Way back in History, Africa was not mentioned by authors writing about the global economy. It was as if Africa didn’t exist... Or it ‘existed’ only when media organs were writing about civil wars, famines, severe malnutrition and migration – mostly illegal migration! It was a continent of no hope; a continent of woes. However, all that has drastically changed in the last few years – and, in this article, I explore six areas of greatest opportunities in Africa. Today, there are about 400 companies that earn annual revenues of $1 billion or more in Africa – and, on average, they are both fast-growing and more profitable than their global peers. Africa has become an important test lab for global innovation. If you can build a product, a service or a business model that’s cost-effective and robust enough to succeed in Africa, chances are that it will be competitive anywhere else in the world. Admittedly, there are huge challenges to doing business in Africa. But, these same challenges also provide opportunities for value-creation. In all those opportunities the golden thread running through them is technology. More than perhaps any other continent, Africa is piloting digitally-enabled breakthroughs that aid companies in surmounting entrenched barriers and unlocking exponential progress. 1. Millions in Africa lack access to savings and credit facilities. To serve the excluded households and businesses – and to do so in a profitable, sustainable way – banks and other financial institutions must use efficient but easily operable technology-based solutions; and...

Tea export volumes from East Africa to the rest of the world recorded a 21 per cent growth, the latest April auction report has shown. Records from the auction held on April 15th and 16th at the Mombasa auction, show that the regional exported a total of 9.6 million kilogramme bags, up from 7.5 million kilogramme bags shipped around the same time the previous year. At least six Eastern African member states actively participated in the auction out of the nine auction listed countries. These included Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Ethiopia. The other countries on the list but did not trade include DR Congo, Malawi and Mozambique. Reason  Uganda’s tea production has continued to show positive growth which has largely been attributed to good agronomical practices and increased acreage. Mr George William Ssekitooleko, the General Secretary Uganda Tea Association, in an earlier interview with Prosper magazine said: “Good production as result of increased acreage is responsible for this performance.” In the year ending 2018, tea exports recorded a 15 per cent increase – the highest performance that industrial players attribute to good production. A total of 71 million bags of tea were exported up from 60 million kilogramme bags average exported the previous consecutive years, according to Bank of Uganda records. Performance The auction report by the East African Tea Export Auctions showed that Kenya exported over 7.2 million kilogrammes bags more than the 5.7 million it exported the same time last year. This indicated a 19.7 per...

EAST African Business Council (EABC) has gone a notch higher in resolving challenges facing the regional economies, with the launch of the regional programme on Public-Private Sector Dialogue (PPD) for Trade and Investment. Jointly launched by the EABC and TradeMark Africa (TMA), the project that spans from 2019 to 2023 aims at enhancing advocacy and dialogue on transport and logistics, trade facilitation, customs and tax, standards and Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) at regional and country levels. The five-year programme is said to extend beyond the EAC and incorporates the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and Africa Continental Free Trade Area (Af- CFTA). “The Council is keen to enhance dialogue and partnership between the private and public sector, hence EABC will spearhead the programme in close collaboration with all national and regional sectoral private sector associations in EAC,” EABC Chief Executive Officer Peter Mathuki said here on Monday. He noted that for businesses in the region to grow and expand within and beyond the EAC, there is need for technical and financial support to EABC to advocate and input substantive issues affecting the business community in regard to policy formulation and implementation. “ The Public-Private Dialogue can facilitate trade and investment climate reforms by promoting better diagnosis of investment climate problems, transparency and inclusive design of policy reforms, making policies easier to implement,” he disclosed. According to Mr Mathuki, barriers to trading across borders like multiple product standard inspections and bureaucratic trade procedures,...

