Our continent is undergoing an unprecedented and rapid transformation. Some of the world’s fastest growing economies are in Africa. Our cities and our populations are exploding. The “wild” side of Africa is changing as new infrastructure to accommodate this boon, as well as increased regional and global trade, are transforming urban and rural areas. In this, many are writing the first chapters of Africa’s rise. But are we seeing the full story? Climate change, population growth, increased water demand and environmental degradation are all putting pressure on our freshwater resources. In a number of African countries, demand for water outstrips available resources. More than half of Africa’s population still relies on forests for their livelihood yet the continent lost 3.4 million hectares of forest per year between 2000 and 2010 to human activities. For wildlife, the future doesn’t look much brighter. As trade routes between Africa and other parts of the world open and multiply, so do the opportunities for smuggling of our natural heritage. Each year, more than 20,000 elephants are killed by poachers for their tusks, and more than 1,300 rhinos were poached in 2015 in Africa. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPORTANCE And while Africa’s “lion economies” continue to grow, Africa's lions are in a state of serious decline. Clearly we are not undertaking a complete environmental accounting of our success. Last week, Nairobi hosted the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, the world’s highest-level governing body on the environment. Protecting the environment is not merely about saving elephants...

The decision by Uganda and Rwanda to ditch Kenya’s proposed oil pipeline in favour of Tanzania’s should ring alarm bells in terms of what this means, not just for the economy but for the viability of the standard gauge railway that is being touted by the government as a game changer. It may soon dawn on us that not only was the SGR a very bad idea, but that it will put the country in such serious debt that Kenya could soon be rushing to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout loan. Already the IMF has warned Kenya that the country’s debt burden and the huge loans from China can bring the country’s debt to unsustainable levels. By arrogantly excluding Tanzania from discussions and assuming that it could play big brother to its neighbours, Kenya shot itself in the foot and lost the goodwill that it took for granted. Kampala and Kigali probably realised that Kenyans had been taken for a ride and, therefore, put their heads together and decided that rather than rely on Kenya for its transport needs, it should turn to Magufuli’s Tanzania. At least Tanzania does not have the perennial conflicts that Kenya seems to have every election cycle and with less corruption, Ugandan and Rwandan goods will probably be safer and cheaper to export and import from there. The question we must ask now is whether the Chinese hoodwinked us into undertaking the SGR project knowing full well that it was not viable. A...

ADDIS ABABA (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the African Union (AU) has underlined the need for AU member states to act quickly to move forward the agenda of realizing continental free trade (CFTA) in Africa. Fatima Haram Acyl, AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry, made the remark on Monday during the opening of the First Ministerial Meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee on Trade, Industry and Minerals at the headquarters of the pan-African bloc in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. The two-day meeting, which was preceded by session of experts, has been organized under the theme, “Promoting regional integration through trade and inclusive and sustainable industrial development in Africa.” Recalling that the AU summit in June 2015 launched the CFTA negotiations in commitment to the realization of CFTA by 2017, the AU Commissioner called for speedy action to ensure the ambitious agenda of the continent on CFTA. “We have an ambitious agenda before us. It is therefore incumbent on us to ensure the effective delivery of this target. We should therefore be prepared to provide the necessary guidance bearing in mind the overall goal of One Africa, One Market, in line with the aim and objectives of the Abuja Treaty,” she said. “As a result of the foregoing, we can agree that it’s time for us to act and act quickly. It’s time to move forward our Agenda,” she added. In his statement made through a representative, Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA),...

Growth in contributions to Aid for Trade levelled off in 2014 from a year ago according to Frans Lammersen, of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  Support for energy generation and productive capacity building in developing countries continue to attract increased levels of funding  but commitments for trade facilitation programmes and for least developed countries (LDCs) fell between 2013 and 2014, he said. “I think we can be relatively confident that overall Aid-for-Trade flows will remain relatively stable,” Mr Lammersen said, noting that the aggregate aid commitments decreased by only 2% to USD 55 billion in 2014 and may have even slightly increased in 2015. Actual disbursements of total aid commitments, meanwhile, have seen continued growth every year of 5-10%. Aid commitments for private sector development, in particular, rose in 2014 and this is likely to continue in light of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which encourage partnerships with the private sector, he added. “But there is a decline in aid for trade policy and regulations in the commitments and to a lesser extent in the disbursements,” he said, with commitments for trade facilitation support dropping from USD 613 million in 2013 to USD 362 million in 2014. “That is a drop of 41%.” Australia said this could be addressed by having aid recipients work with donors on identifying their Category C commitments under the Trade Facilitation Agreement — that is, the areas of trade facilitation where they will need capacity building and assistance. This way, donors...

Despite the untapped opportunities that exist on the continent, trade between various African countries is still largely restricted. Joining CNBC Africa to talk about the some of the critical barriers and possibly provide us with solutions to improve intra-Africa trade is Matthew Conroy, Trade Manager of Maersk Line South Africa. Source: CNBC Africa

Green industrialisation is the direction Africa should be following right now, a green economy approach to economic transformation as the continent catches up to the rest of the world industrially, the continent might as well implement the policies pre-emptively, is the crux of what Giovanie Biha, Deputy Secretary, Economic Commission for Africa explained to CNBC Africa. This comes after the Economic Comission for Africa launched a report yesterday on the green industry. "We believe there is not going to be a long and sustainable development unless Africa industrialises, we are one of the continents, if not the continent that is lagging behind in industrialisation. Green industrialisation is a timely subject Biha says because of the COP21 agreement, the sustainable development goals and the Addis Ababa consensus with the financing for development. It’s timely she says not only because of the agreements on climate but also a number of African countries are putting in place policy frameworks for industrialisation and trade. “Because we are late comers, we can start in the right way, we can start industrialisation based on resource efficiency, we are basically saying that we have seen in the last few years in many countries that economic growth was based on export of raw commodities and now with the falling prices a number of countries are really vulnerable, so we are basically saying if we are starting to industrialise, let’s start in the right way.” Biha says if we do not do it now, a few years from now...

