The African Development Bank (AfDB)’s East Africa Regional Resource Centre (EARC), and the East African Community (EAC) have signed the Financing Agreement amounting to US $ 1.2 million to finance the Project Preparation Phase of three key Multinational Road Sections between Masaka in Uganda to Kumunazi in Tanzania. The Secretary General of the East African Community, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, signed the agreement on behalf of the Community while Mr Gabriel Negatu, Director General of the African Development Bank - East Africa Regional Resource Centre (EARC), inked the same on behalf of African Development Bank. The purpose of the Grant is to finance the Project Preparation Phase of the proposed three (3) key Multinational Road Sections between Masaka in Uganda to Kumunazi in Tanzania. According to a statement from the EAC Secretariat here, the key Multinational Road Sections covered under this Grant for preparatory works include, Masaka to Mutukula Section (89.5km) in Uganda, Mutukula to Kyaka Section (30km) in Tanzania as well as Bugene to Kasulo to Kumunazi Section (133 kilometres) also located in Tanzania. At the same occasion, the EAC presented a list of 18 priority projects to be supported by the African Development Bank under its Regional Integration Strategy Paper (RISP) 2017-2021. Present at the projects’ signing ceremony were the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, Engineer Steven Mlote, Counsel to the Community, Dr Anthony Kafumbe, Executive Secretary of Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC), Dr Said Ali Matano and Executive Secretary of East African Health...

The DLG (German Agricultural Society) and the German trade show specialist Fairtrade will work together on four central agricultural markets in Africa. This is what the two trade fair organizers have agreed to a cooperation agreement on the sidelines of AGRITECHNICA 2017 in Hanover. DLG will bring in its agro and trade fair expertise by introducing its trade fair brand AgroTech to the existing agro-food trade fairs (agro segment) of fairtrade in Ethiopia and Nigeria, as well as alternately in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The focus of the cooperation is in the fields of agricultural technology and animal production. The primary goal of the cooperation is to offer German and international exhibitors the best possible platforms for their market development, thus enabling sustainable development of these agriculturally important emerging countries. In order to attract new visitor target groups, such as the so-called large-scale farmers from the target and neighboring markets, a regionally adapted DLG specialist program will be set up or expanded. With the support of industry experts, know-how along the entire value chain of plant production is transferred into these regions. Both Ethiopia, the world's leading producer of coffee, corn and millet and its vast integrated agro-industrial parks, and Nigeria as Africa's largest economy and with 190 million the continent's most populated country, are experiencing strong demand for innovative technologies for agricultural production. This applies equally to other West and East African markets. Above all, solutions for more efficient irrigation and plant protection are on the agenda of politics...

The East African Community secretariat is revising the Common External Tariffs (CET) to ease doing business in the region’s private sector - the engine of growth and development. The EAC Secretariat director of Trade, Mr Alhaj Rashid Kibowa and the Secretary General Liberat Mfumukeko while meeting a delegation of the regional private sector under their umbrella organisation (EABC) last week, said: “The region is revising the Common External Tariff that will be more effective and predictable.” Regional trade integration is a pillar of EAC partner states’ trade policies. The Customs Union, a first milestone in the regional integration process, was adopted in 2005, committing member states - originally Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to the adoption of a CET. Common External Tariff The EAC-CET comprises a triple band structure for raw materials and capital goods (0 per cent), intermediate goods (10 per cent) and final goods (25 per cent), as well as a Sensitive Items list with exceptions to the three-band rule for specified commodities attracting high rates of duty (notably, all above 30 per cent. Mr Mfumukeko said: “We are going to look at key priorities that can make a difference in the region and generate results for the integration process.” Mr Mfumukeko wants to create new businesses and trade opportunities among EAC in addition to improving the competitiveness of regional products and services outside the community. EABC approves Responding to the fresh pledge by EAC, Mr Jim Kabeho, the EABC chairman, said they are committed to providing a regional...

