Shipping and Maritime Affairs PS Nancy Karigithu has appealed to rising high net worth individuals to diversify their wealth into maritime industry to tap into growing opportunities in international trade. She said the industry needs heavy investments to help the country achieve its target of “a full blown blue economy”. About 900 investors joined the dollar millionaires' club last year, bringing Kenya's tally to 9,400 high net worth individuals from 8,500 in 2015, according to the Wealth Report launched in Nairobi last week. Dollar millionaires are individuals with wealth in excess of $1 million (about Sh102.62 million). The report suggested that the super-rich have concentrated their wealth in real estate, financial services, manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors. “Some of these billions being put in real estate can be pushed into the maritime sector. You can imagine in Lake Victoria Kenyans hire ships from Tanzania and Uganda. We have not embraced maritime sector,” Karigithu said in an interview. Karigithu said lack of investments in the maritime cluster has undermined the benefits of the industry, which drives 92 per cent of the country’s international trade. Among areas the PS has called for investments include ship building and repair, offshore energy mining, port operations, coastal shipping, international shipping, multi-modal transportation and ship registration. Others are cargo operations, logistics, finance, insurance, engineering and technology services. She said Kenyans needs to also invest in consultancy services, maritime education and training as well as operation of private ports and terminals. Kenya’s fishing industry for instance, with...

Rwanda has reaffirmed its commitment to the construction of the 2,000 kilometres-Northern Corridor Standard Gauge Railway line between Kigali and Mombasa, challenging its regional partners to speed up the work. High Commissioner to Kenya James Kimonyo yesterday said his government is in the final stage of talks with China’s Export-Import Bank for a $1.2 billion (Sh123.5 billion) loan to fund the Rwandan section, which could begin “We are getting ready to start as Kenya does its part and Uganda engages financiers from China. We have done a feasibility study and will begin soon after finalising talks with the Exim bank and other partners,” Kimonyo said in Nairobi, during this year’s Kenya-Rwanda business forum. “We want Uganda to move with the same speed as Kenya.” The new development is a boost to the Kenya’s SGR project, whose viability had been threatened by Uganda’s earlier threats to bolt out of a joint venture on the project. Rwanda was also reported to have chosen to re-route its standard gauge railway from the Uganda- Kenya line, and instead favoured a Tanzania route to Dar es Salaam. He said Rwanda remains committed to regional integration, including developing the Kigali-Kampala-Eldoret refined petroleum pipeline, which will extend the existing comprehensive multi-product system within Kenya. “We remain committed to ensure SGR and other infrastructure projects along the Northern Corridor works effectively,” Kimonyo said, calling on investors to fund projects and invest in the country, currently ranked first in the ease of doing business in East Africa by the...

Danish shipping giant Maersk is set to implement a new supply chain management technology that was partly developed by the IBM Research lab in East Africa. Maersk and IBM last week said they would begin using blockchain technology to manage and truck paper trail of shipping containers as they crisscross the oceans. Blockchain is best known as the technology that underpins the world’s most successful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. The simplest way to understand blockchain is to view it as the next iteration of that mainstay of bookkeeping— the ledger. Blockchain digitises the ledger. It also distributes it. This means that a single data entry on the ledger is simultaneously stored in thousands, if not millions, of computers in a specific network. Due to the distributed nature of information storage, blockchain has particularly been touted as a technology that will increase transparency and reduce corruption in various transactions. Recently, companies in the logistics and financial sectors have been exploring the use of blockchain for applications beyond cryptocurrencies. “The solution is designed to help reduce fraud and errors, reduce time products spend in the transit and shipping process, improve inventory management and ultimately reduce waste and cost,” said IBM in a statement. The blockchain supply management system will be accessible to a network of shippers, freight forwarders, ocean carriers, and customs authorities dealing with Maersk cargo. IBM says that each participant in the supply chain will be able to view the progress of goods in real time. Once data is entered into the...

