Trade initiatives must keep up with the evolving needs of developing and least developed countries (LDCs) in order to adapt to climate change as part of a global economic strategy, participants heard at the Aid for Trade Global Review on 28 July. Open trade and lowering barriers to environmental goods and services must play a critical role in providing affordable access to advanced technologies needed to transition to a low-carbon economy, speakers said. At a plenary session on the second day of the Aid for Trade event, speakers focused on how this initiative can help develop critical trade infrastructure while supporting resilient, climate friendly and inclusive trade outcomes. The session benefited from the expertise and practical insights of experts and financing partners engaged in green transition activities. In his opening remarks, WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang told participants that climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. The World Bank estimates that natural disasters already cost low- and middle-income countries USD 390 billion per year regarding damage related to water, transport and power infrastructure. “In that context, adapting to climate change by reducing climate-related risks and vulnerability is a key economic strategy. International trade can contribute to climate change adaptation efforts by enhancing economic resilience to extreme weather events through diversified supply chains, timely provision of essential goods and services, improved food security, and greater access to climate-related adaptation technologies,” he said. DDG Zhang stressed that the transition to a low-carbon economy entails a substantive transformation...

Digitalization brings new opportunities in trade and creates the potential to underpin resilience in times of crisis The digital transformation of customs and borders in Africa could improve efficiencies in processes and yield trade gains on the continent of US$20 billion a year Single Window can cross-check credentials for consistency and traceability, reducing errors and fraud The digital transformation of customs and borders in Africa could improve efficiencies in processes and yield trade gains on the continent of US$20 billion a year. Digitalization brings new opportunities in trade and creates the potential to underpin resilience in times of crisis. The digital transformation of customs and borders in Africa could improve efficiencies in processes and yield trade gains on the continent of US$20 billion a year. With digital trade in place, pre-existing bottlenecks in infrastructure can be tackled, efficiencies can be leveraged, and Innovative solutions can be harnessed. However, countries in Africa vary greatly in their readiness for digital trade. In African countries where economic resilience must be fostered, jobs must be created and entrepreneurship must be facilitated, digital trade must be in full swing. How digital automation is easing the flow of trade Thanks to technological advances, importing and exporting goods and services in Nigeria has become easier thanks to the rise of online international trade administration portals. These online portals automate the experience for many stakeholders including customs officials, businesses importing finished goods and raw materials for manufacturing, and those exporting their goods across the globe. Blockchain technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI),...

Summary The EABC Business Barometer is an index that captures the sentiment of the business stakeholders about how they see the business environment within the EAC. Businesses in Burundi, Kenya and Uganda reported reduced cost of doing business during the pandemic. Business captains in the region are optimistic that business in the East African Community bloc will increase by 11 per cent in 2022 and 2023. The East Africa Business Community Barometer on Business and Investment links the slight optimism to perception of business owners on the effectiveness of measures introduced by governments in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Several states imposed key discretionary actions and policies in 2020 and 2021 to limit the human and economic impact of the pandemic. In Kenya, for instance, a package of tax measures was adopted, including full income tax relief for persons earning below Sh24,000  per month and reduction of the top pay-as you earn rate from 30 to 25 per cent, There was also a reduction of the base corporate income tax rate from 30 to 25 per cent, reduction of the turnover tax rate on small businesses from three to one per cent, and a reduction of the standard VAT rate from 16 to 14 per cent. These conditions, according to business owners, plus other loan flexibility policies, contributed a large extent of the growth. The EABC Business Barometer is an index that captures the sentiment of the business stakeholders about how they see the business environment within the EAC. It shows the...

Discover IOTA Use Cases with the IOTA Lighthouse Projects Dashboard This blog post gives an overview of IOTA’s role in different use cases and explains how its unique features contribute to several lighthouse projects. The solutions developed in these projects are suitable for any industry that requires transparency, immutability and secure data transfers. Our new project dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of the projects along with the IOTA wiki of the tools developed, free for anyone to use and replicate to continue building on IOTA. Gone are the days when IOTA’s catalog of projects could be summarized in a brief overview. Today, the Foundation is a crucial player in several public and private sector projects. Whether multi-year EU-funded collaborative research and development endeavors between a dozen organizations or projects carried out with a single partner, IOTA’s unique characteristics and frameworks make it an indispensable technology for different kinds of projects. The versatility of IOTA makes it suitable for any field, as demonstrated by the sheer diversity of use cases among its projects, including audit trails for supply chain processes, monitoring, and different kinds of marketplaces. These lighthouse projects are torchbearers for the adoption of a technology that offers integrity and verifiability of data and value exchange. To provide a comprehensive overview of IOTA’s lighthouse projects and demonstrate how its features are utilized, the Foundation has launched a new project dashboard. The dashboard includes a summary and key information about each project, such as consortium partners, timeline, and use cases, as...

Zimbabwe is set to import 400 000 metric tonnes (MT) of Maize from Zambia and Malawi to be delivered this June to alleviate a food crisis in the country. This will cost the country at least US$120 million before haulage and other costs are considered. Total grain imports will likely total 700 000MT in 2022. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 6 million people (roughly 40% of the population) need food aid in the country with an increasing number of urban dwellers now food insecure. The government has forecast maize production for the 2021/22 season to be 1.56 million MT, down from the previous season's multi-year record of 2.72 million MT. Zimbabwe requires 2.2 million MT annually for industrial, human and livestock consumption. The government has encouraged private business players to import grain to plug the deficit, while subsidized farmers are obligated by law to supply the government. Grain Net Importer Harare has been a net importer of cereals since 2006 with maize production averaging less than 1.3 million MT per year in the last 10 years. Wheat production has averaged 110 000MT for the past 10 years against a national demand of 450 000MT per year. Yield per hectare for maize (the staple crop) remains very low with average national yield less than 0.7 tons per hectare (Lower than the African average of 1.8 tons/ha). The yield is also lower than Southern African peers who are largely affected by the same climatic conditions, with Namibia, Malawi...

