The Africa World Trade Network (AWTN) has partnered the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to accelerate intra-regional trade and investment through exhibitions, meetings and events. The partnership seeks to mobilise private sector actors across Africa to drive the attainment of strategic objectives that underpin the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement. The partnership between AWTN and the AfCFTA Secretariat is meant to work towards three common objectives that support continental trade and investment promotions across Africa and promote the overall objectives of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: To co-organise and host forums that support continental trade and investment promotions in Africa and promote the overall objectives of the AfCFTA Agreement To support the growth and development of Africa’s commercial community; and To collaborate on matters of common interest, in the pursuance of enhancing intra-trade in the Continent Speaking at the signing ceremony, Board Chair of AWTN, Otwasuom Osae Nyampong VI, said: “Intra-regional trade promises a real win for Africa, and the AfCFTA Secretariat is at the forefront of this significant progress in the continent’s history; it is a second Pan-African victory after Independence. AWTN on its part has recognised this watershed moment and will act as a catalyst to boost trade relations among member states and businesses across the continent.” Otwasuom Osae Nyampong VI emphasised: “Like the AfCFTA Secretariat, AWTN is headquartered in Accra, which has been recognised as a beacon for transformative development in the sub-region. In this partnership, AWTN commits to initiate and escalate...

A report earlier prepared by an East African Community (EAC) verification mission on the DR Congo’s eligibility to join the six-member bloc is ready, as well as positive, and could be examined by the Council of Ministers sometime this month, an official has told The New Times. As he addressed the media on the occasion of his 100 days at the helm of the bloc’s Secretariat early last month, EAC Secretary General, Peter Mathuki, indicated that the process of admitting the DR Congo was in advanced stages, and a report on its eligibility was awaiting approval by the Council of Ministers. On Monday, Manasseh Nshuti, Rwanda’s Minister of State for EAC Affairs told The New Times that not only is the report ready, but it is also positive. Nshuti said: “Yes the verification report is ready and it is positive. Soon, the Council of Ministers will meet to approve the report and then submit it to the Heads of State for their approval.” “The meeting will take place this month on a date to be agreed upon by member states.” The EAC Summit on February 27 considered the application by DR Congo to join the Community and directed the Council of Ministers to expeditiously undertake a verification mission in accordance with the EAC procedure for admission of new members into the bloc and report to the next Summit. The Sectoral Council had earlier directed the Secretariat to submit the report of the verification mission to the Council of Ministers by...

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is the world's leading shipping organization, accounting for about 80 per cent of global merchant tonnage. An ICS study published in March this year titled Protectionism in Maritime Economies found that reducing restrictive trade policies could boost Africa's post-COVID-19 economic recovery by billions of dollars. For Africa Renewal, Finbarr Toesland interviewed ICS Secretary-General Guy Platten on a range of shipping and trade-related issues, including how the organisation can support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The interview was edited for brevity. Africa Renewal: Let's talk about the ICS' recent study. What were its most striking findings, particularly those relating to trade? What we found in the report is that non-tariff barriers have a disproportionate effect on GDP and getting rid of them could make a considerable difference in terms of actually increasing a country's wealth. We know that African nations could boost their prospects of a post-COVID-19 economic recovery by removing some of these restrictive maritime trade policies. Currently, the global maritime trade is worth $14 trillion. Africa has a lot of potentials to become a maritime trade hub. We are suggesting that if members of the African Union were to just halve their trade restrictions, that could lead to a 1 per cent increase in GDP for an average African economy. What are some of the measures that countries can take to improve trade? Protectionist measures really hinder free trade. There are many administrative hurdles to overcome in many countries just...

