52 skilled youths graduated from an expanded East African SAP Skills for Africa program this week in Kenya. The graduation ceremony took place at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi. All 52 graduates have already been placed at partner and customer organisations in the region. Head of SAP Skills for Africa, Meena Confait, said, “This year marked our first expanded East Africa program, with candidates from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia completing their training in key SAP solutions. In line with our commitment to diversity, we are also proud to announce that 40% of graduates are female. We wish all graduates well as they enter the regional workforce and apply their hard-earned digital expertise.” SAP Skills for Africa is a skills development initiative between SAP Africa, its customers, and various public and private sector partners, and focuses on training and certifying graduates in a broad spectrum of SAP software and business solutions. Since its inception in 2012, it has provided training and industry job placement opportunities for more than 400 consultants, with more than a third of them assimilated through the partnership with the ICT Authority. Valuable partner and customer ecosystem Considering the importance of SMEs in driving job creation and economic growth on the African continent, this year also saw the introduction of SAP Business One to the curriculum, which already supports more than 55 000 SMEs globally. “By focusing on developing practical digital skills related to actual market needs, SAP Skills for Africa graduates are able to...

Business Reporter Infrastructure experts from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Member States are meeting in Zambia to review the status of domestication and implementation of programmes in transport and communications, energy and information technology in the region. Among the key programmes in focus are; the establishment of a navigational route between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea known as VICMED, the regional power interconnectors and the proposed establishment of cybercrime capacity building centre. This is the 10th meeting of the Comesa committee of infrastructure experts representing the 19 Member States. Noting that the estimated financing requirement to close Africa’s infrastructure deficit amounts to $93 billion annually until 2020, Assistant Secretary General for Comesa, Dr Kipyego Cheluget said the implementation of Africa’s Vision of an integrated continent free of poverty is inextricably linked to the existence of infrastructure. “The emphasis at regional and continental levels is on innovation and creativity, thinking outside the box to come up with feasible instruments to speed up the development of physical infrastructure,” he said, adding that the Comesa EAC-Sadc tripartite region requires US$50 billion,” said Dr Cheluget. During the session, a progress report on the implementation of Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya (ZTK) Power Interconnector was presented. The project is currently under implementation to interconnect the three countries thus creating a link between the Southern African Power Pool and the East African Power Pool. This will make it possible for transmission of power from Cape to Cairo. According to a market study conducted on the...

Also the regional local units were backed by agro-inflows and central banks’ monetary actions. Tanzania shilling Tanzanian shilling, the second biggest economy in the region, traded flat with modest demand from corporates. “We saw moderate demand from corporates on today’s trading session due to month end obligations,” NMB Bank said in a statement yesterday. The commercial banks quoted the shilling at 2230/2270 against the green back. Another bank, CRDB said the market experienced matching supply and demand for the pair but some pressure was still faced on the right hand side. “We expect this pressure to ease up due to central bank intervention and as well as the incoming cashew-nut season,” CRDB said. Ugandan shilling Ugandan shilling has inched up on flows from charities and helped by some typical end of month hard currency inflows from non-governmental organisations and coffee exporters. Last Friday, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 3,597/3,607, compared with Thursday’s close of 3,600/3,610. Kenyan shilling Kenyan shilling eased against the dollar last Friday due to dollar from some multinational companies, traders quoted saying. The shilling of the largest economy in the bloc was quoted by commercial banks at103.15/35 per dollar, compared with 103.20/40 at Thursday’s close. It was reported also that traders were assessing the level of hard currency demand from importers to figure out its potential direction. Rwandese franc The Rwandan franc relatively remained unchanged at 846.18 yesterday compared to a last Monday 845.45. The stability was attributed to Rwanda’s foreign exchange reserves that kept the...

