Summary Many women hold top positions in various institutions, but their rise was not smooth at all Dar es Salaam. On March 8, the world celebrated Women’s Day. Once again for Tanzania, The Citizen’s Rising Woman Initiative made the day even more exciting. The initiative, a brainchild of Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL), which kicked off last year, attracted women and men from different organisations who gathered at the Dar es Salaam Serena Hotel and deliberated various issues including the importance of women holding top positions for inclusive societal growth. Starting in the morning with a special occasion of “Women in Energy Breakfast” the day culminated in the evening during the main event with panellists expressing their views on how the bias can be broken. Some recounted the ordeal they had to go through before reaching the current level of being recognised in their communities. One such story that made this year’s initiative so unique, is that of Ms Rose Njilo from Ngorongoro who was married when she was just 12 years old. Hailing from the Maasai community, Ms Njilo, who was one of the panellists and director of the Mimutie Women Organization (Mwo), a watchdog for specialist groups (children and women) in pastoralist communities, says it is her courage and diligence that brought her to where she is today. She says she got married shortly after finishing standard seven in 1997 as the third wife amidst many challenges that forced her not to tolerate the marriage. “I was married off when...

Thirty-five women entrepreneurs have scoped awards of excellence in their business in an event which was coordinated by Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce (TWCC). The colourful event was held in Dar es Salaam on Thursday and was graced by the Minister for Community Development, Women and Children, Dr Dorothy Gwajima. Speaking during the ceremony, Dr Gwajima said women can do wonders if they are given chances and she urged men to trust them and give them space so that they can show their abilities. She also advised the event organiserto increase the trophies from the current 35 up to 150 next year. She said there were a lot of opportunities for loans with low interest where women can apply and start their own business instead of depending too much to their spouses. TWCC, Chief Executive Officer, MwajumaHamza, said there were five judges who scrutinized entries of the competitions from 16 sectors and eventually they came up with 35 winners across the country. She said there were criteria that were used to select winners among of them the sustainability of the business, strategic plan of the business, if it has TBS certification and the ownership of the business. The team leader of the GIZ Regional Program Employment and Skills for Development in Africa, KabongoMbuyisaid that women are key drivers of change and do provide majority of employment opportunities as well as contributing to the national economy (GDP) as in Tanzania women owned enterprises stands at 54 percent. “As we have seen...

Dar es Salaam. John Ulanga is the Regional Director for East and Central Africa at TradeMark Africa. He is responsible for the overall portfolio of TradeMark Africa support in seven countries, namely, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DR Congo. He has held different leadership positions and sits in more than 22 boards, one being that of Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL). Mr Ulanga shares his life story and how he has managed to be where he is today, including his life-long support towards women in leadership agenda and beyond. He says that he comes from a very humble beginning with parents who worked as public servants. Ulanga parsued his education in public schools. His story is that of determination, wanting to succeed and waking up every day saying ‘I want to be a better version of myself’. Ulanga studied his primary education and Ordinary level of secondary education in Dar es Salaam before joining Mazengo Secondary School in Dodoma for his A-level education. Later he joined the University of Dar es Salaam where he did his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. Upon joining the country’s labour force, Ulanga worked for private and public sectors. According to him, all these successes up to that level were mostly inspired by parents, particularly, as they kept challenging him to achieve a higher goal. He would go home proudly to hand over a report that said he ranked 2 or 3 in his exams. However, his father would always look at the school...