The East Africa Community registered six private equity deals in March, signalling a rising popularity with investors. The bloc said the private equity deals were mainly in infrastructure, manufacturing and real estate. Also witnessed was a diminishing interest in banks as sources of credit, as the rates charged had turned out to be expensive at above 18 per cent, compared with private equity deals which usually attract seven to eight per cent interest rate per year. Another strong point is the repayment period, which can be negotiated in case of a slowdown in business. Investors and multinational executives attending this year’s East Africa Trade and Commodity Finance Conference convened by the Global Trade Review in Nairobi said banks should rethink their traditional loan offerings to remain relevant. The forum heard that the current lending practices do not support growth but hinders uptake, forcing many businesses to rely on cheap funds from pension schemes, private equity and foreign investors. The panellists included Nakumatt Holdings financial controller Vijay Kumar, R.H Devani’s business development general manager Geoffrey Okora and UK Association of Corporate Treasurers development director James Lockyer. They warned that while traders continued to patronise local banks, the future portends a change of offering where banks have to come up with products that address direct business challenges or risk losing their core segment to incoming venture capitalists and private equity firms. Mr Okora said the prohibitive interest rates charged by local banks were fuelled by increased government borrowing which saw many banks buy...

As traders rue missed opportunities relating to Uganda choosing Tanzania over Kenya on the pipeline route, other initiatives are going on to spur intra-trade in East African. Hopefully, the recent initiative by Kenya and Uganda supported by a number of global and regional bodies to create a common platform for facilitating cross-border trade in fish and fishery products, using Busia Border point will succeed. Many times, the cumbersome and punitive inspection protocols for animal, human and plant products across the countries, which have different requirements and standards, has made it difficult for intra trade between the two countries. Uganda has a bigger supply for fish products, which on many occasions go to waste, while traders in Kenya face a huge domestic demand for fish products for local and export consumption cannot access because of stringent standards and different trade regimes within the two countries. To ease the cross border trade in fish and fish products, that will allow increased intra trade within the two countries, and by extension, export to other countries, a number of activities and facilities are to be established at the Busia border point that will provide quick inspection of human, animal and plant products health both at and behind borders. The pilot is among the several initiatives being implemented by partners in the business community as a way of increasing the level of intra trade volumes in Africa including: the EAC has developed the regional sanitary and phytosanitary standards, (SPS) the Inspectors’ guide; standard Operating Procedures;...

This year’s World Economic Forum for Africa was held at a time when there is a lot of turbulence in the global economy, with African countries facing lower commodity prices and depreciating currencies. What do you see as the role of innovation and technology in managing these challenges? If you think of the role of technology in driving growth, these are the things that look beyond the usual inputs and ensure that we keep growing. Prices for commodities have gone down and the International Monetary Fund has just lowered sub Saharan growth prospects to 3 per cent this year after steady growth for 15 years. It is time to make reforms that will allow Africa to benefit from technological transformation and to unleash its economies using digital transformation. Despite the recent growth we have seen in the service sector, the majority of African countries continue to depend on agriculture. How can digital transformation lead to structural transformation that creates jobs? African economies clearly depend on agriculture, and modernising agriculture would be a huge part of the story. Digital technology will have a large part to play in terms of knowledge sharing, and it is already making big improvements. If you look at the movement in the services sector, if you look at the productivity numbers over the past 10 years, countries all over the world have experienced a decline in services productivity. Meanwhile, Africa is moving into services but not high productivity services. I see these new technologies unleashing a...

Africa’s agriculture sector is at an inflection point and could grow significantly in the coming years with the right investments and policy actions. This was the submission of business leaders, government officials and others who gathered for the 2016 Grow Africa Investment Forum in Kigali recently. The Grow Africa partnership reported that over $500 million in new private-sector investments were implemented in 2015, bringing the total to $2.3 billion implemented out of over $10 billion committed by more than 200 African and global companies. In the past year, these investments reached around 10 million smallholder farmers and created 30,000 jobs, bringing the total number of jobs created to 88,000 since 2012. In the first quarter of 2016, almost $500 million in additional investment commitments were made, suggesting that investor interest remained strong. However, investors have substantial concerns about the enabling environment for African agriculture, according to a survey conducted by Grow Africa. Business leaders believe that better access to finance and risk management tools, infrastructure, and policy and regulatory improvements are needed – but out of over 130 company responses, almost 70 per cent reported seeing no improvement on these fronts over the past year. “Agriculture is the sector that will transform Africa. Our industrialisation will be driven by value-added processing of our agriculture products. However we need to tackle key bottlenecks like infrastructure and farmers’ access to finance and markets,” President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta said. Also, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia,Hailemariam Dessalegn outlined the significant progress to date...