In what signals the country's stay in a forced marriage, Tanzania's performance in a number of dimensions of regional integration has lagged behind that of its East African peers -Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. This is according to the Africa Regional Integration Index (ARII), a new tool designed to measure the level of regional integration among African countries. The index is a collaborative effort between the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). It seeks to collect data on the impacts of regional integration. Countries are assigned scores from a scale of 0.0 to 1.0. It was created using five dimensions including regional infrastructure, regional trade, productive integration, free movement of people and financial and macro-economic integration. While the four countries have performed well above the African average- Tanzania has not. Kenya, the largest economy in the region, set the example in regional integration leading in three of the five dimensions that was used to design the index including regional trade, productive integration and free movement of people. Tanzania was last three dimensions including regional infrastructure, free movement of people, financial and macroeconomic integration. In essence, it is easier for a Tanzanian to enter Kenya and set a business than it is for a Kenyan to get into Tanzania and do the same. READ MORE East Africa trading bloc ranked high in regional integration Tanzania searches for "ghost workers" on public sector payroll Treat Kenyan VIPs with more decorum Tanzania is...

China is negotiating for the creation of a free trade agreement with the EAC. The EAC has already signed co-operation agreements on trade with the US and the EU. Recently, China wrote to the EAC Secretary-General proposing to negotiate with the EAC partner states a comprehensive free trade agreement (EAC-China FTA). China also requested to undertake a joint feasibility study with the EAC on the proposed FTA, outgoing Secretary-General Richard Sezibera informed the Council of Ministers at a meeting in Arusha. The Council directed the Secretariat to undertake a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis on the implications of negotiating FTAs with third parties. "We are working on the directive of the Council," EAC spokesperson Richard Owora said. He said they expect to conclude the work by June 30. However, East African Business Council executive director Lillian Awinja cautioned that free trade with China would hinder EAC industrialisation. "EAC shouldn't rush to negotiate an FTA with China. We need to study, consult a wide range of stakeholders, and establish the impact of such a deal on the EAC industrialisation blueprint," Ms Awinja told The EastAfrican. She said the EAC needs to protect its investors in the manufacturing industry rather than expose them to unfair competition. Ms Awinja said that already China floods the EAC market with its products. "China has the capacity to flood the whole world with their products. If we are to protect our industries, let's choose only a few products from China," said Gasper Mpehongwa, a development lecturer at Tumaini...

Construction for the new Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor is expected to drive significant opportunities for the breakbulk sector, according to predictions from research consultancy Africa House. In a recent research note the firm states that nine development zones or "growth areas" have been identified including a dedicated bulk cargo center at Lamu which will help the port, as well as Isiolo area in the western interior, become major transport hubs. “It is estimated that Mombasa Port will have outstripped its capacity by 2025,” a spokesperson for Africa house said, adding that “a contract for the first three of planned 32 berths [at Manda Bay in Lamu] has already been awarded to a consortium of companies led by China Communications Construction Co. with the value of contract at 42 billion Kenya shillings.” Despite the overall positive expectations for growth in project cargo demand in the region the firm cautions that some factors still threaten downside risk. “Recent developments may, however, reduce the impetus for the LAPSSET Corridor. Uganda and Tanzania have announced the routing of the oil pipeline from Lake Albert to Tanga Port in Tanzania rather than Lamu. Ethiopia is strengthening its trade corridor to Djibouti Port,” a spokesperson added. Headquartered in Johannesburg, Africa House was formed following the merger of Whitehouse & Associates and Africa Project Access. The firm provides trade and project environment analysis alongside bespoke research on projects and opportunities in African transport and breakbulk markets. Source: Break Bulk