The East African Business Council (EABC) is pushing for a review of the EAC protocols to transform the EAC Secretariat from a coordinating body to an enforcement agency, to make the entity more relevant. This is because many resolutions are made at different levels of the community up to the heads of states summit, but only the willing partner states implement them, while those violating the resolutions cannot be forced or penalized. This is evident in the failure by the EAC to fully implement the harmonization of tax policies, as well as the persistence of non-tariff barriers, because countries put national policies before the demands of regional integration. These have also seen outright confrontation between countries with some unilaterally closing their borders to neighbours. This is part of the demands the region’s private sector wants handled by the next Heads of States Summit. John Bosco Rusagara, the EABC Board Director recommended for the institutional review of the functions of the EAC Secretariat via elevating its role from coordination to enforcement by transforming the EAC Secretariat into a Commission. The business leaders also condemned the government in the region for doing little to cut the cost of doing business. “EAC Partner States should fully operationalize the EAC Single Customs Territory and adopt technology to transform our EAC region to be borderless for goods and services! The Partner States should work towards to bringing down East African borders for trade to flourish,” said EABC Chairman Nicholas Nesbitt. Speaking at a dialogue on...

The unified digitisation of the East African economy is estimated to generate up to a US$2.6 billion boost in GDP and 4.5 million new jobs Burgeoning tech start-up clusters in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Kampala, and Kigali provide inspiration for what the future could hold Data by GSMA reveals that by the end of 2020, 495 million people subscribed to mobile services in Sub-Saharan Africa, representing 46 percent of the region’s population, an increase of almost 20 million on 2019 The rise of digital technologies offers a chance to disrupt East Africa’s economic growth, unlocking new pathways for rapid innovation, job creation, and access to services that would have been unimaginable only a decade ago. The burgeoning tech start-up clusters in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Kampala, and Kigali provide inspiration for what the future could hold. By working together and seizing opportunities to ‘leapfrog’ outdated infrastructure, technology, and business models, East African countries stand to position the region as a top digital investment and innovation destination. According to a report by the World Bank, rising mobile phone penetration, improving broadband internet connectivity, and widespread adoption of mobile money across East Africa are changing the way the region communicates, collaborates, and transacts. “This digital evolution has spurred the development of a small, but rapidly growing tech sector, particularly in urban hubs, with innovative entrepreneurs launching new digitally enabled services and creating 21st-century jobs. More significantly, the adoption of digital technology is gradually driving productivity gains in traditional brick and mortar industries,”...

Summary EAC Secretary-General Peter Mathuki said cargo currently accounts for just two percent of global air travel, arguing that air travel is unattainable due to high costs for both passenger and cargo transportation. Regional airlines have been pushing for an open skies policy to allow national airlines to travel to other countries without restrictions, but this has yet to be achieved. The East African Community has called on African leaders to urgently implement the Single African Aviation Market (SAATM) agreement to address the high cost of air travel in the region and boost development. EAC Secretary-General Peter Mathuki said cargo currently accounts for just two percent of global air travel, arguing that air travel is unattainable due to high costs for both passenger and cargo transportation. “These costs can be reduced if we make a political commitment to implement the African Single Market in Aviation (SAATM) Agreement,” Mr Mathuki said during the 7th Africa Infrastructure Development Program (PIDA) Forum last week. Regional airlines have been pushing for an open skies policy to allow national airlines to travel to other countries without restrictions, but this has yet to be achieved. This comes at a time when African nations are shielding their airlines from stiff competition and raising doubts as to whether the dream of an open sky policy can be realized. In 1988, a number of African countries joined forces in the so-called Yamoussoukro Declaration to create open airspace to facilitate movement and boost trade on the continent. In 2000, the...

7TH PIDA WEEK: Implement SAATM agreement to lower cost African leaders have been urged to urgently implement the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) agreement, in order to lower the costs of air transport in Africa and in turn boost development. Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, at the 7th Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) week, EAC Secretary General Dr Peter Mathuki stated that air cargo currently accounts for only 2% of the global air cargo adding that air transport remains out of reach for both passenger and cargo haulage due to high associated costs. “These costs can be brought down if we have political commitment to implement the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) agreement,” he noted. The Secretary-General noted that the region continues to ramp up investments in infrastructure to narrow the infrastructure gap and enhance intermodal connectivity. “These investments have yielded impressive results; for instance, the transit time from Mombasa to Kampala has improved from 20 days in 2010 to an average of 6 days in 2021, with a resultant cost reduction from US$3,500 in 2010 to US$2,200 in 2021,” he noted. The Secretary-General hailed African leaders for prioritizing investment in One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs), which have facilitated transboundary trade by enhancing border crossing efficiency. “The use of technology at OSBPs has improved sharing and exchange of information among agencies, enhanced border security, reduced processing times at the border transit times for traders and transporters, and enhanced the reliability of the supply chain through streamlined and harmonised...

