The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and United National Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have today launched a Co-delegation Agreement to implement trade facilitation projects in the region. UNCTAD Secretary General Dr Mukhisa Kituyi and his COMESA counterpart Chileshe Kapwepwe launched the Agreement Friday at the COMESA Headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. Under the Agreement, COMESA delegates to UNCTAD the design and development of national and regional Trade Information Portals (TIPs) and the Customs Automation Regional Centre (CARC). The two activities are worth 3 million euros and will be funded from an 85 million euros kitty provided by the European Union to COMESA under the 11th European Development Fund Trade Facilitation Programme. Out of this amount, 68 million euros will be used to implement trade facilitation and small-scale cross border trade. The TIPs will facilitate easy access to essential trade information in one platform while the CARC will support technical and functional training on the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) World Platform thereby improving skills to develop and use applications. This is in addition to developing the latest ASYCUDA Applications to enhance trade facilitation systems at the national, regional and continental levels. COMESA Secretary General said the co-delegation was informed by UNCTAD’s experience and expertise in promoting trade facilitation, and capacity in modernizing Customs Administrations, and ASYCUDA being its intellectual property. “I am confident that UNCTAD will deliver the expected outcomes as enshrined in the Co-delegation Agreement,” she said. In his address Kituyi said the engine...

The African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism’ was organised as part of the 3rd African Pension Funds and Alternatives Investment Conference. It was well attended by an audience mostly composed of industry players – private pension fund administrators, trustees, asset managers, government pension funds and development finance institutions. This grouping clearly demonstrates the interest to develop such initiatives to scale up greater investments in the African infrastructure space. The session was moderated by Dr Morgan Pillay Senior Infrastructure Finance Expert from GIZ, who presented the objectives of the AUDA-NEPAD session. To objectives were; to gauge the appetite of institutional investors (pension funds) for the implementation of the African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism and discuss its financial potential; and to make use of the Pension Fund conference platform to consult on what can make the concept a reality. This includes possible implementation strategies and concrete action steps towards scaling risk mitigation and an African Guarantee Scheme to enable the mobilisation of African pension fund investment for African infrastructure. The session panel, with representatives from the AUDA-NEPAD, the African Development Bank; the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Trade and Development Bank gave its interpretation of the African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism as instrument of risk mitigation. Industry players were requested to give their thoughts on how the development of such initiative could bring value in facilitating alternative investments in the African Infrastructure space. Deliberations included working with development partners in the development of similar initiatives such as the African Development Bank and its co-guarantee...

The 45th East African Community Consultative Meeting aimed at improving Air Transport in the region was held in in Naivasha, Kenya. The EAC Consultative meeting on facilitation of Air Transport is a forum for discussion on issues that affect air transport in the region in order to comply with Annex 9 (Air Transport Facilitation) and Annex 17 (Aviation Security) of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. The meeting refers to the ICAO international standards and recommended practices and proposes appropriate recommendations to be implemented by the Partner States at the various EAC international Airports.  It is hosted by EAC Partner States, twice a year on rotational basis. Addressing the delates from the EAC Partner States, the Principal Secretary in the Republic of Kenya’s State Department of Transport, Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works, Ms. Esther Koimett underscored the importance of EAC Air Transport facilitation forum in ensuring the smooth movement of passengers, goods and aircrafts at all EAC international airports. The Principal Secretary urged Partner States to continuously respond to emerging challenges in order to cope with aviation and non-aviation demands as well as strive to meet international standards. She reminded the participants that Air transport plays a key role in the promotion of trade, tourism and economic growth of the region. “Air Transport facilitation is an important aspect of aviation and the EAC airports have to continuously enhance capacity of existing infrastructure to be able to cope with future aviation demands, meet international requirements and...

The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is losing out business from tea firms because of the exorbitant transport rates from Nairobi to Mombasa. Tea firms, especially the multinationals, have now opted to use road in transporting millions of kilos of tea arguing that it is 60 percent cheaper than using the train. The move is likely to further complicate the loan repayment for the SGR. Apollo Kiarii, the chief executive of Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA), said the last mile connectivity involved in transportation of the tea and the revised cargo rates have made the use of SGR too expensive. “We have reached a point whereby we have decided to abandon the use of SGR because it does not make any economic sense to us given its expensive nature,” said Mr Kiarii. Source: Business Daily

Issues like negotiations on key instruments and more ratification numbers have to be achieved for effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement, Rwandan experts told Xinhua recently, as the African Union (AU) Commission set a time frame to activate the AfCFTA agreement on May 30. According to the AU, the remaining work for the AfCFTA is for the AU and African ministers of trade to finalize work on supporting instruments to facilitate the launch of the operational phase of the AfCFTA during an extra-ordinary heads of state and government summit on July 7. These instruments include rules of origin, schedules of tariff concessions on trade in goods, online non-tariff barriers monitoring and elimination mechanism, digital payments and settlement platform and African Trade Observatory Portal. Permanent Secretary of Rwanda's Ministry of Trade and Industry Michel Minega Sebera said the implementation can't be effective before negotiations on some key implementing instruments, including rules of origin and tariff concessions are completed. Despite the fact that the required 22 ratifications for the AfCFTA agreement to enter into force have been reached, the rest of African countries should join for its effective implementation, said Sebera, who is also an expert in international trade and development industry. Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, has so far opted not to ratify the agreement. Over 50 percent of the continent's cumulative GDP are contributed by Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, while Africa's six sovereign island nations collectively contribute just 1 percent, according to reports. African countries...

