among others. The call was made by truck drivers through their chairman, Byron Kinene in a meeting they convened at the border recently. The meeting followed the shooting of a Kenyan female truck driver at Jebereni, 45 kilometres from Elegu border point. “We want heads of state to compel South Sudan government to adhere to demands of regional integration, which includes free movement of goods and services, respect of human rights, and humane treatment of residents from all member states,” said Kinene. Late last month, a female Kenyan truck driver was shot at a place called Jebereni 45 kilometers from Juba/Nimule road towards Juba. This promoted a strike that was later in which a total of 250 trucks were packed on the border causing congestions. Implications on trade The more truck drivers lose money in transit, the more the consumers suffer, because the cost will be transferred to...

Africa’s increasing integration has been much talked about over the past couple of weeks. The progress displayed on this project is one for which Africa’s political leadership deserves praise, and is one of the most significant developments on the continent for many years. Africa’s cooperation efforts date back to 1963, but attempts to achieve this broad strategic objective have failed over the years. The signing of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) deal by 44 of the African Union’s 55 member states marks a watershed moment for African integration. With the dream of an interconnected Africa now closer than ever before, the continent could welcome new economic opportunities in the coming decade. However, the fragmentation of the African market remains its most significant challenge.  Transportation and communication costs are high when compared to other markets such as China, Europe, or the US. These high costs are holding back the development of integrated supply chains throughout the continent. Africa is headed in the right direction though, with initiatives such as the recent common air transport market, which could drive down airfares, as well as plans for visa-free travel for Africans across the continent. Infrastructure in Africa is just beginning to develop. Ambitious schemes like the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport Corridor Project (LAPSSET) in Kenya are what the continent needs. LAPSSET is an attempt to build a transport and logistics hub which would cement Kenya as a gateway to the East African sub-region. The rail network is growing quickly, though only within the...

The poor design of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam ports is limiting their capacity to handle of cargo capacity, resulting in delays and inefficiencies. An analysis of port development in sub-Saharan Africa, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ titled, ‘Strengthening Africa’s gateways to trade’, shows that Dar es Salaam and Mombasa port volumes exceed their actual throughput capacities. “For the East African ports this is a factor that implies considerable delay especially during busy periods and means that significant capacity would have to be added to the ports to meet future demand,” the PwC said. Within the region, Djibouti has the highest installed capacity of 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually, but only manages less than a million in volumes. Mombasa has an installed capacity of 500,000 TEUs but handles more than one million. Dar on the other hand has an installed capacity to handle 450,000 TEUs annually but currently does 750,000 TEUs annually showing the capacity constraint in the region’s’ two largest ports’ infrastructure. Operational performance The three countries have in the last three years been upgrading their port facilities. “There has been a lag in port investment, with port expansion and expenditure on port assets often not keeping pace with trade growth. Together with poor operational performance this creates a bottleneck to economic growth, increasing logistics costs, reducing reliability and making African countries less globally competitive,” states the report. “Kenya and Tanzania have stepped up investment in expanding and upgrading the two main ports in the region to ensure they...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) agreement was signed by 44 countries on March 22, committing them to remove tariffs on 90 per cent of imports. This according to Renaissance Capital is expected to improve intra-regional trade which stands at 20 per cent in Africa vs 62 per cent between advanced economies. Meanwhile, of Africa’s regional blocs, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has the highest intra-regional trade at 23 per cent. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has the lowest at 8 per cent, albeit up from 4 per cent in 2000. RenCap found that the blocs with higher intra-regional trade – SADC and the East Africa Community (EAC), albeit a far second at 10 per cent – have diversified exports and the advantage of having member states that are geographically close. It said that COMESA’s export diversity is undermined by the fact that member states are geographically distant (Swaziland to Egypt). The bloc with the lowest export diversity is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). RenCap attributed this to the dominance of commodities (crude oil, cocoa, gold) that are exported to offshore processing facilities. However, Dangote Cement’s plan to export 3mnt pa of clinker (c. 17 per cent of its Nigerian production) from 4Q18 could see intra-ECOWAS trade improve from 9 per cent. Intra-regional trade is a growing African story According to RenCap, compared with other regions of the world, trade between African countries is low because several countries export the same...

Escalating tensions between the US and China could hurt a global trade expansion that’s already expected to be lower this year than in 2017, the World Trade Organization said Thursday. The Geneva-based body warned that there are signs a looming global standoff is already affecting business confidence and investment decisions, possibly jeopardizing the projected growth, Bloomberg reported. The warning chimes with that of Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund, who cautioned on Wednesday that the world economy must avoid being sucked into a protectionist spiral. The global trading system, which has reduced extreme poverty, cut living costs and created millions of high-paying jobs, “is now in danger of being torn apart,” she said. “This important progress could be quickly undermined if governments resort to restrictive trade policies, especially in a tit-for-tat process that could lead to an unmanageable escalation,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said in a prepared statement. “It is not possible to accurately map out the effects of a major escalation, but clearly it could be serious,” Azevedo told a news conference in presenting the WTO report. He said that “risks to the forecast are significant and they are predominantly on the downside” while adding that technically a trade war has not started. Cycle of Retaliation Trade growth could suffer as a result of Trump’s pugnacious approach to trade and his administration’s preference for unilateral tariffs rather than negotiated solutions within the context of the WTO. His stance has already generated strong backlash from China. “A cycle of...

It is a chilly morning at the Busia Polytechnic. From a distance, one is welcomed by a fish aroma which whets your appetite for freshly cooked fish. On approaching the institution, you find tens of dealers who have displayed fish in various forms. Though Busia is a major fish trade hub, this is the first time the border town is hosting a fish exhibition. The exhibition is the brainchild of World Fish, a non-governmental organisation that runs a project dubbed Fish Trade. Fish Trade is funded by the European Union, New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) and the African Union. Traders at the Busia cross-border fish exhibition. The exhibition is the brainchild of World Fish, a non-governmental organisation. PHOTO | RACHEL KIBUI | NATION MEDIA GROUP FISH PRODUCTS On this day, stakeholders in the fish sector from Uganda and Kenya have gathered to showcase various products and services in this sector. Some of them have brought dried fish, others have fillet, others fresh fish, ice cubes and others have omena. Yet others are busy, making different fish dishes and traditional accompaniments from both Kenyan and Ugandan cultures. “We are here to showcase our products as well as address issues affecting fish trade across the border,” says Charles Achieng’ the Kenyan chairman of Busia Cross Border Traders Association. Trade along this boarder, he adds, can only thrive if there is harmonisation between the Kenyan and Ugandan traders. Traders display various fish products at the Busia expo. Mercy Kawala, a researcher from...