With the Covid-induced recession subsiding as vaccination rates increase, there was great hope for the AfCFTA to show that it could live up to its hype. So, what has worked? Since trading began on 1 January, some intra-African trade under AfCFTA arrangements based on anecdotal evidence has taken place, including alcoholic beverages and cosmetic products (recent data on trade flows are not yet fully available). Although intra-African agricultural trade remains below 20% compared to more than 60% for Europe and Asia, trade is projected to grow once negotiations have come to an end and trade barriers are progressively rolled back. To date, 42 out of 55 African countries have ratified the agreement, and 88% of the negotiations on product-specific rules of origin have been concluded, covering more than 70% of intra-African trade according to the AfCFTA Secretariat in 2021. However, a significant shortcoming of the agreement is that many nutrition-sensitive goods may not be fully liberalised or progressively liberalised over longer periods, as indicated by ongoing negotiations on tariff offers. Examples of protected goods include live animals, meat, fish, milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, coffee, tea, spices, oilseeds and sugars. Africa’s agricultural commodities and raw materials have traditionally dominated trade with the rest of the world (cocoa, coffee, cotton, tobacco and spices) with a mix of processed goods (cane and beet sugar, prepared or preserved tunas, wine and other food preparations). For the AfCFTA to reach its full potential by exploiting the full range of the agri-food value...

The Zanzibar Bureau of Standards (ZBS) and TradeMark Africa (TMA) have today signed a financing agreement worth TZS 1 billion aimed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness of ZBS in the development and implementation of standards in Zanzibar. The agreement is funded by development agencies of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway through TMA. Present at the signing ceremony was Mr. Yusuph Majid, Director General of ZBS and Ms. Monica Hangi, TMA Tanzania Country Director. The funding will support ZBS efforts towards tackling challenges that include limited-service delivery mechanisms and delays in conducting and issuing testing results for products that have in the past led to delays, and therefore increasing the cost of trading. Currently, ZBS functions are manual and paper-based making it cumbersome for traders to receive required certifications on time leading to further delays. Part of the funding will be used for development of an Integrated Standardization and Quality Management Information System (iSQMS) that will automate key ZBS processes; and a capacity building training programme on standardization and quality assurance for private sector stakeholders especially Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to increase their awareness and adoption of standards. In addition, TMA will also support an accreditation and standardization programme that will aim to support ZBS with domestication of regionally harmonized standards and have its processes, systems, and labs accredited. Speaking on the agreement, TMA Tanzania Country Director Ms. Monica Hangi said, “TradeMark Africa extends its commitment to supporting trade, through improving quality and standards of products produced and...