The United Nations migration agency said on Tuesday that it has concluded a training program aimed at assisting East African states to strengthen migration governance and migrant protection capacities. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that in cooperation from the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), it organized the two-week program that covered topics such as labor migration and border management, international migration law, and migration and development. In a statement issued in Nairobi, the IOM said the training aimed to enhance migration governance and migrant protection in the IGAD region, which comprises Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. "The training provided us with an opportunity to learn about current developments in the IGAD region, and I believe that we gained very relevant knowledge especially now that IGAD member states are in the process of developing national policies on migration and border management," said Mary Mideva Kezzah, from Kenya's Ministry of the East Africa Community, Labor and Social Protection. Thirty-four attendees were selected from institutions belonging to the National Coordination Mechanisms. They include interior, foreign affairs, and labor ministry officials, lawmakers, and officers of immigration and police services from IGAD member states. The training sessions resulted in a set of recommendations including the development of a training roadmap to be developed by the African Capacity Building Center (ACBC). The first draft of the document will be launched at the next training for IGAD participants from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 in Tanzania. IOM Tanzania Chief of Mission...

The Community’s Director of Customs and Trade, Mr Kenneth Bagamuhunda, said here that the committee would supervise the implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and trade facilitation plans. The director said that regional and national implementation plans for the WTO and TFA had since been finalised and adopted by the EAC policy organs. “Amendments of regional laws, regulations and procedures, development of project proposals for resource mobilisation and sensitisation of stakeholders is currently underway,” said Mr Bagamuhunda. He cited the Single Customs Territory (SCT) and the interconnectivity of customs systems among some of the key TFA components that have been implemented by the EAC. “The SCT provides for free circulation of goods, reduces cost of doing land’s Representative to the EAC, said that his country had since disbursed $3.5 million as part of its contribution to TFA trade facilitation support programme, a multi-donor window of the World Bank group’s trade and competitiveness global practice – which in turn provides support for countries seeking assistance in aligning their trade practices with the WTO. “Every country is eligible to receive support under the programme. Eligible countries are expected to have demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing trade facilitation reforms in the areas covered by the WTO/TFA. “Moreover, the support programme will prioritise assistance to countries with other limited access to other donor support,” said Amb. Mattli. He expressed dismay over bureaucratic delays and ‘red-tape’ which he said were an ‘unnecessary and expensive’ burden for traders moving goods across borders. ” However,...

Inefficient border procedures are leading revenue losses of over 5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in some African countries, a roundtable conference on trade facilitation at the East African Community (EAC) headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, has heard. Speaking at the one-day conference on Thursday, James Kisaale, an assistant commissioner at Uganda Revenue Authority, urged sub-Saharan Africa countries, including EAC members, to embrace formalities like automation, as well as simplify and harmonise documents, and ease access to information to help lower cost of trade. Citing a 2013 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, Kisaale said reducing global trade costs by one per cent would increase global income by more than $40 billion, with developing countries being the biggest beneficiaries. Organised by the EAC Secretariat to review and fast-track the implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA), the roundtable brought together EAC development partners, as well as customs and trade experts from the EAC Secretariat and member states’ ministries of trade. The conference brought together development partners who will work with the EAC in the implementation of the TFA. While opening the roundtable, the EAC director general for customs and trade, Kenneth Bagamuhunda, said trade facilitation was an integral part of the EAC Customs Union Protocol which explicitly provides for reduction in the number and volume of trade documents. “Trade facilitation also provides for the adoption of common standards of trade documentation and procedures, coordination and facilitation of trade and transport activities. There...

A decision on whether all the East African Community partner states will sign the European Union-EAC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will be known in November during the Heads of State Summit. Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who is the chairman of the EAC, held a meeting with the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on September 27 to present the concerns raised specifically by Tanzania on the EPA, leading to the delay of signing the agreement. "I arrived in Belgium on a three-day working visit. As chairman of EAC, I will hold discussions with the EU over EPA and other related issues," confirmed President Museveni on his Twitter handle. He was accompanied by the EAC Secretary-General Liberat Mfumukeko, ministers of trade from each partner state and assistant ministers or permanent secretaries. Betty Maina, Principal Secretary in Kenya's Ministry of EAC Affairs, said President Museveni presented the concerns raised by Tanzania on why it was unwilling to sign EPA, seeking clarification from the EU. "We expect that EU will respond to the concerns before November. A decision and partner states' position will then be known in November," said Ms Maina. Contentious issues Tanzania is concerned that signing a bad EPA will compromise the region's interests in subsequent trade negotiations. Among the contentious issues is that EU unilaterally puts embargos on trade under the EPA while Article 136 of the EPA still refers to the same agreement that the EU has used to put an embargo on Burundi. Tanzania also says that EAC partner...

