Eastern Africa regional states should strengthen intra-regional trade and enact policies to reduce poverty among poor members of their societies to sustain economic growth. That was one of the key resolutions by experts at the 20th Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in the Eastern Africa region, which was concluded in Nairobi, Kenya, last week. The experts said the region has achieved notable rates of economic growth over the last ten years, but warned that dropping prices for international commodities like oil and minerals as well as economic weaknesses in both developed economies such as the US and Europe and emerging economies like China call for seeking answers from within Africa. Andrew Mold, a senior economic affairs officer at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), argued that Eastern Africa needed to maximise the potential from both domestic and regional sources of growth in the face of unstable global economic prospects. "While the prospects for global markets look so subdued, the only sensible strategy is to explore all the possibilities for invigorating intra-regional and intra-African trade and investment. To do otherwise at such a time may condemn the region to a prolonged period of slower growth," he said. UNECA's eastern Africa region covers 14 countries; Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Madagascar. Others are Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The region's ICE meeting is held annually to discuss key issues and challenges about economic and social development...

Construction of Mutukula one-stop border post (OSBP) in Rakai district has been completed. The ministry of Works and Transport and Trade Mark East Africa (TMA), the financiers of the project, handed over the border post to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), which will manage the facility. The facility has key sections such as the customs and immigration point, a goods inspection hall, a clearing agency block and staff residential houses, among others. According to government officials, the OSBP is expected to reduce the border time clearance by 30 per cent; goods are expected to spend an average time of five hours at Mutukula, down from the previous eight hours. Addressing journalists at the Mutukula border post, Allen Asiimwe, the country director, at Trade Mark East Africa, said the facility would commence in March. “[Mutukula] provides an alternative route to and from the sea through Dar es Salaam. This time, goods leaving Uganda will stop once for clearance from the Tanzanian side as opposed to being cleared from both countries,” she said. TMA, with support from the United Kingdom, injected $15m (Shs 51bn) towards the construction of OSBP infrastructures at Mutukula – on the Uganda and Tanzania sides. The money will also be used to furnish offices and buy computers for both posts. Dickson Kateshumbwa, URA’s commissioner for customs, said the revenue body is ready to manage the post and argued that the concept will ease the process of doing business in the area. He observed that over the years, business at...

Construction of the Sh843 million Moyale one-stop border post will be complete by May this year. The project is expected to immensely enhance trade between Kenya and Ethiopia. The border post funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) is a trade facilitation project under the Mombasa–Nairobi–Addis Ababa Road Corridor project. Kenya and Ethiopia signed a bilateral agreement in 2011 to develop the joint corridor and road to enhance cross-border trade. Principal Secretary for Infrastructure John Mosonik last week told Smart Company that the construction began in February last year adding that, “approximately 65 per cent of the works have been done and the works are expected to be complete by May 2016.” It is expected that completion of the border post will enable seamless clearance of goods and people across the borders. Further, the border post will complement construction of Isiolo – Moyale Development Corridor which forms part of the strategic transport corridor linking Mombasa Port to Addis Ababa. POOR CONDITION The 503km Isiolo–Moyale has been in poor condition since 2008, hampering transport and hence stifling trade between the two countries. At the moment 461km of the road is done with the remaining 42km set for completion by September this year. The road is part of the Lamu-Port-South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor funded by the government and the European Union at a cost of Sh13.7 billion. Kenya National Highways Authority Director General Peter Mundinia and the project consultant Abdul Khan from Amal Consortium last week inspected the border post...