Dr Kevit Desai, Principal Secretary in Kenya’s East African Community and Regional Development ministry, said this at an EABC Trade Facilitation Forum held at the Taveta/Holili One-Stop Border Post on Kenya’s border with Tanzania. He lauded Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, current Chairman of the EAC Heads of State Summit, for bolstering the economic bloc’s regional integration agenda for businesses and East Africans to actualise prosperity. Dr Desai called for the enhancement of collective efforts towards trade facilitation and value addition to bolster manufacturing, appealing to East African businesspeople to “boldly tap into the markets of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”. Sarah Keiya, Chairperson of Women Cross-Border Traders, meanwhile said that unharmonised measures on Covid-19 raise the cost of business operations. She cited the US$10 antigen test on the Tanzania side while on the Kenya side this is made free of charge. She also suggested that the EAC’s Simplified Trade Regime is yet to be implemented as fully as envisioned. EABC Executive Officer John Bosco Kalisa reported that the Taveta/Holili One-Stop Border Post cleared 33,000 cargo trucks last year, a 73 per cent increase from 19,000 the previous year. He said the increase in the volume of trade underscored the importance of eliminating non-tariff barriers for the quick recovery and resilience of the EAC economies amid Covid-19. Kalisa also called for a “green channel” for East African products at the border to boost trade and competitiveness of the region. He said that Holili/Taveta...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is expected to increase intra-African trade in transport services by nearly 50 percent, according to the latest estimate by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The UNECA, noting that Africa’s transport sector is set to strongly benefit from AfCFTA, said in a statement sent to Xinhua Friday that a recent estimate entitled the “Implications of the AfCFTA for demand for transport, infrastructure and services” indicated that with AfCFTA in absolute terms, more than 25 percent of intra-African trade gains in services would go to transport alone; and nearly 40 percent of the increase in Africa’s services production would be in transport The study conducted by experts in the Energy, Infrastructure and Services Section of UNECA unpacks AfCFTA investment opportunities in the transport sector. According to the findings, AfCFTA requires 1,844,000 trucks for bulk cargo and 248,000 trucks for container cargo by 2030. This increases to 1,945,000 and 268,000 trucks, respectively, if planned infrastructure projects are also implemented. The largest demand for trucks to support AfCFTA is within West Africa at 39 percent; demand from West to Southern Africa is 19.8 percent and from Southern Africa to Western Africa by 9.9 percent. UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of UNECA Vera Songwe said the AfCFTA is “expected to significantly increase traffic flows on all transport modes – road, rail, maritime, and air,” but that such gains will only be optimized if the AfCFTA is accompanied by the implementation of regional infrastructure projects. On the...

Through the Connect Rwanda Initiative, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) is set to donate 900 smartphones to cross-border women traders to enable them use cashless transactions in their operations and access other government digitally supported services. The phones were handed over to MTN Rwanda, the telecommunication company that will distribute the phones to the beneficiaries, in a function held at ministry headquarters on February 10. Beata Habyarimana, the Minister of Trade and Industry said that the phones will be given to traders who have never owned a smartphone before and will help them to communicate with other traders regionally, share pictures of their products and access information such as prices, border-crossing measures in place as well as any other trade-related information in a timely manner. She revealed that they have partnered with Ministry of ICT and Innovation as well as MTN Rwanda, adding that the 900 smartphones will be given to women who trade in three western border districts of Nyamasheke, Rusizi and Rubavu with the support of the World Bank’s Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project. “We have opted to help women traders because during Covid-19--induced lockdownsq, borders were closed, but they proved that trading was possible by using their simple ways. So, giving them smartphones with different helpful applications will help them to boost their businesses,” she said. Through the Connect Rwanda Initiative, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) is set to donate 900 smartphones. She noted that 75% of people who are involved in cross-border trade are women, adding that...

Aid-for-trade organisation TradeMark Africa plans to take a step towards pan-African scale by setting up operations in West Africa, CEO Frank Matsaert tells The Africa Report. The secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) asked TradeMark to look at West Africa, and it has secured an initial grant from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Matsaert says. TradeMark will be seeking to get further grants and private-sector funding, he adds. “Our aim is to become a pan-African trade facilitator.” Read original article

For many smallholder farmers, growing coffee has become a risky business. Plagued by low profitability, high risk and the effects of a changing climate, many farmers struggle to make a profit and earn a living income. With limited access to financing, they are also unable to invest in adaptations that would help overcome these challenges and raise their productivity. As smallholders account for 80% of global coffee production, the constraints they face add up to a significant and direct threat to the entire coffee industry. To address these challenges, Tropical Farm Management Kenya and Becamo in Honduras – both part of Neumann Gruppe GmbH, a green coffee service group with over 50 companies in 26 countries – have collaborated with Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded program implemented by Fintrac Inc., to make coffee a better business for smallholder farmers and the coffee industry as a whole. With support from Partnering for Innovation, the company is tackling these challenges head-on through NKG Bloom, a global initiative that aims to build a sustainable coffee supply chain by providing farmers with critical opportunities and resources to grow and adapt. THE CHALLENGES FACING COFFEE PRODUCTION Rapidly changing prices, adverse weather conditions, pests and disease — these shocks and stressors can quickly undo the promise of a successful coffee growing season and severely diminish smallholders’ income and food security. Climate change has worsened many of these challenges, leading to unpredictable weather conditions, from shifting rain patterns to flooding and droughts, and spurring more frequent incidences of pests and...