East Africa has recently seen a surge in investments from Mauritius, with banking, insurance, agriculture, telecoms, trade as well as the oil and gas sectors receiving most of the capital. Global consultancy firm Binder Dijker Otte says that investors from the Indian Ocean island nation are also eyeing the retail, real estate and hospitality sectors. “There is a certain ease of doing business for Mauritian operators in East Africa, with the rule of law and a strong private sector making the region attractive,” said BDO experts. Kenya has attracted the largest number of investors, with data showing that the islanders have invested over Ksh10 billion ($100 million) in the country, mostly in financial services and the sugar sector. INVESTMENTS President Uhuru Kenyatta was recently in Mauritius on a four-day state visit where he met Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth. They agreed to jointly support private sector investments in the two countries, by reducing the bureaucratic procedures required to set up businesses. “We can facilitate you to ensure that you prosper and our nations prosper so as to create jobs,” President Kenyatta told the Mauritius-Kenya Business Forum in Port Louis. During the visit, the two countries re-signed the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, which a Kenyan High Court had ruled as unconstitutional in March, citing a failure to conduct due diligence. The agreement is meant to ensure that the income earned by investors from the two countries is not taxed twice. The Mauritius Union Assurance Company Ltd, the largest listed insurer by...

Way back in History, Africa was not mentioned by authors writing about the global economy. It was as if Africa didn’t exist... Or it ‘existed’ only when media organs were writing about civil wars, famines, severe malnutrition and migration – mostly illegal migration! It was a continent of no hope; a continent of woes. However, all that has drastically changed in the last few years – and, in this article, I explore six areas of greatest opportunities in Africa. Today, there are about 400 companies that earn annual revenues of $1 billion or more in Africa – and, on average, they are both fast-growing and more profitable than their global peers. Africa has become an important test lab for global innovation. If you can build a product, a service or a business model that’s cost-effective and robust enough to succeed in Africa, chances are that it will be competitive anywhere else in the world. Admittedly, there are huge challenges to doing business in Africa. But, these same challenges also provide opportunities for value-creation. In all those opportunities the golden thread running through them is technology. More than perhaps any other continent, Africa is piloting digitally-enabled breakthroughs that aid companies in surmounting entrenched barriers and unlocking exponential progress. 1. Millions in Africa lack access to savings and credit facilities. To serve the excluded households and businesses – and to do so in a profitable, sustainable way – banks and other financial institutions must use efficient but easily operable technology-based solutions; and...

The sliver of land that follows the Gambia River into the Atlantic Ocean and cuts through the heart of Senegal was an unlikely setting for one of the most important steps in Africa’s free-trade revolution. Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa with a population less than Greater Manchester, became the crucial 22nd country to ratify the African Continental Free Trade Agreement earlier this month, helping the deal reach the minimum threshold for the area to be implemented. In a world where protectionism and tariffs are being used as economic weapons by the US, EU and China, Africa is making decisive steps to liberalise trade and open up its markets. The ambitious plan aims to double intra-Africa. Source: The Telegraph

The manufacturing sector will hold the key to future growth in East Africa, the African Development Bank’s Lead Economist for the Bank’s East Africa Regional Office has said. Dr Marcellin Ndong-Ntah said the manufacturing sector’s potential to accelerate regional economic growth, generate more job creation, and ultimately reduce poverty was significant. “In order to achieve this objective, countries must continue to look for alternative sectors of economic growth, emphasize regional trade and continue to process goods for export rather than selling raw commodities,” Ndong-Ntah said. Mr. Gabriel Negatu, Director General of the Bank’s East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office East Africa Regional Office, said robust economic growth was possible in countries taking steps to move their economies away from reliance on the export of raw commodities like tea, coffee, minerals and oil. Economic growth across East Africa will remain robust at 5.9 percent in 2019, higher than the continental average annual growth rate of 4 per cent and making it a promising investment and manufacturing destination, according to the 2019 East African Economic Outlook Report The report puts Ethiopia in the lead as the fastest growing economy in the region with an average annual growth rate of 8.2 per cent followed by Rwanda next at 7.8 per cent; Others are Tanzania at 6.6 per cent; Kenya 6 per cent, Djibouti 5.9 per cent and Uganda 5.3 per cent. Overall, most of the economies in East Africa are expected to continue on higher growth trajectories, with an expected average...

