Rwanda’s economic managers face the daunting task of crafting new measures to bridge the ballooning trade deficit. The country continues to import more goods and services, eating up its narrow foreign-exchange earnings due to sluggish growth in exports. Despite ongoing efforts to boost exports, the latest central bank figures released this past week show that Rwanda’s trade deficit widened by 12.7 per cent in the first two months of 2016, from $263.55 million to $297.02 million due to high import demand, which increased by 7.2 per cent in value. Meanwhile exports decreased by 9.7 per cent. There is growing concern that the widening current account deficit could discourage foreign investors worried about losing their money, while making it difficult for the country to pay its foreign debt as the currency depreciates further. Figures show that formal exports covered 20.6 per cent of formal imports against 24.4 per cent in the same period of 2015. As a result, the deficit intensified pressure on the foreign exchange market with the franc depreciating against the dollar by 2.6 per cent on March 24 compared with December 2015. The economy remains vulnerable to domestic and global shocks, in particular lack of foreign exchange, which could undermine growth. READ: Huge import bill strangles Rwandan industries, slows down growth “If the current deficit becomes unsustainable, it will ultimately force the country’s currency to weaken; and if you have invested in the country, then obviously the value of your investment drops,” said Andre Roux, co-head of emerging...

TANZANIA Ports Authority (TPA) has finally secured funds for construction of berths 13 and 14 which were on drawing board for almost five years. The fund, 690 million US dollar, put together by World Bank, DFID and TPA, will enable the much awaited project to take off in 2016/17 fiscal year. TPA’s acting Director of Planning and Investment, Gladson Urioh, said the fund will also involve the construction of berth 12 after relocating Kurasini Oil Jetty to Mbwamaji in Kigamboni. “A German consultant is on site… if all go as planned we expect to have the twin container terminal design shortly,” Mr Urioh said at a seminar for editors and senior reporters from mainstream media last Friday. The design would enable to set construction process and whether to have a partner on running the project and terminal. He said the construction of the two terminals was delayed as the previous two contractors, from China, were disqualified after failing to deliver in previous projects. “We had to start afresh on designs as the previous contractors did not leave behind any document for the berths as they were yet to complete the task,” Mr Urioh said. The consultant will, among other things, propose suitable Public Private Partnership (PPP) option for development and operation of berths 13 and 14. Mr Urioh said the project fall under Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway that geared on expanding and improving also berths 1 to 7. The berths, according to TPA, will be transformed to dedicated service...

Step up. These two words uttered by Jennifer Mwijukye, chief executive officer and founder Unifreight Group, the keynote speaker, were both the conviction and inspiration that the women gathered at the 2016 MTN Women in Business awards dinner needed. “CEOs who are seated in the office can no longer sustain their businesses. You must go out there. Think beyond profits and think about how to sustain your business and impact society,” Mwijukye said. Set against the backdrop of women adapting ICTs to boost their different businesses, the evening at Kampala Serena Hotel last month, brought together both professional and business women, as well as a few men, to sip from the wisdom of different experiences. Right from the former finance minister Maria Kiwanuka, to the admirable panellists, the speakers quipped that technology goes a long way to improve one’s business, especially the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), giving them a competitive edge and also helping one minimise costs. Data from Uganda Communications Commission puts the number of internet users in the country at 8.5 million, thus women in business are able to take advantage of this fast growing technology to provide business solutions. The panel, moderated by Marketing and communications specialist Susan Nsibirwa comprised Knight Frank’s managing director Judy Kyanda, TradeMark Africa Country director Allen Asiimwe, MTN’s chief marketing officer Mapula Bodibe and Vivo Energy’s head of marketing Jean Mugisha. The Women in Business awards are an initiative to accelerate the role of women in driving enterprise development and job...

