Kenya’s second-biggest infrastructure project since independence five decades ago, a $3.5 billion inter-city expressway, will be delayed amid concerns by lawmakers that East Africa’s largest economy is taking on too much debt, the company building it said. While Kenya is ramping up construction of much-needed infrastructure to underpin economic growth, the cost of the mega projects, mostly financed by Chinese loans, has stirred concern that the debt is unsustainable for the $71 billion economy. The nation’s debt could rise to 58 percent of gross domestic product by the end of June, from 40.6 percent in the 2011-12 fiscal year, according to World Bank estimates. Construction of the 473-kilometer (294-mile) four-lane highway between the capital, Nairobi, and the second-biggest city, Mombasa, will be undertaken by San Francisco-based Bechtel Group Inc., which has arranged commercial loans for Kenya to undertake the project. The country will not seek concessional financing or a public-private partnership, according to the company. The Kenya National Highways Authority wasn’t aware of any delay, public relations officer Charles Njogu said by phone. “The agreement has, however, to be scrutinized by lawmakers because of its size,” he said. Transport and Infrastructure Secretary James Macharia didn’t pick calls to his mobile phone nor respond to a text message seeking comment. Big Concern The financing arrangements for the toll road are now expected to be in place by end-June, the initial sod-turning target, and construction work will now begin in the second half of the year, said Andrew Patterson, Bechtel’s regional president...

Entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Tony O. Elumelu will lead a 5-day working visit to East Africa, where he will meet withnational leaders of Kenya and Uganda. In his capacity as Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Mr. Elumelu will travel to Uganda (April 10) and Kenya (April 12) to meet with the Executive Presidents of both nations, Uhuru Kenyatta and Yoweri K. Musevenito discuss issues around the growth and development of the their economies, enabling entrepreneurship, infrastructure financing, regional economic growthand how the private sector in Africa can work in shared purpose alongside African governments to create prosperity for all Africans. On the side lines of these engagements, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) will gather members of the full local ecosystem – from investors to academia to established and emerging entrepreneurs alike – for an entrepreneurship ecosystem event. During the event, TEF alumni and members of the vibrant Kenyan and Ugandan entrepreneurship communities will receive insights from guest speakers who will provide practical, practicable information to help the audience develop their businesses and their business management skills. Guest speakers include leaders from TEF partner Microsoft and other ecosystem players including Google. During the visit, Elumelu will also meet with key stakeholders and policy makers in the countries to discuss infrastructural funding opportunities, as well as interact with leading private and public sectors players. He will host a Founder’s Forum with students of Makerere University, Kampala and University of Nairobi, two leading African institutions. At this Forum he will give young Africans...

The search for a single East African currency is set to go a notch higher as the regional parliament prepares laws for setting up key institutions. The East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) has said its committees are using the three-week Dodoma sittings, which began on April 9 to collect views on the East Africa Monetary Institute (EAMI) Bill, 2017 and the Statistics Bureau Bill, 2017, which had earlier sailed through the first and second readings. The Monetary Institute Bill seeks to set up EAMI as an agency to initially perform the role of a regional central bank. It will be expected to craft policies required to back a single currency. The EA Statistics Bureau Bill will on the other hand create a regional agency akin to European Union’s Eurostat, charged with gathering data  to guide decision making within the EAC Monetary Union. The Eala’s Committee on Communications and Trade is currently engaging with stakeholders on the regional Statistics Bureau Bill while its General Purpose Committee is handling views on the EAC Monetary Institute Bill. The East African ministers, including Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for East African Community and Northern Corridor Development Peter Munya, are among the stakeholders on queue to exchange views with the Eala committees. “The Council of Ministers for EAC is thus expected to meet with the committees to thrash out key matters on both Bills,” Eala said in a statement The two agencies are among the enabling institutions whose absence has delayed the region’s match to a single...

