Kampala. Organisations should invest more in mentoring women for top leadership position, says a senior United Nations official in Uganda.
Speaking at the fourth annual women leadership conference last week in Kampala, the United Nations Development Programme resident representative in Uganda, Ms Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie, said women are good at reforming and transforming organisations. She said investing in women is not just good for corporate businesses, but also good for growing economies around the world. 
“Invest in gender equity at work place. Institutions/companies that embrace gender diversity on their boards and in management often experience improved performance and profitability as a result,” she said. Source: Daily Monitor

On behalf of the British Government, I congratulate the Kenyan Government on the progress it has made this year to qualify as one of the global top ten reformers on the ease of doing business. The progress that Kenya is making against the Ease of Doing Business indicators may seem very remote from the lives of ordinary Kenyan businesses and households, but is actually very significant for three reasons. Firstly, it can result in increased domestic investment and jobs. Lets take the progressKenya has made in cutting all the red tape around starting a business, which is one of the reforms that the World Bank has recognised. In Mombasa this has brought the time down to get a Business License from 7 days to less than 1 hour, using an online platform. Evidence suggests that this can have a number of benefits: It increases the number of firms entering a market, which increases competition and productivity; it can also incentivize businesses to formalize, since the high costs of doing so are a major reason why Kenya has so many informal firms. This can then give them better access to finance and the opportunity to grow and create more jobs; and as more firms register for businesses, county governments also benefit from increased revenue. The Business permit is already the third most important source for revenue for Mombasa County. So one survey of the global evidence found that a reduction in the time to start a business by a similar amount...

Trade along the Kenya-Uganda border at Busia is set to grow with completion of a one-stop border station by the British government. The structure which will operate 24 hours will be manned by Ugandan and Kenyan customs officers. "Our target is to cut the rate of doing trade in the border by at least 30 per cent. We plan to achieve this by automating the system of clearance and expanding the road that leads the border to a tune of Sh 200 million," said British High Commission Christian Turner during a tour of the area. The British government has set up programmes under the Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) to ease trade between the eight East African countries. "Ports and borders have been barriers to free trade in East Africa. It is 60 per cent more expensive to do business in Kenya and developing states than it is in developed countries," said Frank Matsaert, Chief executive TMA. Source: The Standard

The WTO released online on 29 October 2015 new editions of its key statistical publications: International Trade Statistics, Trade Profiles, World Tariff Profiles and Services Profiles. The four publications provide detailed breakdowns of the latest data on world trade. To mark the 20th anniversary of the WTO, International Trade Statistics 2015looks back at world trade from 1995 to the end of 2014. The publication features a variety of charts to highlight the most noteworthy trends in world trade over the past 20 years. Numerous tables provide more detailed data while a chapter on methodology explains how the data are compiled. The publication is available first in electronic format, with a print version to follow in mid-November. Data can be downloaded from the WTO web site in Excel and PDF formats and from a searchable database as well as from the WTO's International Trade and Market Access Data online application. French and Spanish versions of the publication will be available online shortly. We invite you to provide your feedback on the publication by filling in the ITS 2015 Survey. World Tariff Profiles 2015 provides a unique collection of data on tariffs imposed by WTO members and other economies. It is jointly published by the WTO, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The first part of the publication provides summary tables showing the average tariffs imposed by individual economies. The second part provides a more detailed table for each economy, listing the tariffs it...

