Government has disclosed that the Mchinji-Mwami One Stop Border Post (OSBP) will be launched for operationalization in the next two months by the two Heads of State for Malawi, President Lazarus Chakwera, and his Zambian counterpart, Hikainde Hichilema. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Christina Zakeyo, made the remarks on Monday during a Media S Roundtable Discussion in Lilongwe on the OSBP initiative. Zakeyo said they are currently waiting for legislation on the part of Malawi for the management of OSBP facilities. “The legislation was developed and enacted in the recent sitting of Parliament and is now due for accent by the President,” she said. Zakeyo said within the next 21 days from the date enactment after which it will be gazetted and due for enforcement after 30 days. Therefore, she said, they are anticipating that once the process is concluded, Malawi will launch and legally operationalize the facilities. Zakeyo believed that OSBP is a game changer that will significantly change the way of doing business at the border if utilized well. Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) Deputy Commissioner responsible for Customs, Chimwemwe Kawalewale said Malawi stands to benefit a lot in terms of revenue by using OSBP. “Efficiency of border operations is a significant contribute to the economy of the country,” he said. TradeMark for East Africa (TMA) Malawi Programme Manager, Victor Mponda Banda said media plays a crucial role in the dissemination of information regarding the initiative. The Mchinji – Mwami OSBP is an inter –...

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has said it expects the roll out of One Stop Border Posts (OSBP) to cut time wastage at the borders by 70 percent. Principal Secretary for Trade and Industry Christina Zakeyo was speaking in Lilongwe during a media round table meeting on the soon to be operationalised Mchinji—Mwami OSBP. Zakeyo said the operationalisation of OSBPs is one of the initiatives by the government, through the Ministry of Trade and Industry, aimed at enhancing trade facilitation between Malawi and its partners, including Zambia. According to Zakeyo, the significant reduction in the time spent at the borders would help in promoting exports as it would mean local businesses spending little resources at the borders, thereby making the country’s exports competitive. She said the OSBP is one of the important components in the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade Facilitation that is aimed at overcoming the challenges associated with multiple stops that cross border traders encounter. According to Zakeyo, to maximise the full benefits of the facility, the country’s private sector needs to up its effort in value addition to take advantage of the improvements at the border to export Malawian products to its trading partners including Zambia, DRC and Zimbabwe. Commenting on the OSBP Malawi Revenue Authority Deputy Commissioner responsible for Customs, Chimwemwe Kawalewale said efficiency of border operations is a significant contributor to the economy of a country. He said efficiency gains will place Malawi as a key investment destination and thus promote economic competitiveness....

The Government through the Ministry of Trade and Industry says the establishment of One Stop Border Posts (OSBP) will enhance efficiency and effectiveness in border clearance processes through the elimination of all duplications and delays. Speaking with reporters after Mchinji-Mwami OSBP Media Roundtable  in Lilongwe, Principal Secretary for the Trade and Industry Christina Zakeyo said OSBP is one of the important components in the WTO’s Agreement on Trade Facilitation that is aimed at overcoming the challenges associated with multiple stops that cross-border traders encounter when crossing the borders. Zakeyo added that the Mchinji-Mwami OSBP is the first of its kind to be constructed in Malawi and there are others under different stages of development in Mwanza, Songwe, Muloza and Dedza. “The OSBP arrangement is expected to ease most of the trade challenges that traders in the country in have been facing when crossing the borders to do business with the neighbouring countries and the region. “For instance, with the establishment of the OSBP, we anticipate enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in border clearance processes through the elimination of all duplications and delays.  This is expected to result in the reduction of time it takes to cross the border by almost 70% and this would subsequently lead to reduced cost of doing business and products for our consumers,” she explained. She went on to say that the  OSBP facility has also modernized and added stock to trade support infrastructure in the trade space particularly the trade corridors of Nacala as well as...