The East African Community is leading in regional integration and free movement of goods and people on the continent. A new report unveiled at the ongoing African Development Week meeting at Addis Ababa indicated the cross-border movements were easiest between Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. EAC's leadership in integration, which identified various matrices including roaming costs and volume of trade, is a major indicator towards achieving the dream of a unified Africa by 2063. "Deeper regional integration means larger markets and industrialisation and productivity as part of value chains," said Erastus Mwencha, the deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission, adding: "It means talent mobility thanks to greater visa openness." Kenyan citizens, for instance, only need to produce their national identification documents to enter any of the countries in the bloc, while work permit requirements are minimal as the region works towards the dream of a common currency. A regional parliament made of 54 members, which has been sitting since November 2001, is charged with streamlining the respective country laws with the vision of the five-member community. Several firms have had their shares cross-listed at the various stock exchanges. Integration in the EAC was ranked ahead of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc where Tanzania has a cross-membership. South Africa is the most developed economy in the trading bloc, and is naturally the biggest exporter into the 15-member community. Africa's largest bloc, the Community of Sahel–Saharan States (Cen-Sad), which draws membership from 27 countries in the northern part...

By Marc Nkwame Arusha — AS the new Secretary General for the East African Community is set to report at the Secretariat this month, the East African Employers' Organization already has some tasks ready for him. "We want the new EAC Secretary General, Mr Liberat Mfumukeko, to push the five governments of the member states in fast-tracking free movement of workers, persons and labour," stated the chairperson of the East African Employers' Organization (EAEO), Ms Rosemary Ssenabulya, who is also the Executive Director of Uganda Employers' Association. Ms Ssenabulya was delivering a joint statement from heads of employers' associations from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi who gathered here under their EAEO umbrella to discuss the implementation of the East African Community's Common Market Protocol, launched back in July 2010 but until now, many figure that the CMP remains a far-fetched theory. Free movement of people, capital and labour were among the things stipulated in the East African Common Market Protocol. However the EAC stated earlier that, free movement of people will only be viable once each member state issued machine-readable Identity Cards. "We are however happy that, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have waivered work permit fees in their respective borders, which by itself is great achievement of the East African Community under the outgoing Secretary General, Dr Richard Sezibera," added the Executive Director of the Association of Tanzania Employees (ATE), Dr Aggrey Mlimuka, the Secretary General of EAEO. They were of view that, it is high time Tanzania and...

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a US$228mn loan to the government of Kenya. The financing will go towards rehabilitating a 172 km road between Kenya and Tanzania. The renovation of this route, to be undertaken between 2016 and 2019, will facilitate trade between the two neighbouring countries, halving the travel time and transports costs between the border towns of Isebania (Tanzania) and Ahero (Kenya), southeast of Lake Victoria. The road forms part of the Sirari corridor, a major trade and transit route linking Tanzania, Kenya and South Sudan’s major ports. Once completed, the road in expected to facilitate local and international trade, opening up new markets particularly for the agri-business and fishing industries. “Lower transport costs will ensure that a greater share of the price of exported goods accrues to producers, thereby increasing incomes and reducing poverty,” says Amadou Oumarou, director of the transport and information and communications technology department at the AfDB. The strengthening of public transport is also part of the project, with the AfDB also financing the construction of three bus stations to further facilitate the movement of people in the region. Kenya and Tanzania are both part of the East African Community (EAC), of which they represent the biggest countries by geographic and economic size. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and President John Magufuli of Tanzania have pledged their commitment to reducing barriers to trade and integration in the EAC. The countries are working on a series of infrastructure projects to increase the ease of...

It is no secret that donors finance the lion’s share of activities by the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat and the regional organization’s other organs and institutions, a fact that we are nauseatingly reminded at every opportunity. One such occasion was during the Fourth High-Level Dialogue of the EAC Partnership Fund held on March 25th in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The dialogue was attended by Heads of Diplomatic Missions accredited to the EAC and members of the Partnership Fund. Since many people in the region are no doubt impressed by the millions of dollars spent by donor nations on various projects in their own countries, they tend to appreciate this help and fail to see the bigger picture created by donor dependency. And it is something that the current EAC chair, President John Magufuli of Tanzania, should look into more closely. In fact, many analysts have doubted the value of the aid given to the Third World. It is aid that is designed to maintain the economic status quo: Ensuring that developing countries do not rise up to utilize their full potential, and that they remain satellites of Western economies. But first, back to the Partnership Fund. Now, this Fund has 11 contributing members made up of the usual list of Western donors: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the European Union and the United Kingdom. It also gives observer status for development partners who are considering starting contributing to the fund: Australia, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey....