.Lauds JPM for keeping economy open amid Covid-19 THE East African Business Council (EABC) has called for a deeper collaboration between the Public and Private sectors to boost East African Community (EAC) intra-trade. Also, the council has lauded President John Magufuli for a job well done, especially in spearheading major economic reforms in the country. Amid the global economic disruptions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, EAC private sector wants to steer better relations as a strategy to boost trade and investment in the region. The leaders noted that the decision by President Magufuli to keep the economy open, offered the private sector a major relief in terms of business resilience as it also strengthened local supply chains. EABC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Peter Mathuki said that is the spirit for the region - both public and private sector to move forward and business to prosper. It came about after consultations of CEOs at a roundtable meeting organized by the EABC in collaboration with German Development Agency (GIZ) with a theme 'Creating Perspectives Project', convening companies' CEOs with an aim of deliberating on approaches that the private sector can explore to revamp businesses amid the pandemic. Tanzania took absolutely a different approach in dealing with Covid-19, by President Magufuli who seeks a second term in office led the nation in style, by ruling out lockdown, letting business go on but with taking reasonable protective measures and it paid handsomely. In spite of the situation in the bloc, Africa and world...

With three of the eight candidates to become the next leader of the World Trade Organization (WTO) coming from Africa, BBC Africa business editor Zawadi Mudibo looks at what difference having one of them at the helm would make for the continent. There is a growing feeling among African diplomats that someone from the continent should be at the helm of one of the world's top economic institutions. Whereas an American has always led the World Bank and a European has always been at the head of the International Monetary Fund, an African has never taken an equivalent position. But if one from Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Kenya's Amina Mohamed or Egypt's Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh emerges from the long selection process as the WTO's next director-general, the continent can feel that it is playing in the same league as the rest of the world. image captionGarment factories, like this one in Kenya, could benefit if trade opened up The WTO sets the rules for global trade and adjudicates in trade disputes between nations. It is also, according to its website, supposed to "open trade for the benefit of all". The Geneva-based organisation's ability to get global agreements of basic principles that every country signs up to has been hamstrung in recent years but the WTO leader has influence and a bully pulpit. The director-general attends G7 and G20 meeting and can broker disputes between world leaders. But is there more to be gained for the continent aside from the diplomatic profile? 'Trade...

Arusha. Charges on Covid-19 tests remain high for the poor women traders along the Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) common border. They told a team of business organisations from the region that visited the area on Monday that the fees were impacting their businesses. ‘Reduction of the test charges at the borders would enable women traders across the borders to have enough cargo to run their businesses,” said Ms Kitumaini Bagula Esperance, one of their leaders. She said currently, the Covid-19 test is $30 per day and for each time that traders cross into Burundi, and $5 for Burundi cross border traders entering DRC. Other challenges the traders face include physical verification of goods. According to her, this causes delays, thus increasing the cost of doing business. The Covid-19 test charges at the Bujumbura airport are $100, and this is blamed for delays to passengers using the facility. Pleas have been made to reduce them to $50 per passenger. Ms Esperance raised the women traders’ concerns during the visit to the Katumba-Kavivira border between the two countries by officials from the East African Business Council (EABC). Others were from the Association of Burundi Traders (ACOBU). They were there to assess the free movement of goods, services and people. It emerged that although the Katumba-Kavivira was a vibrant route for cross border trade, it has been highly impacted by Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, the area has been subjected to flooding along the Rusizi river which forms the Burundi/DRC border and...

For the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to see true prosperity, there is a need for stakeholders on the continent to devise digital solutions “designed by Africa and used by Africa”. This was the principal takeaway from the array of experts who shared thoughts at the maiden edition of the Africa Digital Conference, which had as its theme ‘The Digital Challenge: Africa’s Opportunity Under AfCFTA’. It was unanimously agreed that wholesale adoption of imported digital solutions, particularly those which take very little of the continent’s peculiar dynamics into consideration, would represent a lost opportunity for the continent to adequately take charge of its affairs and see some of its brightest persons miss out on designing home-grown solutions for Africa. According to the Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, indigenous solutions are crucial for the success of cross-border trade and payment systems, as well as the delivery of equitable social services to people across socio-economic boundaries. Beyond digitalisation, she noted, there is also the need to systematically create opportunities for homegrown start-ups in the space. In a speech read on her behalf, she said: “I believe that if governments can support a vibrant computer hardware manufacturer in one country to supply various schools across the continent, while reciprocating the support to other competitively-advantaged companies in sister countries in other areas of expertise, there will be an increase in the scale upon which these companies can viably establish or cement their operations. “These are truly the building blocks toward realising...