A new report by Knight Frank indicates that the ongoing war in Ukraine will affect Kenya’s overall gross domestic product in 2022  According to the Half-year report, Kenya’s gross domestic product is projected at 5.5 per cent in 2022, lower than last year’s 7.5 per cent While Kenya has no significant direct trade with Russia and Ukraine, its exposure – as a net fuel, wheat, and fertiliser importer – to the global price impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine remains telling Kenya’s gross domestic product is projected at 5.5 per cent in 2022, lower than last year’s 7.5 per cent, owing to persisting drought and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to a Knight Frank finding, Kenya has no significant direct trade with Russia and Ukraine. In fact, only  2.1 per cent of Kenya’s trade between 2015 and 2020 was from Russia and Ukraine combined. Nevertheless, the report noted that Kenya’s exposure – as a net fuel, wheat, and fertiliser importer – to the global price impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine remains telling. The overall year-on-year inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 7.91 per cent per cent in June 2022, eclipsing the 7.5 per cent CBK ceiling for healthy inflation for the first time in five years by 0.41 per cent. The rise in inflation was mainly because of an increase in prices of commodities under food and non-alcoholic beverages (at 13.8 per cent), furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance at 9.2...

The government has been urged to fulfil all future debt obligations to creditors, on the backdrop of the recently approved International Monetary Fund (IMF) US$1.3 billion facility. The Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) says there is a bit more work that needs to be done to persuade private creditors to grant Zambia comparable terms to those from the G20 common framework in terms of debt treatment comparability. “In order to achieve the significant and sustained fiscal consolidation required to address the current fiscal imbalances, the Zambian government must focus on its fiscal reform agenda. “Further, in order to give the government, the financial room it needs to achieve its development goals, more domestic fiscal revenues must be secured. “The other duty is to improve governance and the effectiveness of the use of public funds, including by being transparent about debt and expenditures,” says CTPD. Below is the statement: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: 06/09/22 CTPD APPLAUDS ZAMBIA’S EXTENDED CREDIT FACILITY APPROVAL OF US$1.3 BILLION The Centre for Trade Policy and Development welcomes the approval of an Extended Credit Facility by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund. With the help of this significant achievement, Zambia will be able to restructure its unsustainable debt, regain macroeconomic stability, and ensure the debt’s sustainability—all while freeing up cashflows to be distributed to the social and productive sectors. Additionally, an IMF program will boost the economy’s overall confidence, which will increase budget support, investor confidence, and Zambia’s credit rating. An improved credit...

The Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) has selected Ghana as part of a continental initiative to facilitate the creation and expansion of Export Trading Companies (ETCs) to promote intra-Africa trade under the AfCFTA. Export Trading Companies provide support services for firms engaged in exporting such as shipping, warehousing, insurance and market information among others. As a result, an ETC seminar has been held in Accra to sensitize African countries about the unique role of Export Trading Companies (ETCs) in diversifying African exports and promoting industrialization in the continent. The seminar which brought together key private and public sector actors in the continent, also discussed how ETCs are organized, operated, supported and regulated by government agencies. The Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapah said the government will play its role in providing the requisite regulation to attract private investments and partnerships in setting up ETCs. He emphasized Ghana’s readiness for vibrant trading under AfCFTA. The Deputy Minister for Trade said government is very enthused to take full advantage of the Guided Trade Initiative which is part of the AfCFTA Secretariat’s efforts to initiate commercially meaningful trade under the AfCFTA. As part of the initiative, it selected seven countries to provisionally start trading goods under the AfCFTA on a pilot basis. The countries include Rwanda, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, and Tanzania. The AfCFTA chose these countries because their tariff offers on goods have been fully approved and officially published. Herbert Krapah revealed that, “we were in Takoradi last...

ZIMBABWE is one of only four members of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) member countries that have received capacity building support aimed at eliminating Non-Tariff Barriers on trade of common goods. This is in line with the requisite regulations of Comesa, a 21-member economic bloc whose population exceeds 583 million, entails a Gross Domestic Product of $805 billion and sees export/import trade in goods worth US$324 billion per year. Comesa forms a major market place for both internal and external trading. A Non-Tariff Barrier is a form of restrictive trade measure where barriers to trade are set up and take a form other than a tariff. In a statement, Comesa said the regulations define the roles and responsibilities of the Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) institutions to deliver on the intended objective to eliminate barriers across the bloc and increase intra-regional trade. NTBs include quotas, levies, embargoes, sanctions and other restrictions and are frequently used by large and developed economies. “Four member States of Comesa have received capacity building support to their institutional frameworks for elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) on common goods, in compliance with the requisite Comesa regulations. “Madagascar is the latest member State to receive training to support the development of a National Strategy for elimination of NTBs. “Similar training has been conducted in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi,” said Comesa, adding that Egypt and Tunisia were the next in line. The training follows an earlier decision by the Comesa Council of Ministers to provide technical support...