A New study on the impact of used clothes and shoes in East Africa recommends that women in trade must be given special attention to ensure that they are not marginalised. The study, published as part of a project to promote agriculture, climate and trade linkages in the East African Community (EAC), is the work of CUTS International, Geneva, non-profit organisation. It recommends that the women in trade in the cotton, apparel, textile and leather industries would have to be given particular attention, especially because the business playing field when developing industry is not even, to ensure that they are not marginalised. Shedding light on a gender perspective, the study indicates that used clothes trade is a relatively sensitive sector because it is an area that has all sorts of players; from the educated and elite to people with little or no education, people from the grass-roots, persons with disabilities, widows, foreigners and in the majority of cases, women. The study says that among the largest import sources for used clothes in Rwanda are Denmark and China, with imports valued at $5.2 million in 2015. This is followed by United Arab Emirates with a $3.4 million, Belgium, US and India. Rwanda is proceeding with the planned phase-out of importation of used clothes despite threats that it could lead to a review of eligibility to access duty-free access to the US market. Phaseout of used clothes The EAC has moved to phase out the importation of used clothes and shoes across...

Business leaders attending the 2nd East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition that is taking place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are devising ways to promote entrepreneurship and attract more foreign and local investments in the region. Over 300 high-level government and private sector decision-makers from the EAC Partner States as well as business leaders, East African Diaspora and investors from across the region and abroad are attending the conference. The event, taking place from November 14-16, 2017 and was co-organised by East African Business Council (EABC), Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), and the East African Community (EAC). The EABC says the total value of intra-EAC investment increased by 6.9 per cent to US$254.1 million in 2016 from US$237.8 million in 2015. In 2015, the total value of intra-EAC investment increased by 14.5 per cent from US$ 207.7 million in 2014, the organisation said in a press release issued on Tuesday. Dennis Karera, the Managing Director of Kigali Heights, an office block in Kigali whose construction was funded by a Kenya-based company called Fusion Capital, lauded efforts by East African companies to invest in the region. “It is remarkable to see Kenya investing in other EAC countries,” Karera said at the meeting. It is expected that the conference will offer regional business leaders an opportunity to critically discuss how to encourage entrepreneurship and attract more foreign and local investments into the region. Participants will also learn about the latest developments in the region and influence...

EAST African Community (EAC) states are aspiring for a single EAC currency by 2024. Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are determined to merge their respective shillings with Rwanda and Burundian Francs to form the single legal tender for the bloc in the next seven years. South Sudan will also lose its relatively valuable pound, melting Juba’s currency into the envisaged EA currency. Latest reports on the process for the proposed Monetary Union (MU) for the six EAC member states indicate that the envisaged MU is expected in 2024, with introduction of the common currency to replace the national currencies as well as establishment of the regional central bank, East Africa Central Bank (EACB). “Transition to the EA Monetary Union (EAMU) is as a two-phase process, with the initial convergence phase enabling partners to work towards achieving preconditions designed to limit the union’s exposure to internal economic strains,” said EAC Principal Communication Officer Simon Owaka. He revealed the preconditions as macroeconomic convergence criteria, full implementation of the Common Market protocol, establishment of institutions to support the MU and harmonisation of policies and practices. “Once these preconditions are satisfied, partners will enter the final conversion phase, announcing a predetermined date for the union formation.” According to the EAMU protocol, the EAC members have agreed on four primary convergence criteria, which all partner states have to attain and maintain for at least three years before joining the MU. The criteria are headline inflation of eight per cent ceiling, reserve cover of 4.5 months of...

Arusha — Multiple border checks in East Africa have been wasteful, the East African Community (EAC) secretary General Liberat Mfumukeko has said. "They have caused unnecessary costs to business. Unnecessary restrictions should be done away with", he said last week during the opening of the One Stop Border Post (OSBP) at Mutukula. He said as the facility was launched by Presidents John Pombe Maguruli and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda that OSBPs were not entirely knew because they were envisioned in the EAC Common Market Protocol. "The first OSBP operations was at Malaba railway station between Uganda and Kenya over ten years ago. These pilot programmes provided a practical justification for upscaling the One Stop Border programme in the entire region", he said. He added that it was long that the Customs Departments of the partner states realized that multiple examination of goods at their internal border within EA was "wasteful and caused unnecessary costs to business". The construction of the Mutukula OSBP was carried out with funding of $11.7million from the United Kingdom through the Department for International Development (DFID). The systems and other related soft infrastructure equivalent to $1.2million was funded by the Government of Canada, through Global Affairs, Canada. The OSBP investment includes office buildings, roads and parking yards, cargo verification bays, scanner shed, passenger sheds and targeting booths. Others are warehouse and canopies, ICT networks and hardware, furniture, and institutional support to the border agencies. EAC says OSBPs would not only ensure effective border control mechanisms were...

