East African Community (EAC) member countries should embrace the culture of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), ensuring that disputes are determined using arbitration and other friendly mechanisms of addressing commercial disagreements. Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said this will help reduce the backlog of cases in the commercial courts, among others. “International arbitration has gradually grown over the past years, and given the increasing economic activities, it is becoming significant to our economic and justice sectors,” the minister said. “So, it is important that the justice sector creates an enabling environment for Alternative Dispute Resolution practice and also ensure that disputes are resolved using arbitration and other friendly mechanisms of dispute resolution. This will reduce the backlog in the courts.” Busingye was opening a three-day fellowship training programme organised by the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC) in partnership with Chattered Institute of Arbitration, UK. The training, that started on Monday in Kigali, ends September 27, and the trainees will acquire the Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). It attracted participants from Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and members of the East African Court of Justice. During the training, the participants will share experiences from their respective countries, and discuss appropriate strategies on how to overcome the key challenges that still hinder the successful implementation of ADR in the EAC bloc, according to the KIAC officials. Busingye said it imperative that all stakeholders “work jointly to develop this sector and provide the necessary conditions for it to grow further in a sustainable manner”. He...

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce has approved ‘Look Africa Plan’ with stringent measures to boost bilateral trade between Pakistan and Africa in the upcoming years. The plan was approved by the ministry on Aug 17, as per project details available with Dawn. Pakistan’s total trade with Africa is $3 billion as against the total trade volume of $3 trillion. Pakistan’s share in total trade of African countries is 0.3 per cent. Under the policy, top 10 countries out of the 54 African nations selected trade promotion include Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. All these countries constitute 78pc of the total African gross domestic product (GDP). According to the policy, Pakistan will offer to negotiate a preferential trade agreement with three African trading blocs – Southern African Customs Union (SACU), East African Community (EAC), and Economic Community of West African States that constitute (ECOWAS). SACU members are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland while EAC comprises of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. A similar PTA with ECOWAS, which includes Benin; Burkina Faso; Cabo Verde; Côte d’Ivoire; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea Bissau; Liberia; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; Sierra Leone; and Togolese, is also envisioned. The value of bilateral trade between the countries is less than $100 million. As per policy, joint working groups (JWGs) on trade will be established by the commerce ministry to engage major African countries to have regular interaction. Currently, Pakistan has only 13 joint ministerial commissions with African...

This of course bears out the inflexible maxim: ‘out of sight, out of mind’ – a characteristic of a large number of African institutions which continue to toil away in the shadows. With media space limited and so many organisations, public and private, fighting to be seen and heard, anything less than a robust proactive approach to securing stage presence will not do. Fortunately, over the past few years, first under the presidency of Jean-Louis Ekra and now under his successor, Dr Benedict Oramah, who both understand the importance of a strong public presence, Afreximbank is rightly taking its place among the continent’s institutional pantheon. It is important that it should. After the rollercoaster ride over the past 15 years, the continent, despite the current slowdown, is well positioned to take the next painful but essential step in moving up the development ladder to middle-income status. Given the fickle ‘boom and bust’ commodities cycle, most parties are agreed that the most sustainable route towards this end is through a rapid increase in trade – particularly intra-African trade. And this is where Afreximbank has a critical role to play. The lifeblood of trade is affordable finance but the muscle is an expansion of markets. Since 1994, Afreximbank has approved more than $51bn in credit facilities for African businesses, including about $10.3bn in 2016 alone. This is a clear indication of the increasing importance of the bank in facilitating the rising volume of African trade. Nevertheless, this is not enough. The bank,...

WALTER Rodney, a prominent Guyanese historian, political activist and scholar once wrote details in his book 'How Europe underdeveloped Africa' and many scholars took hats off to him while others saw his shortfalls in his school of thought and labelled it one sided, but perhaps, former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo overruled it all in 1994 while burying Kenya doyen politician Jaramogi Oginga Odinga by saying: "Thank God Africa has been saved from many earthquakes and Tsunami, but the only earthquakes and Tsunami we have are in form of bad leaders." To be precise he was of the opinion that Africa is going back to the oblivion as a result of bad leadership and expects outsiders to develop it as if there has been a binding contract that they must develop the continent. To bring the point home again, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere every now and again talked of the continent fighting three common enemies he named as poverty, diseases and ignorance/ illiteracy, but after five decades from independence the enemies are still eating the continent to its bones including East Africa member states in this context. Leaders (think-tanks in this vein) have thought of coming together to form joint blocs to help them address the challenges, but a prominent Nigerian ScholarChinua Achebe has begged to know if the war would be won if individual member states still treat each other with suspicion through a character he calls Okwonkwo asking his brothers a question that 'how can we fight a common enemy...

The East Africa Trade and Investment Hub is partnering with a new business-to-business platform operated by global shipping and logistics giant Maersk Group in a bid to simplify trade with and within Africa. The Hub, an initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier this month with business-to-business platform Fromtu. As part of the agreement, the Hub will provide Fromtu with market intelligence on trade and business opportunities specific to the platform, including information on East African companies seeking trade and export opportunities and on international trade regulations and standards. The facilitation of business linkages is integral in the Hub's work in promoting intra-regional and international trade, particularly under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). "While traditionally the development community engages with private firms to take on subsidised programmes and make them sustainable, in this particular case the Hub is merely providing technical support to a private sector led initiative, simply strengthening an already sustainable innovation," explains Juan Estrada, the Hub's chief of party. In addition, the Hub will support Fromtu in facilitating and setting up meetings with companies looking to utilise the platform. The partnership is in line with the Hub's goal of connecting East African and US businesses to attract investment that drives economic growth and transforms the East African private sector into vibrant global trading partners. Source: Just Style

