EAST African Community (EAC) partner states and those on the southern part have to strengthen corridors across the area, so as to build climate resilience. That is being emphasised because as EAC economies continue to grow rapidly, so do the respective transport and logistics sectors as well as the associated Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and pollution. Increased traffic and pollution threaten safety, health and life of road transport users and citizens, warn Trade- Mark East Africa (TMA) Environmental and Climate Change Officer, Mr Denis Maina and fellow officer, Mikko Leppanen. They argue that the situation is further worsened by inefficiencies that exist in the regions’ road transport and logistics sectors. For example, costs per kilometre of transporting a freight container from Mombasa to Kigali costs three times more than in developed countries. “ Some 95 per cent of the freight transport is hauled on roads, while water – maritime, inland lakes – and rail transport that are less polluting modes of freight transport have remained underdeveloped and underutilised,” the duo said in their release. TMA has worked with the Northern and Central Corridors for years in the joint observatories programme to collect and manage freight transport related information and in 2018 included a climate change tool to monitor GHG emissions and pollution along the corridors. Key partners involved in the development of the international standards-based tool were Climate Care and Meghraj Capital consultants. A report on the freight transport sector tool reveals that there is a need for countries to...

After close to four successful years at the helm of East Africa Business Council (EABC), Dr. Peter Mutuku Mathuki will be joining the East African Community (EAC) as the new Secretary-General next month. Top on his mind is rejuvenating the image of the Community and preparing it for emerging global opportunities such as the African Continental Trade Area (AfCFTA) and access to the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) markets and balancing the role of the Asian tigers such as China and India in the development agenda of the region. Dr. Mathuki, who previously served as a Member of Parliament in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) between 2012 and 2017 and served in committees of Trade, Accounts and Legal Affairs, will be replacing the outgoing Sec-Gen Amb. Libérat Mfumukeko. A champion of increased trade in the EAC region and AfCFTA, Dr. Mathuki was nominated by President Uhuru Kenyatta and appointed by the EAC Heads of State Summit comprising all the six Presidents to take up the responsibility of steering EAC for the next five years at a time the region needs strategic direction on navigating Covid-19 impact on the economies. “EAC organs should work in harmony and coordinate to realize the benefits enshrined in the EAC Treaty and strengthen our economic, legislative, education, research, social and justice agenda,” said Dr. Mathuki. He added: “Partner States’ governments and the private sector need to work together to recover from the negative impacts of the pandemic. That’s...

TRADE Mark East Africa (TMA) has said that the East African region must focus on recovery, building resilience for job creation after the Covid-19 pandemic. “The disease has proved to be daunting, complex and universal. It is not just a public health matter but also affects progress in the fight against poverty, due to its direct impact on jobs and economic performance,” TMA Chief Executive Officer has said.. Mr Frank Matsaert said people are living in times of great uncertainty, fuelled by the onset of Covid-19. "Despite this, we have maintained our focus on supporting trade and building prosperity, creating jobs, and reducing poverty in Eastern Africa,” he said. He said Covid-19 has catalyzed rethinking of global supply chains, shaken traditional patterns of partnerships and stimulated unanticipated innovation. “It has magnified the importance of trade as a driver for development and building resilient economies," he said. Mr Matsaert said it was noteworthy that projected economic growth has more than halved in many countries, particularly in East Africa. Thus, TMA has responded by creating a Covid-19 mitigation programme that leveraged their 10 years of experience, in addition to accelerate core programming with higher levels of innovation and forged new partnerships to address challenges to eastern Africa's recovery. In 2019/2020, TMA begun with an overview of the innovative Safe Trade Emergency Facility (Safe Trade) that it developed and rolled out when Covid-19 first hit East Africa. That was rolled out with the support of its development partners in the European Union, Finland,...