The creation of a continental free trade area across the African continent poses unique conflict of interest challenges for the signatories. Last month, African leaders descended upon Kigali, Rwanda, the Land of a Thousand Hills’ capital, to ink an agreement that is meant to smoothen the rough terrain of intra-African trade. Nearly 50 years after independence movements swept across Africa, the continent is still struggling to find its footing. The challenges are exacerbated by both the internal makeup of the countries and a shifting geopolitical environment. In 2014, African heads of state saw a rare invite to Washington by the Obama administration to discuss trade, investment and security. This was seen as a counterbalance to the growing Chinese influence on the continent; by 2014 China-Africa trade totaled $200 billion, up from approximately $100 billion during the 2008 financial crisis. With the chaotic and confusing nature of the geopolitical challenges and the continued courting of African countries by both Beijing, through the new and ambition Belt and Road Initiative, and by the Washington security gospel, Africa finds itself in a position where it has to define its fortunes. By 2010, trade between African countries was only 11%, compared to 50% within Asia, 21% in Latin America and Caribbean, with Europe leading at 70% of internal trade. The picture is not of a continent that less than 130 years ago had no artificial boundaries and where its people traded and migrated freely. The African Union has embarked on an initiative that is...

Ecobank Kenya Wednesday launched the Emerald Ecobank Business Club aimed at widening opportunities for its Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) customers by creating direct linkages between businesses operation in 33 African Markets with over 12.8 million customers. Members of the club will also get access to direct networking platforms, market information as well as business advisory services from the Ecobank, associated partners, external trade facilitation and preferential banking among others. The Emerald Ecobank Business Club will focus on bolstering intra-Africa trade leveraging on the Bank’s presence in 33 African markets enabling SMEs to leverage on Ecobank’s customer book to authenticate and vet trading partners across the continent. Speaking during the media launch, Ecobank Kenya Executive Director, Head of Commercial Banking Kenya & EAC Humphrey Muturi noted that the launch of the new Business Club is a wider strategy by the bank to grow SME sector by offering direct linkages and a seamless base of transaction for Kenyan businesses and their counterparts across the continent. “As a pan African bank, we recognize the pivotal role that emerging businesses play in our economy, thus our target is to empower our SME customers by availing networking opportunities across our network of 33 African countries to help them grow with us. Most SMEs here in Kenya and generally across Africa face capacity challenges either in terms of technical knowledge on how businesses operate across the continent or in terms of access to opportunities to forge partnership. Emerald Ecobank Business Club members will therefore in...

I am a concerned citizen who always travels across borders, but has failed to see the benefits of the East African Community. Recently, I travelled to watch the 2018 Safari Rally in Kenya in which Uganda sent two representatives (Jas Mangat and Duncan Mubiru). However, Ugandans were treated as if we were from another planet. From the border to all the rally sections, the moment Kenyan traffic police officers saw Ugandan-registered number plates; they would stop and hold you until you gave them money. They asked between KShs 500 [approximately Shs 16,000] and KShs 2,000 [approximately Shs 64,000]. I was personally stopped seven times; and on the eighth one, I complained and tried to confront them. They immediately took me to their express court where I was fined KShs 15,000 (about Shs 480,000). At the road block where they arrested me, I had all they asked for but one officer told me my vehicle was dirty! It had been raining from the time I left Jinja to Nairobi. Funny enough, when I reached the court, they changed the statement and said I did not have a safety reflector triangle. I hope EALA MPs, the minister of East African Community Affairs and respective embassies can look into this matter; otherwise, we are losing hope in the EAC. Keith Ssali Isaac, Deputy mayor, Nansana municipality. Ochola has started on a positive note Since the new inspector general of police, Martin Okoth Ochola, took over the mantle, changes have been made within the force....

