What is the role of the East Africa Business Council in driving industrialisation in the region? EABC has a primary role of ensuring the creation of enabling policies that not only support the business sector to increase its competitiveness, but which are also conducive to enhancing opportunity for attractive returns to investment. However, there are still challenges toward the full realisation of potential benefits and advantages presented by the EAC integration. It is these challenges that have seen the manufacturing sector developing at slow pace besides contributing minimally to regional GDP. Several industries set up in the region operate at below capacity and one of the prevailing factors is the high cost of doing business in the bloc coupled with several barriers to accessing the wider regional market. We can do better as a region, but we (government, private sector and other stakeholders) need to take deliberate steps to improve the business environment. How do you rate manufacturing sector in terms of contribution to regional GDP? While the EAC region has been registering significant economic growth averaging over 6 per cent for years, the performance of the manufacturing sector is discouraging. Apart from modest growth of the regional manufacturing sector of 4.7 per cent, its contribution to the regional GDP has continued to shrink to less than 10 per cent. Between 2000 and 2017, the contribution of manufacturing sector to GDP of individual EAC partner states, has been shrinking, except in Tanzania. Some experts attribute the low industrialisation process in...

MOMBASA, Kenya, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday launched the standard gauge railway (SGR) cargo train that is expected to ease congestion at the port of Mombasa. Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa and the President of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), Chen Fenjian, attended the launch ceremony of the SGR cargo train that preceded launch of the passenger train on Wednesday. President Kenyatta in his remarks at the unveiling of the SGR cargo train said it ushered in an era of fast, efficient and reliable transport of goods. "This is a historic moment as we begin our journey of transformation," Kenyatta remarked, adding that his government is banking on the SGR cargo train to hasten industrial growth and cross-border trade. Besides reducing the cost of ferrying goods from the port of Mombasa to the hinterlands, the SGR cargo train will drastically reduce congestion in the highways and the environmental pollution. According to Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), it will cost 500 dollars to transport a single container through the SGR cargo train when compared to 900 dollars by road between Mombasa and Nairobi. Kenyatta said that expansion of Mombasa port and operationalization of the SGR cargo train marked a critical milestone in Kenya's quest to become an industrial and trading hub. Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa said that Kenya stood to gain immensely from operationalization of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR project that will ease movement of people and goods. "In future, we are confident the SGR...

President Uhuru Kenyatta today takes the inaugural ride aboard the high-speed Standard Gauge Railway train to Nairobi. The symbolic journey will bring to an end the use of the adjacent 100-year-old line and a fleet of aged, rickety and unreliable locomotives whose services were associated with delay, unpredictability and costly breakdowns. The maiden ride brings to an end a 42-month journey that began on November 28, 2013 when President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto graced the ground-breaking ceremony for phase one of the new SGR railway in Mombasa. Semi-concessional loans The 472km line is Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since independence, constructed at a cost of Sh327 billion and co-financed through commercial and semi-concessional loans from China and the Government of Kenya. It is one of the key promises made by the Jubilee administration to improve infrastructure including the upgrading of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Mombasa Port and the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset) project. A press statement from the President’s Strategic Communication Unit said business people used to the efficient services offered by hostesses in various airlines would also “appreciate similar services being provided by the highly-trained and friendly stewardesses whose operating phrase is “etiquette to all the passengers”. But as the President takes that first ride, his mind will most likely be racing through the economic benefits of the rail, such thoughts coming in the wake of pessimism about the project from the Opposition. During the ground-breaking ceremony, President Kenyatta talked of the railway creating more than 30,000...

Djibouti has formally inaugurated its 690-hectare Doraleh Multipurpose Port, heightening competition with Kenya for regional maritime business. Djibouti port is the main point of entry for goods from Asia, and also serves landlocked Ethiopia which recently opened the Chinese funded 752 kilometre-Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway. Kenya had in 2012 signed a joint pact with Ethiopia and South Sudan to build a corridor linking their economies to the 32-berth port being built at Lamu. Djibouti’s Doraleh port opened on May 24 and features a container terminal with yard capacity of 200,000 TEUs, a break bulk terminal with six million tonnes per year capacity, and a bulk terminal capable of handling two million tonnes per year, among other facilities. It cost $590 million (Sh61 billion) venture has capacity to accommodate 100,000 deadweight tonnage vessels. “With this new world class infrastructure, Djibouti confirms its position as a major trading hub for the continent. We are proud to show the world our capacity to deliver major infrastructure projects — some of the most technologically advanced on the continent,” Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority ( DPFZA) chairman Aboubaker Omar Hadi said in a statement. Mombasa port and Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port are traditional competitors but the Kenyan government plans a huge new port at Lamu, while Tanzania is developing Bagamoyo port. Tanzanian authorities expect Bagamoyo port to handle 20 million containers a year, 25 times more than Dar es Salaam port. Kenya’s planned Lamu port is expected to be just as big. Apart from serving their own...