Technological advancements, financial sector innovations and recent health threats like the Coronavirus have fuelled a greater reliance and need for digital trade and online shopping. The surge in E-Commerce globally has resulted in the need for efficient payment and data management systems. The adoption of data centres provides a data management system solution that allows for efficient payment across e-commerce platforms.   What are data centres? Data centres are ICT command centres used by various businesses to provide cloud storage, data processing and applications support services. These are useful to ensure safe, efficient and reliable online markets. IT penetration in Africa is the major determinant of the growth and development of data centres. Economic and administrative prioritisation has not been directed towards investments in IT infrastructure. A norm that IT investments are concerns for the private sector and not for the government prevails throughout the continent. As such, the continent is falling behind in IT penetration as government efforts lag behind that of the private sector. Infrastructure development in IT by the private sector has hugely promoted e-commerce. With the growth of digital business, there has been a wave by organisations to develop data centres to better handle the digital sphere of doing business. Most of these data centres have been adopted in Africa’s biggest markets, like Nigeria and South Africa. This sophisticated avenue of ICT is an emerging employment sector. A competent labour force with adequate skills is required to ensure efficient management of data centres. Investment in ICT infrastructure Global...

The COVID-19 crisis has generated sudden and significant changes in the way that people work, produce, consume, trade and live. There has been the widespread turn to working from home (especially for typical white-collar activities), and the deepening reliance on e-commerce for groceries and other daily goods, which has affected notoriously traditional retail. However, with the exception of the temporary impact of the pandemic on travel and other leisure activities, activities like the use of e-commerce and working from home are not new to the world and to the people in East Africa. The technologies that have facilitated these changes have been available and were in use before the crisis. Working from home had been increasing in creative industries and other services. E-commerce companies such as Amazon, eBay and Jumia were giant corporations even before the pandemic. The use of electronic means of payment has been spearhead in many regions, notably in East Africa. What has changed has been the speed at which these changes have lately occurred. Different analysis has shown that COVID-19 has accelerated e-commerce growth by 4 to 6 years. Impact in agriculture: Digital platforms in Uganda Technology, even before the pandemic, was transforming the agriculture sector in East Africa. Biotechnology, robotics and smart warehousing have increasingly been employed to produce and commercialise products there. For example, remote sensing using drones is used in Tanzania to monitor the state of crops such as cassava, beans and maize. Of the technologies increasingly adopted by East African farmers, digital...

Peter Mathuki, the chief executive of the East African Business Council, who is the incoming secretary general of the East African Community, spoke with Luke Anami on his early engagement with the EAC and aspirations for the bloc. What are your aspirations as the sixth Secretary General? To follow the spirit of the EAC Treaty that says it is people-centred. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta recently said that we should be aware that regional integration is private sector-led. Therefore, it is important that we involve the private sector and other sectors. The principle is to have inclusivity because integration is about people, all stakeholders. At what stage do you envisage the Customs and CMP should be at in 2021? We must appreciate that partner states are at different levels of economic development. And that there have been challenges to having a fully-fledged Customs Union. One of the challenges is an agreed Common External Tariff, which has been under review for the past four or five years. My target is that we focus on this and conclude it for the purpose of promoting local industries and products. Number two is to ensure that the Common Market is also functioning. We should be having a uniform travel document such as an ID across all countries. But let’s also appreciate that we already have a common passport and a common tourist visa for example. I look forward to even deepening them further so that they are applied in all the partner states. How did...

Summary East African Business Council says EAC have potential of earning $10b annually from trade with DRC, but most of this is being lost to China. The East African Community member states are eyeing the Democratic Republic of Congo market of 86.7 million people and are eager to have the vast country join the bloc. In what was seen as fast-tracking of the DRC application of June 2019, the recently concluded EAC heads of state summit directed the Council of Ministers to undertake the verification mission to Kinshasa and report to the next summit, while the application of Somalia that has been pending since 2012, was again pushed to the back burner. Harold Acemah, a retired Ugandan diplomat, said that the proposal to send a mission to DRC is timely and it will help EAC avoid the mistake made with South Sudan which is not yet ready for full membership of the community. Adherence to Treaty “DRC has enormous economic and financial potential which is good for EAC, but the political situation in DRC is fluid and fragile. One hopes that membership of EAC will help to stabilise the political situation in DRC,” said Mr Acemah. However, Mr Acemah says the EAC leadership must put down proper assessment mechanisms in place before DRC is admitted. “First, the country is unstable, with civil unrest in some parts. The risk of these must be assessed,” he said. There were precedents with Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan’s applications. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania argued...