On a sweltering Kenyan morning on the outskirts of a national wildlife park, Chinese and local workers maneuver a massive concrete rail-bridge structure onto towering support piers. In the distance, trucks loaded with shipping containers rumble down a highway. The bridge at Voi, northwest of the port of Mombasa, is the latest construction frontline for the initial 327 billion-shilling ($3.2 billion) stretch of an ambitious railway project to link the East African country with landlocked neighbors including Rwanda and Uganda. As a faster alternative to the trucks clogging the only road running inland to the capital, the Chinese-built and -financed standard-gauge railway, known as the SGR, has the potential to transform trade in the region. A wagon carries railway sleepers on a superbridge which will form part of the railway A wagon carries railway sleepers on a superbridge which will form part of the railway Photographer: Riccardo Gangale/Bloomberg Kenya’s rail line, the country’s biggest investment since independence in 1963, is among the most advanced of the more than $30 billion of African rail projects planned or under way. Together, they span more than 11,000 kilometers (6,835 miles), enough to connect Cape Town to Copenhagen. It’s one of the bright spots on the world’s least developed continent, where governments are wrestling with drought-induced food shortages, weakened currencies and shrinking budgets following the plunge in commodity prices. Held Back “Infrastructure constraints are one of the major things holding back Africa and this standard-gauge railway will make a big difference,” said Mark Bohlund,...

ADDIS ABABA - In a bid to show solidarity and promote free movement of Africans within their region and other parts of the continent, African heads of states are to carry an African passport for the next African Union Summit to be hosted in Kigali, Rwanda, in July. The heads of states will receive the African passport since the AU wants to popularise it as it is very symbolic and significant for the continent, as well as practical, because if one is carrying an African passport he/she should not be expected to apply for a visa, according to Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission. “A few of us at the AU are already using that passport within Africa and it is very useful, but we want the heads of states to carry it when they are visiting African countries to make it official and known to others as well,” she said. Africa’s attempt to address this situation has seen free movement show up in continental development strategy documents since the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action and the 1991 Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (AEC), commonly known as the Abuja Treaty. Abuja committed African states to “adopt, individually, at bilateral or regional levels, the necessary measures in order to achieve progressively the free movement of persons, and to ensure the enjoyment of the right of residence and the right of establishment by their nationals within the community”” The chairperson also said that all African countries must give...

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is ranked third in regional integration out of eight regional economic communities assessed by the Africa Regional Integration Index – Africa’s first effort to measure progress on regional integration. The Africa Regional Integration Index Report launched recently in Addis Ababa, is the result of a collaboration between the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union Commission (AUC); and follows calls for systematic measurement of regional integration. On a scale of 0 to 1, ECOWAS came third with a score of 0.509, behind the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which scored 0.531, and the East African Community (EAC) which came first with a score of 0.540. The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) came fourth with 0.459, followed by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in the horn and its western area, with 0.457; and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in sixth, scoring 0.454. The joint research also examined integration in two wider regional blocs: the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which cuts across North-Eastern, East, Central and Southern Africa, and includes some member countries of the UMA, IGAD, ECCAS and SADC; and the Community of Sahel Saharan States (CEN-SAD) made up of ECOWAS and some North, Central and East African states (from UMA, ECCAS and IGAD). COMESA scored 0.415 and CEN-SAD, 0.395. Regional integration in the report was measured using 16 indicators in five dimensions: trade integration, productive integration, free...

The African Union Commission (AUC) and the European Commission will hold their annual College-to-College meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 7 April. This is the biggest political EU-Africa meeting of the year. The Africa-EU Strategic Partnership is the formal channel through which the European Union and the African continent work together. It is enshrined in the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES): a partnership of equals, determined to tackle together issues of common concern. Adopted by Heads of State and Government at the second EU-Africa Summit in 2007, the JAES is the first and only intercontinental partnership strategy of the EU. The current Roadmap 2014-2017 sets out concrete targets within five priority areas of cooperation agreed at the 4th EU-Africa Summit in 2014: Peace and Security Democracy, Good Governance and Human Rights Human Development Sustainable and Inclusive Developmental Growth and Continental Integration Global and Emerging Issues EU-Africa Relations Several cooperation frameworks govern EU cooperation with Africa, among which (i) the Cotonou Agreement with Sub-Saharan Africa, (ii) Euro-med Partnership with North Africa and the European neighbourhood policy, (iii) and the Joint Africa-EU Strategy. These frameworks include political, economic and development aspects. Africa is the main recipient of collective EU (EU and its 28 Member States) Official Development Assistance (ODA). Approximately €141 billion were allocated between 2007–2013. The EU's development cooperation with Africa is channelled through different financial instruments, of which the European Development Fund (EDF) is the most important. Between 2014-2020, total European Commission's ODA allocations for Africa will amount to over €31...