Kenya is seeking ways to take advantage of the turnaround in exports which have risen faster than imports for the first time in more than five years. According to Financial Times, sliding energy prices helped fuel a 13 per cent year-on-year fall in Kenya’s total import bill in September. In contrast, exports rose 24 per cent year-on-year, largely due to a 58 per cent jump in the value of tea exports as prices rose despite significant fall in volumes. This has shifted focus on the slump of Kenya’s export sector which has seen growth in the manufacturing sector stagnate at 11 per cent of the GDP for over ten years, according to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). A new department of commerce and international trade at the Ministry of Industrialisation will this week meet stakeholders to discuss how to exploit the opportunities in value-added exports. “I met over 150 stakeholders with three things on the table; validation of a trade policy, an export development strategy and a position on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs),” newly appointed Permanent Secretary Chris Kiptoo told Smart Company. He said his department is set to deliver a new set of rules on taxes, subsidies, import and export in the next four months to boost trade. Mr Kiptoo said he would focus on a trade policy to address the imbalance in Kenya exports against imports. The gap between exports and imports narrowed significantly last year thanks to drop in oil prices. The National Treasury says...

Mombasa — The cost of clearing cargo at the port of Mombasa and of transport along the Northern Corridor has gone down by 30% since the implementation of the East African Single Customs Territory (SCT). Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General John Njiraini was recently speaking during a two-day meeting peer review and learning session focused on the SCT. The East African nations are integrating their customs systems to make it possible for the three countries to have a regional bond for goods in transit. This will substantially cut the costs of handling transit cargo and make it more convenient for importers across the region. Njiraini said, "We want to ensure faster clearance of goods at the first point of entry within East Africa, SCT is being implemented in three phases. beginning with bulk cargo such as fuel, wheat grain and clinker used in cement manufacturing. Phase two handles containerized cargo and motor vehicles while the third phase will handle Intra-regional trade among countries implementing the SCT Tripartite arrangement. Njiraini said, "These measures are designed to provide a sound platform to refocus Customs and Border Control operations to address security and revenue collection." Mid last year, the EAC nations agreed to integrate their customs systems to make it possible to have a regional bond for goods in transit. In 2005 the five Partner States set out to establish a Customs Union when they signed the Custom Union Protocol. When the formalities for establishing the CU were completed, a Customs Union...

The revival of East African Community 15 years ago during the NRM rule has placed the region in the metropolis on the global map increased market size of the region, led to high economic growth among benefits that comes with integration. Regional economic integration is one way countries achieve national interests only in concert with others. It expands national markets to the region. Like globalization, it can be thought of as an alternative to international embeddedness or how one or countries relates to the rest of the world. Learning from international experience and reorganizing the importance of regional integration, the establishment of the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation, was signed by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania.   Revival of East African community 30 November, 1993 - permanent tripartite commission for East African co-operation established. On March 14, 1996 – the co-operation secretariat was launched in Arusha as the executive arm of the tripartite commission. On November 30, 1999 - the treaty establishing the east African community is signed. On July 7, 2000 –the treaty entry into force of the treaty and coming into being of the new EAC was realized and was launched on January 15, 2001 by the three heads of state. President Museveni has been at the fore front that East African economies should develop through regional integration over the last 15 years the EAC regional integration has proven itself on the international stage and has...

African governments have been working to establish a monetary union for the past several years, and the benefits of such a move cannot be overstated. By 2024, the East African Community will have unprecedented cross-border exchange that will revolutionise member economies and foreign investment prospects. The system will spare investors the headaches and expenses of currency conversion, and that improvement alone will make the region more attractive. However, the East African Community should heed the eurozone’s economic troubles as it works toward implementing its own monetary union. Greece defaulted on US$1.7-billion in debt it owed the International Monetary Fund in 2015, leading it to the brink of exiting the eurozone. It also provided a sobering example of what can go wrong in such an economic bloc. If the East African monetary union is to avoid such crises, its leaders must address the following concerns before 2024: 1. Macroeconomic Convergence Volatile foreign exchange and inflation trends should evoke concern about macroeconomic convergence in East Africa. Stark variances exist among the member states’ currencies, such as the Rwandan franc and the Ugandan and Tanzanian shillings, and there could be troublesome spillover among East African Community economies. However, some regional countries appear to be working together ahead of the monetary union. Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda recently created a single tourist visa that make it easier for international visitors to tour the three countries. This is aimed to bolster tourism and is geared to attract investors who see regional mobility improving. These three countries...