LAPSSET key in Africa’s Integration Agenda The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Program and free trade agreements have immensely contributed to the African integration agenda by bringing opportunities closer and reducing regional tensions. The remark was made by Silvester Kasuku, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the African Center for Transport, Infrastructure and Regional Integration (ACTIRI) and former CEO of LAPSSET Authority, in Nairobi on Tuesday during the sideline of the 7th Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa, (PIDA) Week under the theme "The investment potentials of the LAPSSET Land Bridge to Central Africa and beyond. The LAPSSET Corridor Program is a regional flagship project intended to provide transport and logistics infrastructure aimed at creating seamless connectivity between the Eastern African Countries of Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan. The project connects a population of 160 million people in the three countries and is part of the larger land bridge that will connect the East African coast from Lamu Port to the West coast of Africa at Douala Port. According to Kasuku infrastructure projects like the LAPSSET corridor project which is Eastern Africa’s largest and most ambitious infrastructure project is key not only for Kenya, but the whole region as a whole. He added that the project forges linkages that strengthen East Africa’s regional integration thus creating the new basis needed for economic growth. While emphasising the project’s unique importance, he said the road has improved connectedness between Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan thus generating positive economic synergy between the three...

The Government of Kenya has lifted the mandatory presentation of negative Covid-19 results requirement for its heavy goods truck drivers and appealed to the EAC partner states to follow suit. The resolution was communicated by Kenya Transport Association to its members after the Kenyan cabinet meeting on Friday, a development which was warmly welcomed by East African transport companies and drivers. “To the EAC secretariat, the ministers of health- Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, South Sudan and Tanzania, we thank the government of Kenya for removing the mandatory requirement of negative Covid-19 test results for fully vaccinated truck drivers entering Kenya,” reads part of the statement by KTA to its members. According to KTA, the government of Kenya has given its reasons for removing this requirement and believes that the basic parameters observed in Kenya in relation to the current Covid-19 pandemic situation are being replicated in the East African community region. Mr Newton Wang’oo’, the chairman of the transport association of Kenya welcomed the lift pointing out that the EAC governments have always worked with harmonised Covid-19 protocols to facilitate uniform requirements when drivers cross the borders to deliver essential goods in the region. “We therefore, respectively ask the EAC countries to vacate the mandatory requirement to present a negative Covid-19 test result for all fully vaccinated truck drivers crossing all borders in the EAC region,” he said Reports indicate that a total of 42,344 trucks crossed into Uganda from Kenya and 37, 769 trucks crossed into Kenya from Uganda...

Complying with the Rules of Origin requirement under a free trade area is perceived as the most restrictive aspect to trading. This was revealed by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Country Business Index (ACBI) report, which was published on Monday, February 28. “This can be partly explained by the difficulty to conforming to these rules and maybe particularly onerous for informal and especially women,” reads part of the report. The report presented by Stephen Karingi, the Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division at UNECA, on the sidelines of the eighth session of Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, surveyed businesses in  Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa. Rules of origin are the criteria needed to determine the national source of a product, and are important because duties and restrictions most often depend upon the source of imports. We need more business friendly rules of origin John Bosco Kalisa, CEO of the East African Business Council (EABC), who attended the Webinar on Primer for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Country Business Index Report organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) told The New Times that the rules of origin are “very complex and unfriendly” and it is difficult to enable SMEs comply with them. He added: “Therefore, we are advocating for a quick review of current rules of origin to take into consideration the needs of SMEs and informal cross border businesses. “We need more business-friendly rules of origin that are simple, flexible, transparent...