TANZANIA is making great strides in many areas economically, and one such area is on operation of its ports, serving the country as well as neighbouring landlinked countries. The country is blessed to have different ports along its coastline as well as on its lakes and the government has spared no efforts in developing the ports with modern infrastructure. Ports serve as important transportation hubs that facilitate goods movement, such as distribution of freight, including raw materials, parts and finished consumer products. They conduct important functions such as administrative; ensuring that the legal, socio-political and economic interests of the state and international maritime authorities are protected. In terms of development they are major promoters and instigators of a country's or wider regional economy and also are part and parcel of industrial development. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has put a special push in supporting the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) in ensuring that it improves its performance and service delivery to customers. That has been accepted by senior officials of TPA who in turn credited her support. In spite of the country going through the Covid-19 pandemic that affected almost all parts of the world, TPA is doing well and there is an increase in number of customers, as it is witnessed of the queues at its ports. As the government put efforts in improving its transport and transportation infrastructure such as roads, railways and airports, a lot has been done on the ports as well. President Samia dished out 500bn/- to...

Summary The resource-rich country in the heart of Africa is expected to be officially admitted to the East African Community later this month – earlier than previously thought – becoming the newest member of the regional bloc Arusha. Despite the security challenges in its eastern jungles, the DR Congo is set to become the newest member of the East African Community (EAC). The resource-rich country in the heart of Africa will join the six-nation bloc later this month: earlier than previously thought. The likelihood of the EAC becoming a seventh member came on the heels of the recent conclusion of detailed negotiations in Nairobi. “The negotiations were concluded and a negotiation framework matrix jointly adopted,” a source at the EAC said. Adoption of the matrix discussed for two weeks in Nairobi last month technically clears the road of the country’s entry into the bloc. Admission of a new member is the prerogative of the EAC Summit of Heads of State, the supreme organ of the Community. The Council of Ministers, another powerful organ, has recommended the admission of DRC into the bloc “in accordance with the Treaty”. A source at the EAC Secretariat hinted that the regional leaders are likely to meet at the end of this month specifically for the purpose. “If the summit is to take place, it would not be earlier than the end of February” a source intimidated to The Citizen. During an EAC ministerial meeting held virtually on Tuesday last week, the ministers recommended for prompt...

John Bosco Kalisa, chief executive officer for the East African Business Council (EABC) said yesterday that Kenya’s imports from Tanzania stood at $501m and exports reached $403.9m, on the basis of EAC customs data. At an EABC trade facilitation forum at the Namanga one-stop border post (OSBP) he applauded presidents Samia Suluhu Hassan and Uhuru Kenyatta for eliminating the nauseating barriers, at the forum supported by the German development cooperation group GIZ, which operates the ‘Supporting East African market-driven and people-centred integration’ (SEAMPEC) programme. The Namanga OSBP Kenya o station manager said the number of trucks cleared daily at the border has increased threefold to 250 compared those crossing the border in May 2020. However, leaders of the freight forwarders association urged the separation of the Import Declaration Form (IDF) from the Integrated Customs Management System (ICMS) for Kenya and set up a permanent cargo scanner at the border to facilitate rapid clearing of vehicles. Daniel Wainaina, the chairman of the Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA), said the clearing cost of cargo on the Kenyan side has increased by 70 percent due to multiple processes and departments. For 20metric tonnes of cargo, the clearing cost is approximately $200 which results in lower competitiveness, he stated. Gerald Masila, the East African Grain Council CEO, said the council spearheaded the development of EAC harmonized standards on grains and cereals, common standards on sampling and testing, to boost cross-border trade of cereals. The traders called for more staff to be deployed...