The 2015 Africa Tourism Monitor has uncovered that visa simplification schemes have the potential to further boost tourism revenue and job creation by between 5% and 25%, and thus far supporting visa facilitation initiatives, including e-visa and regional visa cooperation, have already led to immense economic benefits for countries that have adopted this approach. This revelation comes at a time when SADC states are preparing to expand the KAZA (Kavango Zambezi) visa, a common tourist visa developed by Zambia and Zimbabwe, which has been identified as the first step towards a SADC uni-visa. The Tourism Monitor published by the African Development Bank (AfDB), further indicates that the continental tourism sector is growing. The report attributes this growth to various initiatives aimed at boosting the industry which include the simplification of visa systems and regional cooperation mechanisms through the KAZA visa and East African Community (EAC) uni-visa. According to the report the African tourism sector grew by 4% in 2014, making it the second fastest- growing tourist destination (Southeast Asia grew by 6%). In 2014, a total of 65.3 million international tourists visited the continent, which is a significant leap from the 17.4million that visited the continent in 1990. Among the top five African countries for tourist arrivals were two SADC states South Africa in 3rd place and Zimbabwe in 5th place while Botswana topped Lonely Planet’s list of best places to visit in 2016, beating out countries such as The United States of America and Japan for first place. The...

Thinking of traversing Africa in search of trade and investment opportunities? You may need to consider what parts of the continent to focus on in terms of flexibility in travel and how visa-open the destination country is. According to the Africa Visa Openness Report 2016 published  by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the most visa-open countries are found in West Africa and East Africa. A massive 75 percent of countries in the top 20 most visa-open countries are in West Africa or East Africa. Surprisingly, only one in North Africa and none in Central Africa are in the top 20 most visa-open countries—underlining the challenges the continent faces in boosting its trade and investment profile. East Africa has the bulk (45 percent) of the top most visa-open countries including Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. West Africa has the second largest cluster (30 percent) of the top most visa open countries including Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Togo, according to the index. The Southern African bloc is ranked third in terms of visa openness in four countries that include Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Zambia. Seamless borders are no doubt a boon to trade and investment world over because of free movement labor, goods and capital. The fruits of an open visa policy have been supported by the formal adoption of the European Union (EU) Schengen Agreement in 1995 that abolished the EU’s internal borders, enabling passport-free movement across most of the bloc. The deal helped the...

Africa’s narrative today is a different narrative to what it was 10 – 15 years ago. Gone are the days of “Africa, the Dark Continent” or “Africa, the Failed Continent.” Today’s Africa is an Africa on the move. Africa’s new monikers embrace a more positive view, such as “the Rising Continent” an “Renaissance Africa.” But are we seeing the whole picture? It is widely reported and celebrated that Africa has turned a corner, with rapid economic growth leading to higher standards of living and a reduction in the percentage of people living in absolute poverty. Although the rates and standards of progress differ around the continent, many African countries have seen annual GDP growth of between 4-6%. It is perhaps less widely reported or acknowledged that as African economies have grown, many of the continent’s wildlife populations have shrunk. In just over 20 years, Africa’s lion population has declined by half, and today only 20,000 lions are left on the continent. Africa’s elephants, which numbered 1.3 million in the 1970s, have also declined by more than half. Giraffe numbers are also falling, dropping from 140,000 giraffe in 1999 to fewer than 80,000 individuals today. Some of the declines can be attributed to poaching, as in the case of Africa’s elephants and rhinos. Increasingly, though, habitat loss, conflict with humans and other threats are pushing species closer to extinction and dramatically altering the critical ecosystems on which we rely so heavily. The conventional wisdom is that it is not in the...