MANY local coffee consumers in Zambia often relate the beverage to exotic countries abroad where they think it is produced. Fe realise that Northern Province is a leading producer of coffee in Zambia where the agricultural sector has become a critical economic sector contributing immensely to the country’s total non-traditional exports. Coffee production in Zambia started in the 1970s when the World Bank established a number of coffee projects throughout the country. Among these was Kasama Coffee Company (KCC) in Northern Province. The aim of the project was to encourage the cultivation of high quality coffee at the lowest possible cost. The bulk of production was concentrated in large and well-organised coffee estates in the province. However, there were many developments between the 1970s and early 2000 which produced mixed fortunes for coffee production in Zambia. In 2012, Olam International Limited of Singapore, a leading global integrated supply chain manager and processor of agricultural products and food ingredients, took over the assets of Kasama Coffee Company which had been in receivership since 2008. The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) and the indebted banks had been shareholders and Olam renamed the Kasama Coffee Company as Northern Coffee Corporation Limited (NCCL). The new company acquired 100 per cent equity interest in NCCL, the largest coffee estate in Zambia, for approximately US$6.15 million through a bidding process organised by ZDA. A further US$40 million was committed as capital expenditure and pre-operative expenditure to fully develop 2,000 hectares of Arabica Coffee Plantation over a period...

The moment for Africa to become a serious player in global value chains is now or never. With solid political momentum behind the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we have a window of opportunity to improve regional value chains and further upgrade into Global Value Chains (GVCs). Launched in January 2021, the AfCFTA was positioned as the trade agreement to transform the economic trajectory of Africa and position the continent as a force within the Globe. The Free Trade Area brings together 55 countries with a population of over 1.3 billion, a combined gross domestic product valued at $34 trillion and is estimated to bring over 30 million people out of poverty. Since its launch, the AfCFTA Secretariat has made progress, the most recent being the launch of the Rules of Origin manual and e-tariff book in July 2022. Africa barely trades with itself currently. According to an UNCTAD report, Africa interregional trade currently stands at 15 percent compared to 47 percent in America, 61 percent in Asia, and 67 percent in Europe. Africa and Asia are the only continents with rising interregional trade since 2008, providing us with an opportunity to turn the tide. The AfCFTA can accelerate this growth by developing regional value chains as a foundation for Africa’s participation in Global Value Chains. Africa’s integration into manufacturing value chains is also dominated by export of primary products with only 1.9 percent of global manufacturing taking place in the continent. The Economic Complexity Index (ECI), an indicator...

Summary EABC studies and engagements show that harmonisation of standards significantly contributed to intra-EAC trade, competitiveness and protection of consumers and the environment and overall trade facilitation. Dar es Salaam. Some 1,882 standards have been designated for harmonisation in a renewed drive to bolster trade within the East African Community (EAC) bloc. However, the slow speed of harmonisation is said to have been impeding trade among EAC member states. Intra-EAC trade has remained static at 15 percent of the total trade with the rest of the world in recent years, according to official data. Only 31.9 percent of standards that have been designated for harmonisation in the region have been harmonised, some partially. This was revealed yesterday during a regional public and private sector consultative engagement on standards organised by the East African Business Council (EABC). Mr Frank Dafa, the EABC manager for policy, standards and non-tariff barriers (NTBs), said out of 1,882 standards that were lined up for harmonisation, over 600 have been harmonised, albeit partially. “They have been harmonised by between 65 and 90 percent,” said Mr Dafa when giving his opening remarks on behalf of EABC hief executive John Bosco Kalisa. He said the harmonisation process was still impeded by several challenges, including NTBs and low adoption. “The importance of standards in trade cannot be overemphasised,” Mr Dafa said. “Where standards have not been harmonised, significant differences have emerged between national standards within the regional economic communities (RECs), thus creating major impediments to trade for producers and traders.”...