Tourism players are expressing optimism ahead of the launch of the standard gauge railway passenger train services, saying it would motivate both local and international visitors to travel between Mombasa and Nairobi for holidays. President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to flag off the passenger train in Mombasa today. Kenya Coast Tourism Association chairman Mohamed Hersi said the passenger train services would be a game-changer to the tourism sector. He added it would stimulate travel for beach and safari. He added that tourists will be travelling by rail from Nairobi to Mombasa and other seaside resort towns of Diani, Malindi, Watamu and Kilifi for holiday and revive tourism in the region. Mr Hersi, who is also the Heritage Hotels chief executive officer, said some international tourists will enjoy travelling by train as they will have the opportunity to enjoy wildlife and the scenery. “Travelling by air from Nairobi to Mombasa has been expensive especially during peak season, a factor which made it difficult for local tourists to visit the Coast for holidays,” he said. Diani Reef Beach Resort managing director Bobby Kamani said the standard gauge railway would increase tourist numbers in the South Coast and help revive the industry. He, however, called on the government to fast track the Dongo Kundu bypass so that tourists could travel to Diani without crossing through the Likoni channel. “We expect the number of tourists visiting Diani to increase, but they can only take shorter time to reach the South Coast if the Dongo...

Delay in activation of an online platform for tax collection at Inland Container Depot in Nairobi has pushed back the freight cargo services commissioning on the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). A dispatch from State House said freight services are slated to start in December, not today, as the passenger serices are launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenya Railways says the charges for containerised cargo from the port of Mombasa to the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi will be $500 (Sh50,000 per TEU. Other freight will be charged at 0.07 per tonne/km or Sh32,800 to Nairobi. “This will result in a 40 per cent decline in the cost of cargo transport in comparison to between Sh80,000 and Sh90,000 cost of transporting goods by road between Mombasa and Nairobi,” the agency says. Kenya Railways CEO Atanas Maina said preparations for cargo transport were in top gear with month-long trials showing the passenger train to be inaugurated today covering the 472 kilometre journey from Mombasa to Nairobi at four and a half hours. Mr Maina said two hi-speed trains will be used along the routes that cover Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita-Taveta, Makueni, Kajiado, Machakos and Nairobi counties. There will be an express train that will have only one stopover at Mtito Andei while the ‘Inter-county’  one will have five to 10 minutes at Mariakani, Miasenyi, Voi, Mtito Andei, Kibwezi,Emali, Athi River up to Nairobi South Station. The old train passenger service along the Nairobi-Mombasa route on the meter gauge used to take...

A fall in import tax collections in the last nine months has raised eyebrows in East Africa, pushing national revenue agencies to the overdrive as they seek to seal leakage loopholes and increase efficiency. All the East African Community (EAC) states have missed their import duty collection targets in the nine months to March with Kenya, the biggest of the economies, recording Sh65.8 billion against an expectation of Sh70 billion. Official data shows that both the dry and wet cargo import volumes fell in the nine months, causing a cumulative effect even on consumption taxes. Following a meeting in Burundi last week, tax bosses from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan have agreed to implement a uniform system for valuing imports. This means that the customs authorities in the EAC would use the same formula in determining the value of goods coming into the bloc and by extension impose similar duties. “… the [commissioner generals] directed the establishment of a common valuation approach in order to ensure maximisation of revenue mobilisation opportunities through sealing loopholes that permit cargo undervaluation,” said a communiqué released after the meeting. Common valuation is a requirement of effective operation of a Customs Union. However, despite the existence of a Common External Tariff, member states are yet to implement it. This means the EAC members are currently playing into the hands of tax evaders by levying different absolute amounts. The countries also agreed to harmonise cargo scanning mechanisms to align them with the Kenyan...