TRADE barriers and poor infrastructure are preventing sugar producers in sub-Saharan Africa from accessing under-supplied regions on the continent as an imminent end to import quotas in the European Union compels them to find new markets. A preferential-access deal with the EU for African, Caribbean and Pacific sugar producers ends in September 2017, potentially depriving the farmers further access to a duty-free market. Exports to the EU account for a fifth of the sub-Saharan region’s current annual output of about 7.5 million metric tons, according to Cooperatieve Rabobank UA. While sub-Saharan Africa consumes more sugar than it produces, growers may struggle to plug this shortfall because insufficient infrastructure makes deliveries between regions difficult and import duties lift the cost of sales, said Lindsay Jolly, a senior economist at the International Sugar Organisation. “The first question is—do you have the infrastructure in place, those highways of trade throughout Africa?” Jolly said Thursday on the sidelines of a conference in Maputo, Mozambique. “The answer is you haven’t got those. The less competitive players just may have to produce less.” Consumption forecast Sub-Saharan Africa will consume 10.2 million tons of the sweetener in 2016, creating supply shortfall of about 2.4 million tons in the region, according to the International Sugar Organisation. Sales to the EU account for the vast majority of exports from Mauritius and Mozambique, and about half of those from Swaziland, Gareth Forber, head of sugar research at LMC International Ltd., said at the conference. While EU sugar production is expected...

The government completed two shipping baths in Kilindini, Mombasa county in February this year, doubling the country's total handling capacity to 1.6 million twenty foot containers per year, down from 8,090 handling capacity of twenty foot containers. According to president Uhuru Kenyatta, this has moved the port of Mombasa down from position eight in Africa to position four in a period of three years, the Jubilee government has been in office. In his state of the nation address on Thursday, the president noted that his government has continued to invest largely at the Mombasa port, to continue serving Kenyans and the entire East Africa region since it is one of the most dependent port in Africa. Mombasa was the 8th busiest port in Africa before 2013, with a handling capacity of 8,090 twenty foot containers. "Indeed in February this year, my government completed the expansion of two additional shipping baths at Kilindini, doubling our handling capacity to 1.6 million twenty foot containers per year. Indeed, in three years, Mombasa has moved to becoming the fourth busiest port in Africa down from eighth, three years ago," said the president. To consolidate the country's positin as the region's transport hub, the govenment opened the newly completed passenger Air Terminal 2 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and in addition, it will be commisioning two new terminals which will increase terminals 1A and 1E by May this year. "This terminals will increase passenger handling capacity by 5.1 million new passengers, bringing our...

DAR ES SALAAM Port has recently been investing heavily in infrastructure and other projects to enhance its efficiency. The facility has, however, been experiencing massive decline in transit cargo traffic in recent months. The reasons for the decline range from the country’s introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) on transit goods, dilapidated railway infrastructure, South Africa Rand’s depreciation to distorted media reports. “Though VAT is yet to be enforced, it has scared importers to the extent they are using alternative ports in the region,” said Dar es Salaam Port Acting Manager, Mr Hebel Mhanga, during a media seminar on Friday. VAT was supposed to start in 2015/16 fiscal year. However, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has yet to impose the law but its spiral effect has sprung to the entire Dar port users. The VAT on transit cargo had surfaced in late 1990s but the port stakeholders managed to talk it out from passing into a law. However, this time around it resurfaced and was passed as a law despite the outcry from the stakeholders who were against it. Mr Mhanga said, for instance, Zambia’s total cargo traffic through Tanzanian Port in the first two months of this year, slumped by 47.6 per cent, which are 121 transit passages in comparison to the same period last year. Economic analysts attribute the decline to the competitors not charging the VAT on transit goods. Furthermore, they offer consumers greater value through lower prices and provide other benefits. The acting port manager said the...