Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has partnered with the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK), alias Posta, to tap into e-commerce business and intra-regional trade for its members. Speaking during the signing of the agreement, KAM’s CEO Phyllis Wakiaga said Posta’s network of more than 600 branches countrywide, and linkages with other postal organisations in the region would come in handy at a time when Africa is implementing the Africa free Continental Trade Area (AfCFTA). The partnership will see Posta offer same-day and overnight courier services, rider dedicated services, clearing and forwarding services to KAM and its members. The two parties also plan to implement programmes such as international courier services, direct mail marketing and training of KAM members on how to capitalise on the collaboration. In the new partnership, the two organisations will mobilise resources through training programmes, with a view to funding the operations and delivery of the objectives of the memorandum of understanding (MoU). The MoU will be implemented by a joint management committee that will be charged with coordination of collaborative activities, monitoring implementation of joint activities, and exploring emerging opportunities to deepen the partnership. Last month, the Postal Corporation of Kenya (Posta) received KSh72 million from Trade Mark East Africa (TMA), seeking to enhance its cross-border e-commerce deliveries. Under the deal, the Corporation says it intends to increase its capacity to process 10,000 packages daily to provide an efficient logistics and distribution platform for e-commerce entrepreneurs and customers. Read original article

About fifty small scale carrot farmers from MauNarok are set to benefit from the Voluntary Third Party Assurance project involving food safety. The project piloted in Nakuru County is being implemented in partnership with AfriFoods and, seeks to address the safety of carrots in the County as a rapidly expanding sector in the horticulture industry. Some of the issues to be addressed are production practices carried out by farmers, plant health, transportation and marketing aspects among other things. At the same time, 20 Trainers of trainers from Nakuru, Machakos and Kericho counties have undergone a one-week training on the KS 1758 code of practice for fruits and vegetables. While officially opening the workshop, County Director of Agriculture, Mr. Frederick Owino, said the County continues to add resources to champion for food safety within and outside the County. He added that the County together with it’s partners intend to lay foundations for the safety and traceability of carrots accounting for local as well as export produce for safe consumer consumption. Carrot traders in Nakuru undergoing the training Currently, the County says it has a food safety policy and wet market policy in place to cater for issues around food safety. It adds that implementation of the wet market is ongoing at the Free Area market as well as the construction of a smart market in Karai area in Naivasha sub-county. AfriFoods CEO, Dr. Jimmy Mutunga, said that it would be key if the standards were received and accepted by industry players...

Posta’s network has more than 600 branches countrywide Africa is now implementing the Africa free Continental Trade Area For AfCFTA to be successful, all African countries must address more non-tariff barriers and build value chains in the various regions. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) have forged a strategic partnership to tap into e-commerce business and intra-regional trade for its members. Speaking during the signing of the agreement, Phyllis Wakiaga, the CEO of KAM said, “Posta’s network of more 600 branches countrywide, and linkages with other postal organisations in the African region would come in handy for exports and imports, at a time when Africa is implementing the Africa free Continental Trade Area (AfCFTA).” The partnership will see PCK offer same day and overnight courier services, rider dedicated services, clearing and forwarding services to the association and its members. Under the agreement, the two parties also plan to implement programmes such as international courier services, direct mail marketing and training of KAM members on how to capitalise on the collaboration. Dan Kagwe, the CEO and Postmaster General of the PCK said the corporation would offer discounted rates and dedicated courier services, as it pursues its quest to be an aggregator of courier and delivery services countrywide. Kagwe said Africa can only realise rapid economic growth by “harnessing its production capacities and tapping intra-Africa trade opportunities available through connecting more than 1.2 billion people across 54 African countries.” In the new partnership, the two...

In Summary It will KRA an opportunity to facilitate legitimate trade and collect the correct revenue, it says. This comes with the construction of a major road (Isiolo-Mandera) connecting the horn of Africa countries of Kenya, Somalia and to Ethiopia. Kenya Revenue Authority plans to establish posts at Rhamu and Mandera on the Ethiopia and Somali borders respectively. It will also put up a trade facilitation centre at Suftu,(Kenya-Ethiopia) and  construct two bridges to facilitate movement of goods and persons across the borders. The establishment of the One Stop Border Posts, supported by TradeMark Africa, is expected not only to spur growth in import and export trade but also provide an opportunity for legitimate trade and revenue collection. Commissioner for Customs and Border Control Lilian Nyawanda said KRA seeks to facilitate faster movement of goods and persons at the Kenya-Ethiopia border, and facilitate cross-border trade between Kenya and Somalia (upon opening of the borders). “Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have long and porous common borders, with many potential locations for developing border posts to facilitate cross-border trade,” Nyawanda said in a statement on Tuesday. This comes with the construction of a major road connecting the Horn of Africa countries. The Horn of Africa Gateway Development Project (HoAGDP) road connects Kenya to Somalia and Ethiopia. The Isiolo-Mandera regional road corridor – the primary project area - traverses the North Eastern counties of Isiolo, Meru, Wajir, Mandera and Garissa. Last year, World Bank approved an Sh81 billion loan to upgrade half of the 750-kilometer Isiolo-Mandera...