The 2nd East African Manufacturing Business Summit was held in Kigali, Rwanda at Kigali, Serena Hotel on 23-25 May 2017. The Business summit was officially opened by Rt. Hon Anastase Murekezi Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda.  The Summit was attended by Rt. Hon. Dr. Ali M. Kirunda Kivejinja, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for EAC Affairs, Republic of Uganda who is also Chairperson of the East African Community Council of Ministers; H.E. Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary General; Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko, Secretary General of the EAC; Hon François Kanimba, Minister of Trade, Industry and EAC Affairs, Republic of Rwanda; Mr. Patrick Nduati Mwangi, representing Cabinet Secretary for Industrialization and Enterprise Development, Republic of Kenya; Mrs. Edith Mwanje, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of East African Community Affairs, Republic of Uganda; Amb. Dr. Aziz Ponary Mlima, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, the United Republic of Tanzania; Ms. Betty Maina, EBS, Principal Secretary, Ministry of East African Community (EAC), Labour and Social Protection, Republic of Kenya; Ms. Rosemary Mbabazi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Industry and EAC Affairs, Republic of Rwanda; Hon. Jesca Eriyo, Deputy Secretary General, in charge of Finance and Administration, East African Community; Hon. Christophe Bazivamo, Deputy Secretary General, in charge of Productive and Social Sectors, East African Community; Mr. Denis Karera, EABC Vice Chairman; Ms. Lilian Awinja, Executive Director of the East African Business Council; private sector foundations; manufacturers from across East Africa and beyond; EAC Institutions; Development Partners; Regional Economic Communities...

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will auction hundreds of overstayed containers and vehicles at the Mombasa port tomorrow in a bid to rid the hub of unclaimed goods. Buyers started viewing the merchandise on Friday and Saturday, with port operations manager Joseph Kaguru saying KRA had put logistics in place to ensure that the exercise runs smoothly. “We have centralised the auction and the exercise will be conducted at the port after goods earmarked for sale were moved from the Container Freight Stations (CFSs),” he said. On sale will be assorted goods including white rice, diapers, stationery, ceramic tiles, second hand clothes (mitumba) as well as used motor vehicles - among them a Mercedes Benz B Class, a Land Rover Discovery and a Honda CR-V - all manufactured in 2009. Between July last year and April this year, the KRA has auctioned goods worth over Sh500 million in an exercise that is conducted monthly, said Mr Kaguru. “Auctioning of abandoned goods has also helped us return empty containers to shipping lines so that they may use them for their shipments. Some of the cargo that has not been sold in the past auctions will be re-offered,” Mr Kaguru added. Weed out fake bidders Beginning September last year, the taxman started blacklisting and denying access to bidders who fail to pay for goods they book at the auction. The move was expected to weed out cartels that had exploited loopholes at the sale to edge out genuine buyers. “The fake bidders...

President Uhuru Kenyatta is on Tuesday expected to flag off a cargo train from Mombasa port which will pull 50 wagons laden with containers bound for the Embakasi Inland Container Depot in Nairobi. Kenya Railways managing director Atanas Maina said the launch will be a trial run with the actual service expected to start in January next year. On Wednesday, the President is expected to launch the passenger train service between Mombasa and Nairobi which will ferry 1,200 passengers daily both ways. The cargo train, according to Mr Maina, will transport goods destined to Nairobi and its environs. The Embakasi depot occupies 29 hectares of land and has a stacking yard with an annual capacity of more than 180,000, twenty-foot containers. HANDLE BIG VOLUME The Sh22 billion facility will handle big volume of cargo and is expected to play a crucial role in the efficiency of the SGR. The freight train is projected to haul more than 40 per cent of the 1.1 million 20 feet long containers passing through Mombasa port each year. Speaking to the Nation by phone on Monday, Mr Maina said the ICD was almost complete. “We could say construction is at 90 per cent and will be completed in the next few months,” he said. ATTEND INAUGURATION Meanwhile, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has said he will attend the inauguration of the railway to be officiated by President Kenyatta. The ODM deputy party leader said he will point out the ills bedevilling the country to the...