  Excitement was palpable throughout the region as the dream for a continental free trade area in Africa got the final ratification needed to become a reality this month. Gambia became the 22nd African country to ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA), meaning the bill now has the minimum number of ratifications needed to come into effect. On March 21 Ethiopia became one of the last African nations to ratify the AfCFTA, bringing the tally of endorsing countries to 21. The trade bloc spanning 49 countries with a combined GDP of $3trillion, will facilitate inter-regional trade, boost growth and help to alleviate poverty, its supporters say. The news was tweeted by the African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry Albert Muchanga: “Good news! The Parliament of The Gambia has approved ratification of AfCFTA Agreement making us meet the minimum threshold,” he said. “The AfCFTA market is being born and is one step ready for launch of its operational phase in July this year. The agreement, signed by 49 of the 55 African Union nations in March last year, will dodge a patchwork of trade regulations and tariffs that make intra-African commerce costly, time-consuming and cumbersome. Its promotion of tariff-free movement of goods, people and services across the continent is also expected to favour SME’s, who account for 80% of Africa’s employment and 50% of its GDP, according to the World Bank. But skeptics have pointed to the impending challenges of uniting countries with the greatest level of...

From the near pinnacle of a customs union, the old East African Community (EAC) came crashing down in 1977. Why? Political differences between the erstwhile leaders and perceptions around unfair distribution of the benefits and costs of regional integration halted the momentum. Through rebirth and enlargement, though, the new EAC has again risen to great heights as one of the most successful integration schemes on the African continent. Then again, recent headlines like “Uganda, Rwanda feud restricts free movement” and “Uganda and Rwanda trade accusations over border crossing dispute” are stark reminders of some of the difficulties that precipitated the demise of that previous integration experiment. The unfolding situation in East Africa is of global relevance as we can see many familiar dynamics at play in the context of debates on trade and integration globally. Take, for instance, in the European Union (EU), where tensions have been heightened over recent years. Is free trade and integration only beneficial to the already successful economies but harmful to the countries in the periphery? What about Brexit, which has raised a bucket-load of questions regarding national identity, political legitimacy of institutions outside of national borders, and “local” trade versus global trade? Or how about current U.S. tariff policy and the attendant debate about the concepts of “free” trade versus “fair” or “beneficial” trade? A brief history of the East African Community As far back as 1917, Kenya and Uganda formed an East African customs union that entailed free intra-area trade and a common external tariff. Tanganyika...

Members of Parliament from eastern African countriesare on 15th April, 2019 expected to launch the Eastern Africa Parliamentary Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (EAPA FSN) – a sub-regional platform aimed at promoting the right to food in eastern Africa through improved legislation. According to a statement issued on 14th April, 2019 by the Food and Agriculture (FAO) of the United Nations, the launch is in line with the first annual meeting in Tanzania in 2019. The platform came after realizing that malnutrition continues to be a major impediment to economic development, whereby it is estimated that 58 million children under the age of five years are too short for their age (stunted) in Africa. `Childhood malnutrition is costing the African economy about 11 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) every year, whereas preventing malnutrition delivers $16 in returns on investment for every $1 spent in Africa,` the statement read in part. It further said that parliamentarians play a critical role in alleviating hunger and malnutrition. `In fact, MPs enact laws and regulations, monitor law enforcement, influence national development plans, determine the design and allocation of national budgets, and hold their governments accountable for policy implementation related to food security and nutrition.` After a number of consultative meetings, MPs from eastern African countries, acknowledging the insufficient progress in food and nutrition situation, committed to establish a sub-regional platform that will promote cross border sharing of experience and best practices. It was also agreed to create the Eastern Africa Parliamentary Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition...