According to the Rwanda Foreign Private Capital 2015 report, FDI inflows into Rwanda were at $54 billion in 2015, and China contributed $23.5 million in foreign private capital inflows. Foreign direct investments from China into Africa have hit more than $66.4 billion over the past decade, an EY report for 2016 indicates. Imports from China to Rwanda stood at $358.5 million in 2016 compared to $13.4 million Rwanda earned from its exports to China over the same period. The Asian country has been strengthening trade relations with African countries and the Chinese market provides the continent huge opportunities. Locally, the Chinese have interests in manufacturing, construction, mining sectors and supports the education and healthcare sectors, among others, with combined investments worth billions. Rwanda’s private sector says it has been working on plans to tap opportunities the over one billion people market offers. Business Times Stephen Nuwagira caught up with the country’s Private Sector Federation (PSF) chief executive officer Stephen Ruzibiza on Friday September 22 to find out more on this issues as well as market entry challenges local firms face in China, and areas where Chinese firms can invest in Rwanda. Excerpts: The governments of Rwanda and China committed to strengthen trade relations early this year when President Paul Kagame visited China. A number of agreements aimed at supporting this resolve were signed besides those signed earlier. How is the Private Sector Federation (PSF) and members working to take advantage of these agreements and the growing trade relations between the two countries? We have ongoing sensitisation campaigns...

Tanzania has blocked preferential access for Kenyan textile goods manufactured outside the Export Processing Zone (EPZ), citing unfair competition for its own manufacturers. "This is informed by the fact that Kenya has allowed textile and apparel manufactures operating in the EPZ to off load their final textile products in the Kenyan market duty free," Tanzania stated in a communiqué from a joint meeting on September 2 in Dar-es-Salaam to iron out trade wrangles between the two countries. "This in effect may hinder similar products from Tanzania from being competitive when sold in the Kenyan market." Kenya in May cleared firms operating in its EPZs to sell up to an expanded 40 per cent of their products in the local market as part of strategy to boost sales and help prop the struggling industry. The EPZ firms were initially only allowed to sell 20 per cent of their products in the Kenyan market with the rest sold under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) -- a trade pact that allows US buyers to import goods from a number of sub-Saharan African countries without paying taxes. Dumping products The gesture has, however, sparked a trade spat between the two countries amid concern that the Kenya's expanded domestic market sales quota for EPZ firms could lead to dumping of products in the Tanzanian market. "Tanzania is not according preferential treatment to Kenya because it is now enjoying a stay of application for textiles and footwear. Moreover, 96 per cent of textile produced...

September 25, 2017: Kenya has recently approved freight charges for the standard gauge railway. Kenya Railways Corporatoion (KRC) will start freight operations on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from December 2017. And the government is aiming to transport 40 percent of cargo from Mombasa port by rail. According to news paper reports, the corporation has received approval of the tariffs from the Ministry of Transport. The approived tariff is of half the road haulage rates. KRC will charge $500 to transport a 20ft container between Mombasa and Nairobi, half of the $1,000 that truck owners charge. As of now the SGR is carrying an average of 88 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) and taking around 8 hours between Mombasa and Nairobi which is predominatly government supplies. The Corporation has received 18 more freight locomotives and 60 wagons designed for double-stacking on the SGR freight operations. This will go further in decongesting the Port of Mombasa as well as Mombasa Road. The SGR cargo line will run freight trains with 54 double-stack flat wagons, carrying 216 TEU per trip, with a load of 4,000 tonnes on each train. KRC is looking at scaling up the trial runs on the said route. Construction of the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Embakasi is in final stages.  Currently, testing of ICD operations is ongoing via the food relief freight transportation and handling. The facility will soon be handed over by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to Kenya Railways for official commencement of cargo operations later...