Goldensilver Exporters, a green chilli exporting company has reported in the last three months a decrease in its volumes from 10 to four tonnes a week due to the drought that affected the harvest season in December. This has in turn led to air freight companies to prioritise other produce such as flowers, which are in high supply and demand, for export cargo space. Green chilli, which takes approximately three months to mature, was affected by the poor distribution of rainfall in October to December 2017, according to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA). This has forced Goldensilver Exporters, which trades in European countries such as Germany, UK and France, to reduce the tonnage it sends to clients. “We export green chilli every week. One client can request for up to five tonnes. When we tell them that we are not able to meet that amount, some will look for an exporter that can fill the deficit while others will find an exporter that can provide them with the whole amount. Therefore we lose a client,” said Goldensilver Exporters CEO Eric Wachira. The demand for chilli from European countries has increased by 27 per cent from 37,000 tonnes in 2012 to 45,000 tonnes in 2016. Kenya is one of the medium to large suppliers of the produce to the European Union majorly Germany, the UK and France, according to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries. In a bid to cope with the deficit, Goldensilver has moved...

Kenya Railways (KR) has inked a contract with a French container transportation and shipping company seeking to grow cargo volumes for the standard gauge railway(SGR) line. The year-long deal follows a meeting between the state agency’s top officials led by KR’s Managing Director Atanas Maina and the CMA-CGM team led by its East Africa boss Thierry Bidau. Under the agreement, CMA-CGM will directly nominate huge volumes of cargo to the Inland Container Depot, Nairobi via the standard gauge railway. CMA-CGM is also expected to influence the choice of other players yet to embrace the Madaraka Freight Service. CMA–CGM is the third largest shipping firm globally, going by the number of 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled, operating a fleet of 504 vessels that call at 420 ports in 160 countries. Mr Maina was accompanied by Business and Commercial Expert on Freight Team Leader James Siele, Business and Commercial Expert on Freight Sammy Gachuhi and the Business Development Manager Milly Omido. The deal is among a raft of measures taken by KR to woo shipping lines and cargo importers to use the Madaraka Freight Service to transport cargo at subsidised fees. “It is a remarkable milestone for the corporation as it is the first one involving a shipping line. Previously, contracts have been between Kenya Railways and freight forwarders including one between KR and Cargo Care International that was signed in early this year,” said Mr Maina. While freight forwarders simply act as the link between shipping lines and shippers, shipping lines have...

Kenya has moved to seal loopholes in tax evasion and importation of substandard goods by directing that all consolidated cargo be inspected at the port of origin. In a joint statement Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) said this would help establish the real value of individual cargo to be verified by Kebs-licensed inspection agencies who will then submit a copy of a product’s Certificate of Inspection (CoI) via their online portals to KRA’s Simba system ahead of shipping. The notice issued last week, also directed clearance and forwarding firms involved in consolidation of cargo into single units for packing in containers to register with Kebs by April 20. “Consolidated cargo will only be managed by registered consolidators who will liase with Kebs-licensed cargo inspectors across the world to have goods audited at the port of origin before packing into containers. “No other inspection will be conducted upon arrival but handling of clearance via our online single window,” said Kebs Managing Director Charles Ongwae. Prior to the directive only single importer goods placed in a container were inspected at source under regulations that established three types of clearance schedules — Route A, B and C — where inspecting firms issued importers with a Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC). But Kebs-KRA directive on consolidated cargo will see a Certificate of Inspection(CoI) issued confirming that all goods are checked to confirm they are of high quality and conform to health, safety and environmental standards before they are packed...

Kenya Railways will next month hold a conference drawing together logistics experts and stakeholders in an attempt to address challenges facing the standard gauge railway freight train operations. Managing director Atanas Maina said the conference will seek to get views from players on how to address the problems. He said Kenya Railways (KR) is standardising operations with two key agencies involved in the clearance and handling of goods – the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). “We want to agree on all the standards of service and our combined operation processes,” the MD said, adding that they are already getting feedback from all players on how they will improve their services. The Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) Nairobi branch chairman William Ojonyo said they welcome the conference, noting that they have in the past called for dialogue over contentious issues related to the cargo trains. “We have always maintained that we want the project to work but there are some issues that must be addressed,” he said. The conference comes in the wake of teething problems in streamlining operations of the freight trains that started hauling goods from Mombasa port to the Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Embakasi, Nairobi, in February. There have however been challenges in how goods are loaded on trains, especially regarding those that had not been designated for offloading at the ICD. The most serious challenge has emanated from returning empty containers to designated yards in the port city. Once...