BUSINESS is booming online all over the world and digital economy is the new thing. Those who are yet to transition to this new normal are losing big time. Aren’t they? Like other developing countries, Tanzania is undergoing digital transformation as reflected in the growing number of people connected to communication devices and internet services. Director of External Affairs at Vodacom Tanzania Foundation Rosalynn Mworia says digital transformation is key to a nation’s digital economy because among others, it improves efficiency and ease of doing business, reduces the cost of doing business, cuts time in service delivery, improves convenience of accessing services and eases reach to consumers. Mworia was speaking during a Policy Forum Breakfast held month to disseminate findings of a study entitled ‘Tanzania digital transformation journey: What is the contribution to economic growth and social development?’ According to her, currently mobile services are at the center of Tanzania’s digital transformation, whereby more than 50 per cent of the population is subscribed to a mobile service which is not the case with other communication technologies. She further noted that mobile connectivity in Tanzania has enormous positive impact on agriculture and health. On agriculture, the study found that users of value-added services pilot were 39 per cent more likely to report increased income in a given year than those who did not. The service used unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), push SMS subscriptions, interactive voice response (IVR) and helpline to provide farmers with market information, weather forecasts, and agronomic advice...

TANZANIA’s exports to other African countries recorded an 11.8 per cent increase last year, the East African Business Council (EABC), has said. Launching an Africa Due Diligence Platform in Dar es Salaam at the weekend, EABC Executive Director John Bosco Kalisa revealed that Tanzania exports to Africa stood at 2.27 billion US dollars in 2020 from 2.03 billion US dollars in 2019. Mr Kalisa further urged the EAC bloc to align trade policy, eliminate Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), ease access to trade finance for SMEs, enhance productive capacity and factor market integration to tap into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market. However, the Chairman of the Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) Paul Makanza, noted intra-Africa trade was still low at approximately 16.6 per cent of total Africa exports to the globe. Makanza said January 1, 2021, signaled a new dawn for Africa as trading under AfCFTA commenced. He commended EAC heads of state for ratifying the AfCFTA and called upon the Tanzania private sector to seize the moment and opportunities availed by the continental market. The Due Diligence Platform also known as Mansa, is among innovative solutions put in place to transform Africa's trade and helped to solve challenges African countries are facing in trading with each other. Representing the Tanzania Chambers of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (TCCIA) President, Justine Marwa said the launch of Mansa is set to enhance the preparedness of women, youth as well as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Tanzania to trade under the...

Envoys representing East African Community partner states in the United States have committed to collaboratively cultivate cultural diplomacy to promote investment in the bloc. The Ambassadors emphasized the need for East Africans to come together to promote African culture as a strategy to spark interest in the region. “We need to encourage and organize our festivals, start donning East African attire and promote our organizations to attract and popularize our region,” recommended Elsie Sia Kanza, Tanzania's ambassador to the US, at a virtual consultative virtual meeting, hosted by the EAC Secretary General Peter Mathuki, here on Friday. The diplomat further challenged the EAC to avail marketing materials to all ambassadors in the region to advertise the region in their engagements and push for resolution of non-tariff barriers. Her Kenyan counterpart Lazarus Amayo, who also chaired the meeting, noted the need for EAC to promote itself as a single tourist and investment destination. “EAC needs to be proactive in pushing the integration agenda in the USA to prompt interest in investment and development partners,” he said. The EAC representatives also rooted for a deeper collaboration with the EAC Secretariat in identifying specific competitive sectors setting the region apart and promoting them to the world. Mull Katende, who us Uganda’s ambassador to the US emphasized on the need for promotion of industrialization to promote the region’s competitiveness, while South Sudanese ambassador in the US Phillip Jada called on East Africans living in the diaspora to be proactive in their activities and utilize...

THE Government has commended the logistic and transport sector for remaining resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic as it had continued to provide the needed facilitation of goods and services in the country. Transport and logistics minister Frank Tayali said during the Zambia Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (ZCILT) Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Ndola’s Protea Hotel at the weekend that the sector continued to provide its services to the country amid the critical times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read original article

Dar es Salaam. Members of the business community yesterday warned that the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will not materialise unless some pending trade barriers were addressed. The impediments to trade include lack of harmonisation of standards, failure to sign the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (Saatm) and the export of raw commodities. The list also includes visa and work permit requirements, multiple testing agencies, unnecessary roadblocks and random checks along transport corridors/roads and high cost of cross-border trade that may represent barriers to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The East African Business Council (EABC) trade and policy advisor, Mr Adrian Njau, said for AfCFTA to be successful, countries must address more non-tariff barriers and build regional value chains. “Only 13.6 percent of the product standards have been harmonised. This is a potential source of NTBs for cross-border trade in the continent,” he stated at the private sector’s meeting. The AfCFTA - whose trading started officially on January 1 this year - aims to bring continent-wide free trade to 1.3 billion people in a $3.4 trillion economic bloc that is Africa. Mr Njau said to create an internal market for African products, African markets must begin to manufacture value-added goods and deepen their regional value chains. The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) executive director Francis Nanai said the AfCFTA objectives will remain elusive if local businesses were unable to take full advantage of the opportunities in terms of trade and investment. As it...

To set Africa firmly on the path towards economic and social transformation, private sector engagement is crucial. The African Union, has throughout the years worked closely with the private sector to define the great contribution and significant role the private sector plays in driving the economic development Agenda of the continent. The private sector in Africa accounts for over 80 per cent of total production, two thirds of total investment, and three fourths of lending within the economy. The sector also provides jobs for about 90 per cent of the employed working-age population. Further, Small Medium Enterprise (SMEs) are the backbone of the African private sector accounting for over 90% of businesses in Africa and translating to 63% of employment in low-income countries while contributing to over 50% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Although trends in intra-African trade point toward progress, trade within Africa remains very low in proportion to total global trade, highlighting the need for enhanced intra-African trade. The tides however look promising with the launch of trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA). The AFCFTA is expected to increase intra-African Trade by over 50 per cent, and will boost the continent’s GDP by more than $40 billion, and its exports by more than $55 billion. To promote private sector engagement, the African Union has implemented programmes that seek to form strategic partnerships with the private sector through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) engagements, including developing strategic partnerships with...