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce has approved ‘Look Africa Plan’ with stringent measures to boost bilateral trade between Pakistan and Africa in the upcoming years. The plan was approved by the ministry on Aug 17, as per project details available with Dawn. Pakistan’s total trade with Africa is $3 billion as against the total trade volume of $3 trillion. Pakistan’s share in total trade of African countries is 0.3 per cent. Under the policy, top 10 countries out of the 54 African nations selected trade promotion include Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. All these countries constitute 78pc of the total African gross domestic product (GDP). According to the policy, Pakistan will offer to negotiate a preferential trade agreement with three African trading blocs – Southern African Customs Union (SACU), East African Community (EAC), and Economic Community of West African States that constitute (ECOWAS). SACU members are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland while EAC comprises of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. A similar PTA with ECOWAS, which includes Benin; Burkina Faso; Cabo Verde; Côte d’Ivoire; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea Bissau; Liberia; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; Sierra Leone; and Togolese, is also envisioned. The value of bilateral trade between the countries is less than $100 million. As per policy, joint working groups (JWGs) on trade will be established by the commerce ministry to engage major African countries to have regular interaction. Currently, Pakistan has only 13 joint ministerial commissions with African...

There is an electoral squabble in Kenya following an annulled presidential poll, and a constitutional dispute in Uganda over attempts to remove an age-limit clause on the presidency; these two cases will hike the region’s risk profile if not amicably resolved. A risk profile is an evaluation of threats to which a country or region is exposed and is an important aspect when international developers are determining investment destinations. Following his unprecedented court victory that overturned President Uhuru Kenyatta’s earlier triumph in the August 8 polls, Raila Odinga is expected by some, to win (assuming the things he claims to have blocked his earlier win, are stopped in the fresh run). But in spite of the poll irregularities that informed Kenya Supreme Court’s decision to nullify the election results, there is no doubt in my mind that Uhuru Kenyatta is still more popular among Kenyan voters than his rival; I also strongly believe that Mr. Odinga is well aware of this fact. And knowing that victory is beyond him, albeit the public’s high expectation in him to win the next election, Raila Odinga appears to have decided to be an ‘itching opponent’ to either delay his own defeat and Kenyatta’s victory or create believable excuse for his impending 2nd loss. It is in this context that I view the decision, last week, to postpone to October 26, the fresh election which had earlier been scheduled for a week earlier, in order to ‘address electoral process anomalies’ that Mr. Odinga cited...

Traders and clearing agents have welcomed the initiative by Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and other government agencies to implement 24-hour operations at Rusumo on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. The facility will also work as one stop border post (OSBP), according to RRA officials. The local business community says the move will greatly boost cross-border trade and reduce transit time. Raphael Tugirumuremyi, the RRA Commissioner of customs, said the border will effective October 2 start 24-hour operations, adding that the move was agreed on by Heads of States of Rwanda and Tanzania during official opening of the facility last year. “We want to facilitate easy movement of people, goods and services hence enhancing cross-border trade in the region. This will also help to reduce transit costs incurred in cross-border movement by combining the activities of both countries’ border organisations and agencies,” Tugirumuremyi said. Stakeholder speak out According to Fred Seka, the chairman of the Association of Clearing and Freight Forwarders in Rwanda, the OSBP at Rusumo will play a big role in improving the flow of goods and people along the Central Corridor of the East Africa region. “We are therefore thrilled to have the post operate none stop. This could translate into increased trade volumes in economic terms,” he added. Rusumo is one of the region’s frontiers, connecting the East African Community, particularly the land-locked members of bloc, to its two gateways to the rest of the world through the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Kenya’s Mombasa port....

