East African Community (EAC) customs officers are meeting in Kigali to discuss incorporation of the Green Customs Initiative into national custom training curricula to enable them meet their obligations under international environment agreements. The Green Customs Initiative is a partnership designed to enhance the capacity of customs and other relevant border control officers to monitor and facilitate legal trade and to detect and prevent illegal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities covered by trade related conventions and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). The three-day workshop,  organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has brought together around 50 customs officers from Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, to talk about environmental crime in detail. Officials said on Wednesday that it is also meant to facilitate the inclusion of Green Customs Initiatives as a regional programme involving custom officers. Colette Ruhamya, Director General of the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), said that most environmental problems encountered in the world today have a trans-boundary nature and a global impact. She said these environmental problems can only be addressed effectively through international co-operation and shared responsibility made possible through multilateral environment agreements, several of which regulate the cross-border movement of items, substances and products, mainly in the form of imports, exports and re-exports. “This gives customs and border-protection officers’ responsibility to control trade across borders, a very important role in protecting the national and global environment,” Ruhamya said. Environmental crimes are illegal acts which directly harm the environment, she said. They include: illegal trade in...

The Comorian expert from Anti-Piracy Unit of the Indian Ocean Commission Mr Hassani Ahalada Soilihi said during the Maritime Security programme (MASE) for the Eastern and Southern Africa and Indian Ocean (ESA-IO) region that States need to strongly be committed and foster close collaboration with other international organizations and operational agencies such as UNODC, Atlanta and Interpol to curb the situation. “A country cannot address by itself maritime security issues. Regional and international cooperation are essential to effectively combat piracy,” he said. The MASE was presented at the Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation among African States bordering the Atlantic Ocean (COMHAFAT). Held under the theme of “Maritime piracy off the African Atlantic coast: extent and approach for a more effective fight”, the workshop aimed at providing a thorough review of maritime insecurity issues and to get an overall feedback of the initiatives undertaken by each regional organisation to combat piracy. Experts who represented their countries came from COMHAFAT, the African Union, the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), the African sub regional organizations (CCPO,COREP), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), universities and maritime training institutes as well as experts in operational fight against maritime piracy. Furthermore, apart from sharing experiences, the meeting enabled participants to have an insight of maritime piracy in an economic, social and legal perspective. The organizers also stressed on the fact that it was vital to implement adopted strategies and activate appropriate mechanisms to ensure safety and security in West African ocean. Source: Daily News

The coastal breeze and picturesque views of Kenya’s Indian Ocean meets the busy port of Mombasa where heavy machinery awaits to ferry tonnes of cargo. Suddenly, the fresh and humid air is met with choking dust and screeching sounds of cranes as cargo is offloaded from the ship. Most of the shipment to Kenya includes food stuff, machinery, raw materials just to mention but a few. They are sealed and locked into containers ready for transportation to East African countries. Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) notes its Mombasa Port has the capacity to handle over 1.2 million containers annually and this number could be higher going by the several expansion works visible at the Port. Aside from this number, the challenge has been on how fast these goods are cleared for transportation to other regional countries. There is an average of 300 heavy commercial vehicles that leave Mombasa destined to East African countries on a daily basis. “Lift, pack, move… lift, pack, move” paints the picture of clockwork operations at the port. Our attention is drawn to these containers that have been a focus in the recent past. Most of the goods contained here do not reach their destination either due to highway insecurity, accidents or theft. A team of tax officials donning their usual white, army-like uniform are busy affixing a magnetic gadget to containers. This is their solution to the perennial problem facing transporters in East Africa. “A team at the gate identifies high risk goods in what we...