Kenya expects tourist arrivals by sea to go up this year after the completion of a new cruise terminal later this year. The cruise season runs from November to March every year. Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) began the construction of a cruise ship terminal in December last year at a cost of Sh350 million, adding that it is expected to be completed by September. Luxury cruise ship MS Silver Cloud, which departed for Seychelles after one day at the port of Mombasa, marked the end of the current cruise tourism season. The vessel, which is operated by Silversea Cruises, arrived on Monday from Zanzibar with 255 passengers and 224 crew. Last season, the port received 10 cruise ships, which brought in more than 6,000 tourists. From November last year when the cruise tourism season began to end of the season this month, only two ships MS Nautica which is operated by Oceania Cruises and Silver Cloud made two trips each. The two ships which made four trips this season brought a total of 2,958 visitors down from 10 ships which brought 6,000 tourists last season. Majority of the tourists who arrived on Monday were from the United States of America while others were from Germany, Canada and England. Some of the visitors flew over to Maasai Mara National Reserve for game drives, others travelled to Shimba Hills Game Reserve in Kwale for safari while the rest remained in Mombasa for excursions. Normally, the tourists arriving by sea spend the day...

On July 1, the East African Community will be marking 12 years of the implementation of the Customs Union Protocol. This Protocol, the first pillar of EAC integration, is defined under Article 75 of the Treaty establishing the EAC. It came into effect in 2005 having been signed by the three East African Heads of State on March 2, 2004 in Arusha, Tanzania. The Republic of Rwanda and Burundi joined the Customs Union in 2008 and started applying its instruments in July 2009. In the theory of economic integration, a Customs Union is supposed to be the third stage after a Preferential Trade Area and a Free Trade Area. However, the 1999 Treaty establishing the EAC provides that a Custom Union shall be the first stage in the process of economic integration. This is basically because even before the signing of the treaty, there were strong partnerships already between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. For instance on November 30, 1993 the trio had signed the Agreement for the Establishment of the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation. The Custom Union has allowed East Africa to operate as a free trade area where partner states have reduced or eliminated taxes on goods originating from within the community and have a Common External Tariff (CET) on goods imported from other countries. For the last 12 years, the CET has been based on three bands of 25 per cent for finished goods, 10 per cent for intermediate goods and 0 per cent for...

Kenya has delayed the planned April 3 rollout of an electronic passport to allow other East African Community (EAC) member countries to simultaneously launch the document in September. In a statement, Immigration Department Director Gordon Kihalangwa yesterday said Kenya and its EAC partners, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi will jointly launch the EAC e-passports on September 1. He had earlier indicated that Kenya was ready to launch e-passports on April 3 after having trained its staff and acquired the necessary e-passport machinery for the rollout at its Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa offices. The new e-passports will have a computer chip-embedded on one of the pages where a holder’s biometric information will be captured in a tamper-proof document. Only e-passport machine-readers owned by immigration departments across the world will access the read-only information. Besides the security features, e-passport holders’ travel itinerary will be automatically updated at every airport or border point they pass through in real time through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) online portal. The ICAO management system integrates all e-passport information into its global public key directory, making it impossible for anyone to use a stolen passport or forge one for use in inter-country travel. Roll-out of the e-passports with a 10- year validity period will see the paper-based (analogue) passports gradually phased out with East African countries, joining another 60 other countries across the world that use e-passports. The decision to launch an EAC e-passport started in 2004 when the Council of Ministers sanctioned formation...

Efforts aimed at deepening trade among African countries have been boosted by the launch of a new trade facilitation tool. Launched yesterday, the One-Stop Border Post Sourcebook is tipped to help governments improve cross-border and intra-regional trade across Africa and enhance the continent’s competitiveness. Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) chief executive officer, said the trade facilitation tool seeks to promote a co-ordinated and integrated approach towards easing trade, the movement of people, and consolidating security. Mayaki said: “One-stop border posts (OSBPs) are crucial in facilitating trade on the continent because they remove the need for travellers and goods to stop twice to undertake border crossing formalities. “It also calls for the application of joint controls to minimise routine activities and duplication.” “Therefore, it is envisaged that the OSBP project will help reduce the cost and time transporters take to ferry goods across borders,” he added. Mayaki was speaking at a regional domestication workshop for the OSBP sourcebook yesterday. The workshop, which started yesterday, ends on March 16. He said NEPAD is committed to supporting initiatives that promote trade on the continent, urging governments to and key stakeholders to fully utilise the sourcebook to help them determine the best way to develop OSBPs in each region. The development of the second edition of the sourcebook was supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), NEPAD, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)....