Kenya’s status as East Africa’s economic powerhouse is at stake as Tanzania races closely behind, with a higher growth rate that is increasingly narrowing the gap between the two economies. Tanzania has added impetus to its economic firepower, growing by an impressive seven per cent over the past five years compared to Kenya’s growth of just above five per cent. The latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) data shows that Tanzania’s economy expanded seven times in the past 20 years while Kenya’s output grew five times since 1997 with the trend expected in coming years, weakening Nairobi’s future dominance. The same data shows that there were times in the past when Kenya’s economy would be as many as four times as large as that of Uganda. However, such a big gap has not been reached in many years and is has remained mostly below three times. Rapid growth In Tanzania, it is sustained rapid growth that has helped the country reduce the gap in the size of its economy compared to her neighbour. It’s such growth that saw neighbouring Ethiopia overtake Kenya’s economy for the first time in 2015, a situation that experts say might happen again with Tanzania if nothing changes. Kenya’s economy size was more than double that of Tanzania 20 years ago but the gap has now narrowed to less than half. The IMF data shows that Kenya’s annual economic output, also known as gross domestic product (GDP), stood at $13.7 billion (Sh1.4 trillion) in 1997 while that...

This of course bears out the inflexible maxim: ‘out of sight, out of mind’ – a characteristic of a large number of African institutions which continue to toil away in the shadows. With media space limited and so many organisations, public and private, fighting to be seen and heard, anything less than a robust proactive approach to securing stage presence will not do. Fortunately, over the past few years, first under the presidency of Jean-Louis Ekra and now under his successor, Dr Benedict Oramah, who both understand the importance of a strong public presence, Afreximbank is rightly taking its place among the continent’s institutional pantheon. It is important that it should. After the rollercoaster ride over the past 15 years, the continent, despite the current slowdown, is well positioned to take the next painful but essential step in moving up the development ladder to middle-income status. Given the fickle ‘boom and bust’ commodities cycle, most parties are agreed that the most sustainable route towards this end is through a rapid increase in trade – particularly intra-African trade. And this is where Afreximbank has a critical role to play. The lifeblood of trade is affordable finance but the muscle is an expansion of markets. Since 1994, Afreximbank has approved more than $51bn in credit facilities for African businesses, including about $10.3bn in 2016 alone. This is a clear indication of the increasing importance of the bank in facilitating the rising volume of African trade. Nevertheless, this is not enough. The bank,...

The State’s subsidised maize flour programme will continue until there are sufficient stocks of the commodity, the Agriculture ministry has said. Agriculture secretary Willy Bett said the programme will be extended beyond September as earlier planned because of ongoing heavy rains that have hampered maize harvest in the main breadbasket areas of the North Rift. Under the subsidy, a two-kilogramme packet retails at Sh90 while the one-kilogramme one sells for Sh47. “North Rift has experienced a lot of rains in the recent past and this has delayed the prospects of early harvest,” he said. The new maize stocks from the North Rift region is now expected to enter the market at the end of October. Sufficient maize “It is the government’s desire that the subsidy remains until that time when there will be sufficient maize in the market to sustain lower prices,” Mr Bett said in an interview Wednesday. The country requires an average 36-40 million bags of maize annually to satisfy demand, estimates by the Agriculture ministry showed. Treasury secretary Henry Rotich last week said ministries, State agencies, the Judiciary and Parliament faced cuts in spending to help raise cash to finance the October 17 repeat presidential election and extend the food subsidy programme. Independent commissions and the 47 counties would also be affected by the action that will help cover for the unforeseen expenditure that was not factored in the Sh2.29 trillion 2017/18 budget approved by Parliament, the minister further said. Mr Rotich disclosed that the Treasury had...

Traders and manufacturers of plastic bags have been dealt another blow after the government rejected their appeal to continue servicing export markets. A high-level meeting between Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and Environment ministry representatives failed to reach a consensus after officials cited the ban on imports of raw materials. KAM had earlier sought guidelines on re-opening of factories producing plastic products to help sustain hundreds of jobs and dissuade the companies from relocating operations to other countries while safeguarding Kenya’s market share in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). “Take back scheme/extended producer responsibility has been suspended pending further directions and in the meantime, manufacturers shall not be subjected to the take back scheme/extended producer responsibility. Labelling of industrial packaging has been put on hold and the planned penalties imposed by the National Environmental Management Authority on discarded plastic packaging material stands waived until further notice,” a resolution by the parties said in part. Source: Business Daily