HAVE you noted that politicians are the same all over the world that is why they can promise to build a bridge where there is no river? These are people who lead terrible lives, when he is not straddling an issue, he is busy dodging one, but because they form part of the society, we must live with them and show them that they must not necessarily be leaders. To narrow the point home, as East Africa community citizens numbering over 150 million people, the bloc wants charismatic leaders capable of making the citizens shelve off poverty, fight diseases, ignorance and above all uprooting corruption to its roots. It may be debatable that leaders are born and not made despite education they may have or acquire to lead its people, but the business of a leader is to turn weaknesses into strengths, obstacles into stepping stones, and disasters into triumphs and that is exactly where John Pombe Magufuli (JPM) and Paul Kagame of Rwanda are leaders at the helm in the fight against corruption in their backyards (read EAC bloc). Recently, President Magufuli advised residents of Arusha (read citizens of EAC) to shun cheap politics saying: "There is no way we can ever make development strides by steeping into cheap politics that divide people; nobody here was born supporting any political party!" As citizens of the bloc, if we want economic growth/ development, we should never let an economic (development) question get into politics, because politicians make mistakes that is...

The East African trading bloc is set to adopt a uniform cargo tracking system as conflicting technologies being used are cited for border delays between Kenya and Tanzania. Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda use a joint real-time Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) while Tanzania has a mobile-based digital scheme. Officials say the incompatible technologies are responsible for delays at border points, which raises the cost of transporting goods in the region. Every truck passing through Tanzania has to fix a permanent device that costs $1,000 (Sh103,000) while those crossing to Kenya and partner states cannot load transit cargo. Following a meeting on September 8 between Kenya’s trade PS Chris Kiptoo and Tanzania counterpart Adolf Mkenda, the two countries agreed on the need to adopt a uniform regional cargo tracking system. “Kenya reported that she was not aware of the existence of a mobile tracking system. The East Africa Community (EAC) partner states had their own cargo tracking system, but EAC Secretariat are in the process of developing and adopting a regional Electronic Cargo Tracking system from entry point across the EAC. Both parties to urge EAC Secretariat to expedite adoption of the regional electronic cargo tracking system,” read a statement. The ECTS enables real time tracking of transit cargo from Mombasa port to its destination through an online platform monitored in the three countries. The Tanzania system tracks goods within its borders. READ: Kenya joins Uganda, Rwanda in common cargo tracking system The ECTS system comprises satellites, a monitoring centre and special...

Sometime last year when a group of Kenyan traders accused Tanzania of making their goods too expensive in its market by collecting the Railway Development Levy (RDL) on them, few bureaucrats paid much attention to the complaints. Kenya was the first country to introduce the RDL in 2013, which is collected at the rate of 1.5 per cent on home-bound imports. Unlike Uganda and Tanzania which have borrowed the idea, Kenya started on a wrong footing when it chose to levy the tax on nearly every import that came into its market, including those from the East African Community (EAC). Through their lobby, the East African Business Council, the region’s traders successfully talked the government out of the tax in 2014 — which they had labelled as one of the non-tariff barriers of the time. Kenya has a number of trade disputes with Tanzania but some bureaucrats believe collection of RDL is not one of them. The officials were somewhat vindicated when a Kenyan team led by trade PS Chris Kiptoo failed to produce evidence to back up their claims. Tanzania has been categorical that in has been collecting RDL in the last two years and like its other neighbours, it spares imports originating from EAC states. And so Tanzania’s trade and investment PS Adolf Mkenda told Kenya’s dispute resolution team lead by Dr Kiptoo: “Tanzania does not levy RDL on imports originating from EAC.” Away from bilateral trade disputes, the East African states seem to have realised the positive...