African policy makers, Regional Economic Communities, African business leaders and others are set to hold a two-day policy dialogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to map out a strategy for successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The May 27-28 policy dialogue is co-organised by the AU and the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA), a 10-year old development platform for discussions and reflections, for stakeholders to map out a strategy for implementation of trade agreement and therefore lead to the realization of Africa’s aspiration enunciated in Agenda 2063. AGENDA 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming the continent into the global powerhouse of the future. A concept note on the upcoming policy dialogue indicates that: “The planned policy dialogue will further enhance stakeholder engagement on the implementation of the AfCFTA.” It also aims to: build knowledge and expertise of all stakeholders on priority trade issues of the AfCFTA; improve regular information flow on trade issues to key stakeholders, and suggest a framework for the establishment of AfCFTA national committees; and improve co-ordination among relevant government ministries and agencies including through clear mandates and assigning of responsibilities. Improving the participation opportunities for stakeholders in the work programme of the AfCFTA; and strengthening the culture of dialogue and inclusiveness, are the other specific goals of the policy dialogue. The AfCFTA was first signed by African leaders on March 21, 2018, in Kigali. Among other benefits, experts estimate that the AfCFTA will increase intra-African trade by over 50...

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched a partnership with global technology firm mPedigree to improve the agro-inputs protection technology among its members. The partnership, launched under the COMESA Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) Seed programme, will help the bloc to eliminate faking and counterfeiting of agro-inputs materials like seeds and fertiliser among its member states. This move promises a deeper penetration into the supply chains and access to new ecosystem support for Kenya, where the technology is already in use. “The system will assist the region to not only eliminate cases of fake agro-inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and crop protection products, but also boost trade in quality and improved certified seed,” said Serlom Branttie, mPedigree Global Strategy Director. Fraudulent trade in fake agro-inputs has greatly contributed to the poor performance of over 80 million small-scale farmers and to food insecurity in the region. Source: Media Max

The ambitious African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which technically enters into force on 30 May could be the game changer for Africa’s hitherto lacklustre economy. Driven by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the process of reaching this point may well have broken all African records. African Union member states launched negotiations to create this huge market of 1.2-billion people with a GDP of over $3.4-trillion in only March last year. Jakkie Cilliers, head of African Futures and Innovation at the Institute for Security Studies, calculates that the AfCFTA, if properly implemented, would boost Africa’s economic growth and reduce extreme poverty more than any other single factor in the long term. In a forthcoming book on Africa’s future, Cilliers reports on the results of forecasts done using the International Futures software on the likely impacts of 11 major transitions: social grants, rejuvenated education, peace, a fourth wave of democracy, improved health, external support, a demographic dividend (a timely bulge in the size of the working-age population), an upsurge in local manufacturing, an African agricultural revolution, leapfrogging outdated technologies – and the AfCFTA. Cilliers found that other drivers such as social grants, agriculture, leapfrogging and manufacturing would make the biggest difference in the short term. But by 2050, the AfCFTA would clearly be exerting the greatest impact on GDP per capita and extreme poverty. For example in lower-middle-income countries it would be boosting annual GDP per capita by over $1 500, compared to the next biggest factor, technology leapfrogging, which would be...

East African exports to the rest of the continent could be boosted by almost $1bn by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The office for Eastern Africa of the ECA also said the AfCFTA could create between 500,000 and 1.9m jobs. Source: Supply Management

The African continental free trade area (AfCFTA) is among the most momentous of developments in trade. Signed by 52 African states, it is by number of participating countries the largest trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. It occurs not just in an international climate of aversion to free trade, notably with stalemate at the WTO and bellicose US trade policy, but also in a climate in which trade agreements just don’t seem possible. Many negotiations have been drawn out and time consuming, often languishing without ever entering into force. These include – but are not limited to – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Free Trade Area of the Americas, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the European Union’s economic partnership agreements, and the tripartite free trade area. The AfCFTA is different. Despite capacity constraints and the diversity of their countries, African negotiators have worked industriously and effectively. This is an important moment for Africa. The AfCFTA consolidates progressively 55 fragmented African countries into a market of 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of $2.3 trillion, roughly the size of the India. Research at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa forecasts it to have the potential to boost intra-African trade by between 50 per cent-100 per cent, depending on the extent to which non-tariff barriers are also reduced. It has been driven by firm political commitment. The threshold number of country ratifications required for the agreement was reached within one year, a pace of ratifications that...