The Rwandan Private Sector Federation (PSF) Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Ruzibiza, on Wednesday, March 3, told The New Times that the business community is expecting a lot from Peter Mathuki who was chosen by East African Community leaders last weekend as the bloc's new secretary-general. Mathuki who has been instrumental in championing removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), implementing the turn-around strategy of the East African Business Council (EABC), and revitalizing donor support in the sector, among others, will on April 25 start work as the seventh EAC SG. Ruzibiza said: "It’s an appointment that business sectors are pleased with. A lot is expected of Peter, to achieve the EAC Treaty's spirit which emphasizes private sector development." By and large, the region's business community is hailing Mathuki, who has been CEO of the EABC until his recent appointment, as a transformative leader who pushed the business agenda and championed free movement of goods and services in the dire pandemic times. "His hands-on approach saw him visiting all EAC OSBPs, holding fora with small-scale cross-border traders and Trade Facilitation Agencies to assess trade barriers and in turn advocated for their elimination," reads part of an EABC statement. Before joining the EABC, in October 2018, Mathuki was a lawmaker in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) - from 2012 to 2017 - where he served on two standing committees. MP Aden Omar Abdikadir, a Kenyan member of EALA on Wednesday told The New Times that his compatriot is competent, and has good networking...

Export of goods among East African countries has dropped by more than 30 per cent in the last 10 years as individual countries embark on sustaining their needs. The most affected are consumer products and farm equipment, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industrialisation. This emerged during a validation workshop for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Naivasha. Trade and Industrialisation Chief Administrative Secretary David Osiany said many countries had reduced reliance on each other for some products and services owing to the growth of local industries. He said they had instead focused on local production owing to steady demand, instead of relying on imports. “In the last couple of years, exports around the East African countries have reduced drastically as each country embarks on doing its own production,” he noted. Addressing the Press in Naivasha during the workshop on AfCFTA strategy, Mr Osiany, however, downplayed the drop in exports. The AfCFTA was to boost intra-African trade among the 55 member States. “This workshop aims to review the updated draft strategy by ensuring that it is aligned to the national development goals and objectives,” he said. The Secretary of Trade Bruno Lunyiru said Kenya started developing its national AfCFTA implementation strategy in November 2019, noting that the draft had been subjected to public participation twice. “Under this strategy, trade barriers will be removed and this will come in handy for small-scale traders keen to do business with their partners in other countries,” he said. Read original article

The CEO of the East African Business Council (EABC), Dr. Peter Mathuki, has been appointed as the incoming Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC). The appointment was made during the 21st Ordinary virtual Summit of the EAC Heads of State. Dr. Mathuki holds a PhD in Strategic Management and Regional Integration from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. As the CEO of the EABC, he has been instrumental in driving and articulating the Private Sector priorities in EAC decision-making process. Dr. Mathuki has been instrumental in implementing the recovery strategy of the EABC under the vision of a borderless East Africa for increased business and investment. He has led numerous international, continental, and regional high-level public-private dialogues aimed at boosting the growth of intra-EAC trade and investment such as the High-Level East African Business and Investment 2019. His leadership improved recognition of the role of the private sector in the EAC from observer status to partner of the EAC regional integration agenda. He has taken part in continental and international negotiations where he successfully pushed for the formation of the African Business Council. Dr. Mathuki is an expert in regional integration and has served in several regional organizations. He formerly served as a Member of Parliament of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). While there, he chaired the EALA Committee responsible for good governance and served in the Committee of Communication, Trade and Investment (CTI). He previously served as a Director in charge of International Labour Standards (ILO) at...