Africa, it is often said, is a continent that leapfrogs various intermediary stages of technology. From fixed to mobile telephony, Africa leapfrogged the usual phases of technological advancement. It does not come as a surprise, therefore, that on a global level, the East African Community is one of few regional blocs that have scrapped mobile roaming charges. And this is just the beginning. Introduced in October 2014, the One Network Area aims to harmonise tariffs on mobile voice calls, SMS and data transmission within the EAC. Today, roaming charges between Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda have been removed, making all mobile calls between the three countries local. This has led to a minimum 400 per cent increase in the volume of calls — a direct benefit to EAC citizens and African businesses operating across the region’s borders. Previously, making calls across the EAC was more expensive than calling Europe, America or Asia. The second phase of the ONA initiative is underway, with telecom operators revising SMS and data charges downwards. Rwanda began this process in August 2015, and the idea is to have a truly integrated regional bloc with all mobile telephony barriers removed. Compare this with older and more advanced regional blocs in the West or in Asia. The European Union for example, only recently voted new rules that will scrap mobile roaming charges — a reality that will happen in 2017. This has taken the EU almost a decade of negotiations and an interim cap on roaming charges is...

IN SUMMARY WOMEN IN BUSINESS. MTN’s Women in Business dinner attracted women and men from both professional and business circles, who shared and learnt from each other’s experiences. Step up. These two words uttered by Jennifer Mwijukye, chief executive officer and founder Unifreight Group, the keynote speaker, were both the conviction and inspiration that the women gathered at the 2016 MTN Women in Business awards dinner needed. “CEOs who are seated in the office can no longer sustain their businesses. You must go out there. Think beyond profits and think about how to sustain your business and impact society,” Mwijukye said. Set against the backdrop of women adapting ICTs to boost their different businesses, the evening at Kampala Serena Hotel last month, brought together both professional and business women, as well as a few men, to sip from the wisdom of different experiences. Right from the former finance minister Maria Kiwanuka, to the admirable panellists, the speakers quipped that technology goes a long way to improve one’s business, especially the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), giving them a competitive edge and also helping one minimise costs. Data from Uganda Communications Commission puts the number of internet users in the country at 8.5 million, thus women in business are able to take advantage of this fast growing technology to provide business solutions. The panel, moderated by Marketing and communications specialist Susan Nsibirwa comprised Knight Frank’s managing director Judy Kyanda, TradeMark Africa Country director Allen Asiimwe, MTN’s chief marketing officer Mapula Bodibe...

A new report unveiled at the ongoing African Development Week meeting at Addis Ababa indicated the cross-border movements were easiest between Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. EAC's leadership in integration, which identified various matrices including roaming costs and volume of trade, is a major indicator towards achieving the dream of a unified Africa by 2063. "Deeper regional integration means larger markets and industrialisation and productivity as part of value chains," said Erastus Mwencha, the deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission, adding: "It means talent mobility thanks to greater visa openness." Kenyan citizens, for instance, only need to produce their national identification documents to enter any of the countries in the bloc, while work permit requirements are minimal as the region works towards the dream of a common currency. A regional parliament made of 54 members, which has been sitting since November 2001, is charged with streamlining the respective country laws with the vision of the five-member community. Several firms have had their shares cross-listed at the various stock exchanges. Integration in the EAC was ranked ahead of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc where Tanzania has a cross-membership. South Africa is the most developed economy in the trading bloc, and is naturally the biggest exporter into the 15-member community. Africa's largest bloc, the Community of Sahel–Saharan States (Cen-Sad), which draws membership from 27 countries in the northern part of the continent including Kenya and Somalia, is ranked worst. Among the reason for the poor score is the...