The link between India and Africa is a long ancient one. From centuries there has been a constant stream of people and business between the two land masses separated by the Arabian Sea. Yet in the last century, as Indian and other African countries overthrew the yolk of colonialism and moved forth, the bonds to a great extent seem to have weakened. The trade between India and Africa waned, even as China made a big foray into the African continent. It was only in the past two decade or so, when there was a realisation that the ties between the two need to be strengthened. Having realised it, the government of India took significant steps to boost trade ties, signing up MoUs with various African nations, extending line of credit, providing technological know-how, etc. The result is that the bilateral trade with the continent is up five fold in the last decades from about $12 billion in 2005-06 to $56.7 billion. India’s exports to Africa have increased from $7 billion in the same period to about $25 billion in 2015-16 and that accounts of about 9.5% of India’s total exports. Indian Imports from Africa have increased from $4.9 billion in 2005-06 to $31.7 billion in 2015-16 accounting for about 8.3% of total Indian imports. Today, India is the fifth largest country investing in Africa. The bilateral trade between Africa and India is expected to reach $117 billion by 2021. Some 34 African countries enjoy duty-free access to the Indian market....

Speaking after receiving credentials from Ambassador Dr Detlef Waechter who starts his tour of duty for Tanzania and the EAC, Ambasador Mfumukeko noted that Germany had provided generous technical and financial support to the EAC for almost two decades. He informed Dr Waechter of the significant progress made by the EAC in the four pillars of integration, namely the Customs Union, Common Market, Monetary Union and Political Federation, adding that the Community had made great strides in the said pillars, thanks to political goodwill by the leaders of the partner states. The Secretary General said the EAC, together with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), were at an advanced stage in the negotiations for the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) that brings together 26 countries with a market of over 600 million people. He reaffirmed EAC’s commitment to exploit its human and natural resources for the benefit of the entire region, saying that significant achievements had already been recorded in trade, customs and infrastructure development. He noted that East Africa had a big population of educated but unemployed youth, hence the way forward was for the Community to focus on modernising the agricultural sector through provision of agricultural inputs, value addition and technology. In his remarks, Dr Waechter assured the Secretary General of his country’s commitment to working closely with EAC, to enable the Community attain its objectives in the integration process. The Ambassador said Germany was keen to share with...

Trade among African countries is alive and growing, expanding to about 16 per cent in 2014 from 10 per cent in 2000, according to recent data from economists at the African Development Bank (AfDB). Despite this modest improvement, the volume of intra-Africa trade is a paltry $2 trillion when juxtaposed alongside trade between Africa and the rest of the world, which stands at a hefty $77 trillion. The reasons for this trade disequilibrium are obvious. Africa is largely disconnected from itself because of its poor infrastructure, restrictive immigration policies, corruption, failure to formalise informal trade, and unclear customs and immigration rules. Fresh facts emerging, however, suggest a slightly improving scenario. Data for 2003/14 shows that intra-African finance is a significant source of foreign investment in low-and-middle-income countries such as Burundi (79 per cent), Namibia (42 per cent), Rwanda (62 per cent), South Sudan (64 per cent) and Uganda (45 per cent). Intra-Africa tourism barely exists, but West Africa now accounts for 40 per cent of the total African, Caribbean and Pacific trade with the European Union. The 15-member nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) account for about 45 per cent of Africa’s trade with the rest of the world. In East Africa, Kenya’s top 10 export markets are Uganda, Tanzania, Netherlands, US, United Kingdom, Pakistan, DR Congo, UAE, South Sudan and Egypt. The five African countries here account for over 30 per cent of Kenya’s total exports. Kenya’s tea makers are, however, yet to make a serious push...

A study released by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers last month stated that Africa continues to be Kenya’s leading export destination accounting for 40.6 per cent of our exports, with the EAC community taking up 21.1 per cent of total exports in 2016. This means that our exports to the EAC accounted for slightly more than half of the total exports in Africa. However, our total export earnings last year decreased by 4.0 per cent and this could be explained by a decrease to exports in Uganda and Rwanda by 9.3 and 2.5 per cent respectively. In the past five years, we have witnessed the growth of our EAC neighbours through their efforts to industrialize and grow their economies. Kenya which has always been a trailblazer in this regard in the region, has now, at best stagnated and at worst, as I have mentioned above, lost its footing in some areas. This is a sign that we need to act fast if we want to remain a beacon and a notable investment hub in Africa. There is an urgent need to start channelling our focus towards diversifying and growing our exports in order to secure our markets. AFDB have cited that intra African trade has decreased from 18pc in 2000 to 15pc in 2015. Whilst in markets like the EU, most member states have two or three of their regional partners who account for over 50pc of their intra EU exports. With these statistics, it apparent that EAC countries have...

Regional integration is crucial for economic, political and social development and restoration of lasting peace and stability in the East Africa region, experts have said. The experts told Xinhua in Juba that efforts spearheaded by the East African regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) towards attaining free trade and movement of persons in the member countries would strengthen cooperation, development and prosperity in the region. Mehari Taddele Maru, an expert in international law and migration said if countries become inter-dependent and integrated too tightly, chances of fighting are very less because the harm will be too big. Maru, who also serves as Chief Strategist for IGAD, said one way of bringing peace in the IGAD region is through strong integration among bloc's members and through free movement. "We assume integration will make the region too much close to each other that they can't hurt each other without hurting one side. Through this, long term peace and security, stability and prosperity of the region can be ensured," Maru said at the end of consultative meeting on Friday evening. Maru urged East African countries to aspire towards integration for a more peaceful region and cooperation among countries, adding that the proposed IGAD protocol on free movement provides options for suspending its provisions during time of emergencies such as war and diseases outbreaks. James Okuk, a Lecturer of Political Science at the University of Juba, said integration will give countries strength, power and bigger voice in the whole region and also...