The industrial sector should take advantage of the East African Community (EAC) 150 million people and opportunities created by the regional Common Market Protocol to stimulate demand and competitiveness. Alphonse Kwizera, the Rwanda Association of Manufacturers (RAM) technical expert, said the success of the EAC industrialisation programme will depend on the manufacturing sector’s ability to leverage the opportunities the bloc and other markets on the continent present them to deepen their reach and become sustainable. Kwizera added that a fully functioning common market and deepening of regional integration through a monetary union could provide the much-needed stimulus to drive industrial growth across the region. The RAM official was speaking after the release of EAC Industrial Competitiveness Report 2017 on Friday by the East African Community secretariat, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Government of Korea. The report with a theme, ‘Harnessing the EAC Market to Drive Industrial Competitiveness and Growth’ assesses the region’s industrial performance vis-à-vis other regions and role models in Asia and Africa, and sheds light on strategic short and long-term industrialisation paths that the EAC should pursue. It also provides a compass to policy-makers, the private sector, particularly manufacturing firms and associations, and other stakeholders on the broader direction of the EAC industrial development trajectory and the internal competitiveness dynamics among partner states. It also points out the need to embrace uniform and sustainable approaches that will help boost competitiveness of manufacturers in the region. Uniform approach to industrial development According to Kwizera, supporting regional...

An official from the European Union has asked the East African Community to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement, saying it will not necessarily affect the region’s industrialisation drive. Commissioner for international co-operation and development Neven Mimica said the EU will continue negotiations so that all member states can endorse the EPA which “will open European markets to East Africans.” The region is divided on the EPA which needs approval from all member states. Kenya and Rwanda signed the deal last year. In September, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni led trade ministers from the region to the EU headquarters in Brussels in an effort to reach a regional consensus. In March, Kenya accused Tanzania and Uganda of insincerity in their refusal to sign the EPA. President John Magufuli had in February described it as a form of colonialism at a joint press conference with President Museveni at State House in Dar es Salaam. “We have discussed the EPA for a long time but it seems like another form of colonialism… it is bad for our country,” said President Magufuli. He said that after studying the EPA, he had realised that African countries would not benefit from it economically as its architects touted. President Museveni warned African countries that EPAs might break up their unity. “It is better if the signing is shelved until further consultations are made,” he said. Source: The East African

Trade disputes and mistrust among member states threaten to scuttle efforts to integrate the East African Community into a single economic and political bloc. Hardline positions taken by the member states on various issues affecting the region has watered down provisions in the Treaty, which provides for peaceful settlement of disputes. Chapter six of the EAC Treaty lays down the fundamental principles designed to govern the achievement of the goals of the regional bloc by partner states. These include mutual trust, political will and sovereign equality. Others are peaceful co-existence and good neighbourliness, peaceful settlement of disputes, and equitable distribution of benefits. The EastAfrican reviewed major trade deals that have caused friction among EAC partner states while threatening the stability of the bloc. While EAC Common Market Protocol liberalised the movement of labour in the region and set December 31, 2015 as the deadline for the partners states to waive permit fees, only Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have complied. Tanzania and Burundi still require work permits for which all non-nationals have to pay fees, contrary to the protocol. Tanzania has since disregarded calls to abolish work permit fees for other citizens of the EAC and in November last year, the country’s Immigration Department only reduced the fees to $500 from $2,000 for EAC citizens seeking to work in Tanzania. The Protocol for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC) provides for the establishment of a Customs Union and a Common Market as transitional stages to and integral parts of the Community. But a report on the elimination of non-tariff barriers in...