Intra-African trade, at the behest of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), will make every state in Nigeria economically viable and resilient, Michael Faniran, Strategy, Planning and Coordination Lead, National Action Committee on AfCFTA has said. Faniran, who was speaking at the AfCFTA/POFON Oil Palm Stakeholders Meeting which held recently in Benin via Zoom said AfCFTA would capture 10% of Africa’s imports from the world to double Nigeria’s export revenue by 2035. Faniran listed a number of strategic goals of the institution as including growing export capacity of every state to $1.2 billion, focusing on specific products/service chains, growing high productivity workforce to earn premium wages in Nigeria and Africa, engendering friendly business environment to attract investment and boost competitiveness and growing local demands to boost local content, capacity and utilization, preserving local market share and laying foundation for experts. Read original article

Six British nationals based in Kenya are among 1,134 recipients of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday honours for their contributions to public life, including TradeMark Africa chief executive Frank Matsaert. The awards were given ahead of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations as she marks 70 years on the throne in a four-day fete in the UK, which began on Thursday. The honours went to UK nationals worldwide for their contribution to “sustained public service, the environment and sustainability, and youth engagement.” Mr Matsaert is the founding CEO of the trade aid agency that has been helping in the integration of the East African Community (EAC) by supporting cross-border trade since 2010. The Nairobi-based TradeMark Africa has been involved in the development of one-stop border posts in EAC, the Mombasa port, and the upgrade of customs systems for revenue authorities in Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. “I am deeply honoured by the Queen and UK Government for this recognition of TradeMark Africa’s work in supporting trade and economic development in Eastern Africa over the last twelve years. It has been a privilege and an honour to found and lead such a dynamic and impactful organisation,” said Mr Matsaert. Mr Matsaert was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his “services to trade and economic development in East Africa.” Reverend Clive Beckenham and his wife Mary, founders of Nairobi-based children’s New Life Home Trust, got an MBE for “services to abandoned and vulnerable children with HIV in Kenya.” The...

UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (IPS) - Ambassador Maria de Jesus dos Reis Ferreira was appointed in February 2018 as the Permanent Representative of Angola to the UN, the first woman to hold the position. Among other issues, she has focused on peace and security in Africa and has echoed her country’s strong support for universal vaccination of the global population. In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, Ambassador Ferreira discusses women’s empowerment, free trade and what the continent can expect from the UN conference on climate (COP 27) that will be held in Egypt later this year. Excerpts from the interview: Q: What has been your journey to this role as the Permanent Representative of Angola to the UN? My journey has been a long one, I can take hours talking about it. I started in the army and years later I shifted to diplomacy, which has been quite an interesting and challenging journey. I have worked as a diplomat since 1980. Before my current role, I worked as an Ambassador in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia with residence in Vienna, where I was the Permanent Representative to the United Nations. I am the first woman to serve in this post since Angola became a UN Member State 46 years ago. Q: Congratulations! What are your top three achievements so far? Talking about achievements, with regards to peace and security, it is important to note that as part of Angola´s leadership of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)...

Small and medium-scale farmers and agri-businesses in east and southern Africa are getting a raw deal. To succeed they need fair and integrated regional markets. Research by the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development has highlighted the need for better integration of regional economies as a step towards food security in the region. Powerful commercial interests, high transport costs and poor access to facilities such as for storage mean that small and medium-scale farmers are often not getting fair prices for the food they grow. Fair prices are those that meet demand and cover reasonable costs of supply including transport across borders. During the course of our research we came across examples of how the odds are stacked against most small and medium-scale farmers. Take the experience of Endrina Maxwell, a small producer in Malawi. In April 2021, she sold her soybean crop in central Malawi and realised the returns from investing in commercial agriculture as a female agribusiness owner and farmer. She got prices around Malawi kwacha 350/kg, about $450/t (see Figure 1). At the same time, the prices in the main markets in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi were over a $1000/t. A number of hurdles stood in Endrina’s way to take advantage of the high prices in neighbouring countries. First, specific price information was not readily available for someone in Endrina’s position to be aware of the gains from exporting. Second, transport costs are very high for smaller producers. Third, to hold-off from selling at the...

The Tanzania Foreign Exchange Regulations, Government Notice No. 294 published on 13/5/2022 (the “Tanzania Foreign Exchange Regulations”) are creating quite some noise in Tanzania amongst traders and investors. Given the efforts that the government of Tanzania has been undertaking to lure foreign investors to Tanzania (#RoyalTour) and reassure them of a conducive and easy business environment, the regulations come as a surprise since they seem to somehow contradict some of these efforts. Tanzania, being a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has the obligation under Article VIII of the International Monetary Fund Articles of Agreement to enable currency convertibility for current transactions—goods, services, travel, interest, and dividend payment and this is a condition of its membership of good standing. The Articles of Agreement remain silent with regards to obligations of Member States and capital accounts. While the Tanzania Foreign Exchange Regulations do not prohibit current account transactions, the government has added Non-Tariff Barriers (“NTB”) making it more bureaucratic and therefore dissuasive to engage in certain types of transactions. I am going to focus on three areas: investment, trade and regional integration and the implications on these areas that the Tanzania Foreign Exchange Regulations have. Foreign Direct Investment Foreign Direct Investment is expressly referred to in Regulation 24 (2) which prohibits Equity to Debt Swaps. Equity/Debt swaps are a type of financing whereby specified class shareholders are given the right to convert their stock for a pre-determined amount of debt in the same company. The conversion is usually into corporate bonds. While an investor gets the...