East Africa’s free common market is not free at all. Seven years after internal custom tariffs were scrapped, a number of protectionist policies continue to pop up as countries try to limit the entry of foreign goods in favour of promoting local ones. This has dampened the spirit of a free regional market and raised questions over whether the East African Community is working. At a one-day private public sector stakeholders dialogue on strategies for enhancing regional compliance for national laws, which was held in Kampala on September 12, entrepreneurs raised concerns on the increasing level of business discrimination within the East African bloc. They argued that whereas Uganda is promoting the Build Uganda Buy Uganda (BUBU) policy, government was not helping local manufacturers penetrate the national and regional markets. While giving a recent incident she encountered at the Rwanda-Uganda border, Prudence Ukkonika, the proprietor and manufacturer of Bella Wines, narrated how her goods were confiscated and held for several days, and how she was forced to pay money far beyond the cost of the goods in order to have them released. “Every meeting I go to, they are encouraging people to export. But it is very different from the situation on the ground. They talk much about this but they don’t act. If other countries don’t want to take our goods, then let them tell us,” Ukkonika said. Ukkonika said Uganda’s BUBU policy has not helped local manufactures attain their dream. “Every time they say BUBU,... BUBU... but BUBU...

The cornerstone of U.S. economic relations with sub-Saharan Africa since 2000 has been the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA. The program offers more than three dozen participants preferential access to U.S. markets by eliminating import tariffs. Policymakers hoped that AGOA, as the primary U.S. trade policy for the region, would foster economic and political development in Africa. However, the outsized role of oil and apparel in African export growth has raised questions about whether AGOA can diversify the region’s economies and increase its competitiveness in global markets. Meanwhile, U.S. trade with AGOA’s participants has dropped since its 2008 peak almost to its pre-AGOA total, while African trade relationships with other countries, particularly China, have expanded. Why was AGOA created? AGOA is a trade preference program established in 2000 as part of broader legislation to strengthen U.S. trade ties with Africa and the Caribbean enacted by President Bill Clinton. The act is unilateral, meaning that it does not require African countries to lower their own barriers to U.S. goods, though it encourages them to do so. President Clinton saw the policy as a way to boost growth and bolster democratic ideals across the continent. He also said that it would strengthen the U.S. economy by opening markets with “hundreds of millions of potential consumers” to American producers. The act is an extension of a U.S. trade preference system introduced in 1974 that allows more than one hundred countries, mostly in the developing world, to export many of their goods to the...

Member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) have been urged to expedite the completion of the current infrastructure projects to boost regional trade. The call was made during the 10th Joint Meeting of the Committees on Transport and Communications, Information Technology and Energy held in Lusaka Zambia last week. According to the COMESA secretariat officials, member states need to take decisions that will help accelerate the implementation of the bloc’s infrastructure projects. Rwanda High Commissioner to Zambia and permanent representative to COMESA, Monique Mukaruliza, said the idea is to support the completion of most pending infrastructure projects to spur the region’s development. Mathew Nkuwa, the Zambian Minister for Works, Transport and Supply, said there is need for policies, systems, institutions and resources to support infrastructure development and maintenance, adding that this move would reduce the infrastructure gap, support poverty reduction efforts, as well as “create wealth and enhance economic development in the COMESA region”. Nkuwa highlighted lack of financial and technical resources to the support infrastructure projects as one of the main causes of delays in the implementation process. “There is need to develop modern infrastructure that will make it easy for member states to trade amongst themselves,” he added. Fast tracking airspace liberalisation Meanwhile, the COMESA infrastructure ministers agreed on the need to fast-track the liberalisation of air space in the region to increase connectivity and boost trade. They say, air transport liberalisation will lead to increased air service levels and lower fares and,...

harmonisation of the microfinance sector policies in East African Community (EAC) will improve financial inclusion, ensure efficiency and support poverty eradication efforts across the bloc, according to the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR). Jean Pierre Uwizeye, the senior programmes manager at AMIR, said the law will also ease market entry for MFIs across the region, noting that it calls for mutual recognition by EAC sector regulators to enable MFIs to operate freely across the bloc without any restrictions. “For instance, if a Ugandan-registered MFI wants to operate in Rwanda, the National Bank of Rwanda, as regulator, will facilitate its entry because the draft policy provides for recognition of certificates and licences from member states,” he added. Uwizeye was speaking to The New Times on the sidelines of a consultative workshop on the EA microfinance draft policy last week in Kigali to get the views of local stakeholders to enrich the final draft of policy before it is presented before the regional assembly, EALA. The regional consultation exercise covered Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. The draft policy recommends interventions like liquidity gaps in the sector and policy actions whereby regional governments and the EAC secretariat will seek to institute funding mechanisms to support groups like the youth and women. “Generally, the draft law reinforces the current thinking in Rwanda and among the local microfinance stakeholders represented by AMIR. Otherwise, we are happy for the opportunity to contribute to EAC microfinance policy framework formulation and efforts that aim at...

