KIGALI, RWANDA – Rwanda continues to seek ways to address existing bottlenecks that affect trade development along the Northern and the Central corridors and the wider market, a process the government believes cannot be successful without the private sector stepping in.

“We need to step up our game but we will not do that without you the private sector, so we need to work together, you to tell us what is it that we can do on our side to facilitate your penetration in this market,” Minister of East African Community, Amb. Valentine Rugwabiza (pictured above) said recently.

Minister Rugwabiza was speaking at the 5th MINEAC-private sector quarterly breakfast meeting held in Kigali.

According to the minister, the EA market is growing with South Sudan to be admitted to this market next month. This is a big market that calls for the private sector to get engaged more.

EA market currently stands at nearly 160 million with hope tp increase more with the coming in of South Sudan.

“The reason for such meetings is to see how to remove all barriers that prevent us from taking advantage of the EA market which will help reduce costs involved in exporting or selling our services in EA,” Rugwabiza said.

Rugwabiza said, “Reducing the time and costs to exporters and importers is not only of paramount importance to Rwanda’s increased regional integration and trade facilitation, but also to sustain growth in the long run.”

According to Rugwabiza, some issues raised by the private sector in the last meeting have been resolved.

“One issue that was brought to us is the number of stops on the Central Corridor including the stop at Rugembe and time spent of about 6-7 hours has so far been solved. Trucks are no longer retained at Rugembe for that long plus facilities have been built with the government engaging the city council and the police,” she said.

The Rusumo border which has a one stop border that is not fully operational will be operational by end of February with the government of Rwanda engaging with that of the Republic of Tanzania which is all aimed at easing trade within the region.

Landlocked countries such as Rwanda carry the greatest cost of NTBs and other impediments due to distance from the main ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, poor road infrastructure, delays at border crossings and lack of harmonized import and export standards and procedures. As a result the cost of imports of one container in Rwanda, for example, is more than 3.5 times higher than in Tanzania and 2.5 times higher than in Kenya.

This is why government of Rwanda is currently working with its partners in the region to further reduce the cost of doing business and ensure all non-tariff barriers (NTBs) are eliminated.

“As the private sector, we need to optimally exploit the potential and large market within the EAC and therefore the purpose of this breakfast session is not only to give you feedback on the issues raised last year but also for you to tell us from your side the strategies you are laying to ensure that you penetrate into this large market,” Permanent secretary MINEAC, Innocent Safari said.

According to Safari, if you look at trading across borders within the EAC, doing business 2016, Rwanda still has serious challenges standing around 161st position in 2015 out of 17.

“We have a serious challenge in trading across borders which significantly affects the countries performance in doing business,” he said.

“Governments need to do more to eliminate the remaining trade barriers and promote fair trade in the region,” Chairman Private Sector federation, Benjamin Gasamagera said.

“Many opportunities in the region are there, the political will is also there, we have a good cooperation with our government so it’s now up to us to work hard to tap into those opportunities,” Gasamagera said.

Rwanda’s exported of $19.65 million to EAC Partner States (EAC) in the third quarter of 2015 accounted for a fifth of total domestic exports.

Export cost of Rwanda is currently at $3245 per container an area that the country needs to look into to see how to significantly reduce the cost.

It costs Rwanda on average 4,990USD to import a 20ft container while the sub Saharan average is US$ 2,504 to import a 20ft container,” Safari said.

The Government of Rwanda, therefore seeks to deepen its engagement and facilitation of the private sector in order to help businesses reap more from the wider market presented by East African region, which has a population of 150 million people. Trade facilitation also extends to other regional economic blocs that Rwanda is part of, including recently signed Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement between COMESA-EAC-SADC; aimed at facilitating and promoting intra-regional trade across the continent.

Source: Business Week

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