The Compact with Africa is a G20 initiative that promotes macroeconomic, business and financing reforms to attract more private investment in Africa, including in infrastructure. Participants of a G20 Compact with Africa meeting this week assessed Africa’s progress in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are meeting at a pivotal time in the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world,” said Italian prime minister Mario Draghi. The Compact with Africa is a G20 initiative that promotes macroeconomic, business and financing reforms to attract more private investment in Africa, including in infrastructure. The conference brought together heads of state of the 12 Compact members and institutional partners, including the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It involved strategy discussions around attracting higher inflows of foreign direct investment to Africa and the urgent imperative to develop vaccine manufacture capability on the African continent. Securing the continent’s recovery from the impacts of Covid-19 is one of the Compact’s near-term objectives. Vaccine inequity was a recurring theme, and heads of state shared reforms that they had undertaken as part of the initiative. Closer international cooperation was urged to address climate change, debt levels and investment shortfalls. President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa emphasized that “Africa will not be able to recover until Africans are vaccinated.” President Emmanuel Macron said France had committed to providing $10 million vaccine doses for Africa. African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said the African Development Bank had committed to investing $5 billion to support vaccine...

How a producers’ organization helped farmers successfully export avocado to Europe ACCRA, Ghana, August 26, 2021/APO Group/ -- “Before the Forest and Farm Facility Programme (FFF) reached out to us, I faced many challenges in marketing the avocado produce from my farm,” says Paul Mitei, a farmer from Kiptoben Village, Nakuru County, Kenya. Paul says he wanted to know more about how the avocado and tomato value chains worked, and the proper inputs that are critical to avocado cultivation and meeting market demands. Paul is married with 3 children and has a 5-acre farm where his family tends to avocado trees. He says he started to grow avocadoes because other farmers in his community were growing them, but at that time he had poor crop management skills which led to low fruit yields, no profit and a lot of frustration. . To improve his knowledge and capacity on the avocado value chain, he joined the Nakuru Small Holder Fruit Producers Association (NASFPA) with the hopes of higher sales of his farm produce. “Being a member of NASFPA, I am now well informed about better market access and can benefit from the FFF project. The initiative also gave me the opportunity to export my produce to Europe,” Paul said. He now produces high value fruits and sells together with his fellow NASFPA members. Paul currently has 104 avocado fruit trees out of which 15 were fully mature by last year. Out of the 15 matured trees he harvested 500 kgs last...

Readers discuss how the Belt and Road Initiative could help African nations better prepare for climate change and China’s commitment to socialism and communism We have been witnessing some serious climate catastrophes across the world. Unprecedented and massive floods affecting central and northern Europe were followed by record rainfall in Henan, China, and northern India. Climate change is affecting millions of lives across the world. The consensus in the scientific community is that climate change is anthropogenic – caused primarily by greenhouse gas emissions. The industrialised world is acting to mitigate greenhouse emissions, although with mixed results. At the same time, it is expected that economic and industrial development in the least developed countries in Asia or Africa could worsen the global climate crisis. Yet, the least developed countries are disproportionately affected by climate change. For example, the accelerating desertification and drought in the Sahel region boosted cyclone activity on the East African coast and even increased the frequency of locust infestations in the Horn of Africa, affecting the food security of millions of people. By increasing investment in infrastructure and financial assistance, China’s Belt and Road Initiative is expected to help African nations better prepare to cope with climate change. Belt and Road Initiative explained In a chapter in the book Climate Change, Hazards and Adaptation Options, Michael Addaney argues that the “infrastructural development” and “agricultural modernisation”, and the strengthening of “logistical connectivity” and “effective partnerships”, via the Belt and Road Initiative will boost Africa’s capacity to adapt to...