Description: No African cuisine is complete without the usage of Dhania. The aroma of the leaves and the seeds is simply irresistible.  Coriander grows with almost zero maintenance. From seed to plant, the coriander grows very vigorously and is ready to harvest in a span of a month and half to experience your return on investments but for seeds, you will need 3 to 4 months.. Locally, the demand for coriander just like other vegetables such as the kale, carrots, tomatoes and spinach is also growing. It will cost you around Ksh 1,000 on seeds   per plot of almost an acre of land to fully obtain maximum yield and a bit of intensive labor especially during planting and harvesting. An acre of coriander farm can give you a Ksh 40,000 monthly as long as you take care of your plants. By taking care implies avoiding fertilizer and strictly going green with manure for strong vigor. No spraying of chemicals is needed. Location Constraints: Coriander plants are extremely fragile and transplanting them from pots to the garden is a bad idea. Sow coriander seeds directly in the soil. You can make rows in the land and sow seeds accordingly. You can either split the seed or sow it directly without splitting into two. Sunlight: Coriander grows very rapidly with the right amount of sunshine. During germination the seeds will require sunlight only for a couple of hours every day but once they start producing leaves, they will need 5 to 6hours of bright light. Spacing: Spacing plays a very...

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has expressed gratitude to the Danish Government for the support towards the development at the Port of Mombasa. KPA Managing Director Mrs. Catherine Mturi-Wairi said the assistance by the Danish Government and Trademark East Africa (TMA) had a positive impact on the capacity improvement and efficiency at the port. Addressing a delegation of the Danish Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs during their visit at the Port of Mombasa on Thursday, the managing director attributed the progress at the port in terms of yards and other infrastructure to the support. She singled out the 10 million US dollars set aside by the Danish Government towards the improvement of the port’s performance. "I wish to thank you for the support you have continued to give to the Kenya Ports Authority and the Government of Kenya in our effort to develop the Port of Mombasa," she said. Mrs. Wairi reminded the delegation of the visit at the Port of Mombasa by the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen in December 2015, when he launched the Green Port Growth and Employment Programme for the year 2016-2020. "In this respect, we at KPA with the assistance of Trademark East Africa have developed a Green Port Policy which is under implementation," she added. Similarly, the Dock Workers Union through General Secretary Mr. Simon Sang thanked the Danish Government for acting as a source of aid and grants to KPA for many years. "On behalf of our 5,000 members of the...

Kenya has kicked off plans to revive the Kenya National Shipping Line (KNSL) that has the potential to contribute over 3 billion U.S. dollars into the country’s economy annually, a government official said on Sunday.State House Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said the shipping line is expected to create an average of 3,000 job opportunities for youth in the first year, and thereafter progressively increase to 6,000 in five years. "This administration has invested billions of shillings in this region to build or improve security, infrastructure and general service delivery, with the simple goal of uplifting the lives of residents in an inclusive way," he told journalists in Mombasa. Esipisu said negotiations are at an advanced stage for the exit of foreign shareholders who have expressed desire to cease working with KNSL, due to KNSL having become a parastatal. The revival of the shipping line is expected to return Kenya to its historical place as a rich seafaring nation with highly respected seafarers. The shipping line has been dormant for decades. Esipisu said the plan which is being rolled out by the State Department of Maritime and Shipping Affairs, is part of the government’s wider plan to boost the economy of the coast region as well as that of the whole country. Meanwhile, Esipisu said Kenya Railways will receive 200 freight wagons, three passenger locomotives and other equipment in the coming week for the Standard Gauge Railway which will be ready for use in June. He also revealed that 35 students left...