Ministers from Eastern and Central African blocs meet today in Republic of Congo capital Brazzaville to chart a common position on the COP 23 in November in Bonn, Germany. COP 23 is the latest of the series of meetings of Conference of Parties that are signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty through which that member states commit to reduce greenhouse gas emission. The ministers expected to meet today in the Republic of Congo capital of Brazzaville are from the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community for Central African States (ECCAS). Rwanda subscribes to both blocs. The central focus of the meet is the acceleration of the operationalisation of the climate commission for the Congo Basin. Also on agenda is developing a strategy on how to speed up the operationalisation of the Congo Basin Commission of which the Blue Fund of the Congo Basin, the Green Business Fund and other initiatives created to ensure economic development within the region do not compromise environment conservation. The Blue Fund for the Congo Basin was ratified by 12 countries, including Rwanda, that heads the Commission of Central African Forests. Finding common ground The ministerial meeting was preceded yesterday by one for experts from the two blocs. Rwanda is represented by Dr Jean Baptiste Habyalimana, the ambassador to the Republic of Congo. The EAC Principal Environment and Natural Resource Officer, Eng. Ladislaus K. Leonidas, said that the conference is an opportunity for the two blocs to share experience. "ECCAS and EAC...

Reading the history of Africa, you can never miss the scramble for its acreage and the resources, leading to the illogical, politically instigated birth of countries as defined by the borders we now know. Communities and commerce were disrupted as traditional trade routes and peoples’ movements were choked. The rise of additional barriers to trade can be traced to this. Fast forward to present times; technology is getting deployed to address some of our most pressing needs as caused or exacerbated by colonial actions. Earlier this year we saw the fintech space grab headlines with an influx of venture funding. This did not come as a surprise, as in retrospect the movement of funds had been curtailed by the scramble for Africa, which in essence is one part of what underpins commerce. Money is now able to traverse the continent in a split second applied towards the exchange of value. The battle for that turf remains; whoever can move the bits and bytes faster and cheaper will win. The second part of the commerce equation is commodities. The medium of exchange can cross borders fluidly but the product side doesn’t enjoy such benefits, at least not yet. To move products, one requires infrastructure and inventory; both of which are a hodge podge of varied grade deployments in Africa. Infrastructure covers roads, railways, airports, ports, warehouses, holding docks among others. Inventory covers trucks, airplanes, wagons, and various motorised plus non-motorised transports with carriage capacity; all available in plenty but lacking a...

Africa’s leaders, along with everyone else interested in US-Africa relations, have waited eight months for US President Donald Trump’s administration to explain its Africa policy. We aren’t there yet. But in recent weeks Trump has indicated the level and extent of his interest. And, senior African affairs officials at the State and Defence Departments are at last attempting publicly to outline US goals and objectives toward Africa. This, apparently without much guidance from their president. Trump’s inaugural address to the UN General Assembly said little about Africa – barely one paragraph towards the end. One sentence praised African Union and UN-led peacekeeping missions for “invaluable contributions in stabilising conflicts in Africa.” A second praised America, which continues to lead the world in humanitarian assistance, including famine prevention and relief in South Sudan, Somalia and northern Nigeria and Yemen. The next day Trump hosted a luncheon for leaders of nine African countries –Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa. Only his welcoming remarks have been published but they are nearly devoid of policy content or guidance. His opening gambit reminded me of a 19th century colonialist hoping to become rich, as he proclaimed: Africa has tremendous business potential, I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they’re spending a lot of money….It’s really become a place they have to go, that they want to go. Trump called on African companies to invest in the US. Then, shifting to security cooperation,...