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Spintelligent, a major business consultancy in sub-Saharan Africa, is helping to organise the next AgriBusiness Congress East Africa set for next January in Dar es Salaam. The consultancy has said agriculture is the newest addition to Spintelligent’s portfolio of conferences and exhibitions. Shanaaz Adams, Agribusiness Congress East Africa event director said last week, “The enthusiasm with which the agricultural industry and regional authorities have embraced Agribusiness Congress East Africa right from the launch of this event, shows that we are addressing a real need in the sector for a meeting place for private and public sector stakeholders throughout the East African region, key decision makers, industry suppliers and farmers of all scales, to discuss critical issues facing the sector, learn from case studies and network.” In a statement in run-up to the two-day event at Dar’s Mlimani Conference Centre Spintelligent saud: ‘The agriculture sector is regarded as one of the most critical industries for the African continent due to its economic potential, projected as a $1 trillion industry in Sub-Saharan Africa alone by 2030.  Adams said: “Growth corridors have been identified across several regions in many East African countries. With advantageous policies, ample arable land, a stable economy and government, and a renewed focus on agriculture, Tanzania is a model East African country.” ‘Spintelligent’s agriculture events connect agricultural professionals – from small farmers to commercial farming enterprises – to industry experts, leading global equipment and machinery suppliers, seed and agrochemical producers, irrigation and water management...

ARUSHA, TANZANIA - The East African Community (EAC), is pushing for a long-term preferential trade agreement with the United States to eliminate the fear of unilateral withdrawal of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) by the Federal government. Trade  between the EAC and the US reached $2.8 billion in 2014. The US exported $2 billion worth of goods ,but only imported $743 million in items. EAC believes the limitation of AGOA is that it is unilateral and can be withdrawn anytime. This year the US extended the AGOA up to September 30, 2025, but the EAC thinks that this span of 10 years is insufficient for increasing trade volume by leaps and bounds. Hence, the EAC recently submitted its plea to Michael Froman, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on the modus operandi and the time to begin negotiations on the pact. According to sources, the Community is looking for a trade partnership similar to the one it shares with EU. This provides protection against undue competition. The EAC also believes it has not been able to utilise the US quota-free market under AGOA since the agreement does not match the World Trade Organization’s structure for free trade agreements due to its 10-years duration of operations. Source: East African Business Week

President Kenyatta is right. The East African Community and the whole integration project needs ideas that spark the imagination. This should not be a one-off thing, but a permanent campaign to drum into the people of East Africa how economic integration can change their lives for the better. From my observations, occasionally we hear of awareness campaigns that come and go, but leave no lasting impact. We need noise. With such things as social media, I am sure we can do better. Source: East African Business Week

There are growing worries that even though the East African bloc continues to integrate, the rise of anti-competitive trade habits is bound to make it difficult for other companies to join the region. Some countries within the region continue to grapple with coming up with strong competition laws as they try to strike a balance between protecting their indigenous firms and attracting foreign companies. Ms Tania Begazo, a senior economist, Competition Policy Cluster, Trade and Competitiveness, World Bank Group, argues that opening markets and removing anticompetitive sectoral regulation will safeguard and encourage competition in the East African Community. “Competition is an ingredient for economic growth. You can’t attract investment if you are not competitive. Tackle cartel agreements that raise the cost of key inputs and final products, and prevent anticompetitive mergers,” she said. She was speaking at the EACOMP regional advocacy workshop organised by CUTS Nairobi with support from TradeMark Africa (TMA) in Arusha recently. As competition deepens, anticompetitive practices such as predatory pricing - where large firms with strong financial muscle collude to sell their goods or services below the cost of production - could make it difficult for other companies to enter the market. In his analytical report, Should EAC Regulate Competition?, Alloys Mutabingwa, the former EAC deputy secretary General, argued that countries needed to create a free and fair environment that promoted competition. “Whereas competition among firms is a precursor to economic development, a competition culture that is characterized by high levels of cartelization, heavy-handed government intervention,...

NAIROBI, KENYA - President Uhuru Kenyatta last week told regional legislators the East African integration message was not getting across fast enough and asked for more momentum from all concerned.  Quat “I wish to make it clear that we who are convinced of the imperative of integration must communicate it better to our people. Too often, the integration of East Africa is taken to be merely a political matter - a job for politicians, not ordinary people. True, leaders must lead.  But we have failed to spark the imaginations of East Africans when it comes to integration,” he said last week while addressing the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in Nairobi. He asked on the Assembly to consolidate its work on the integration process.  President Kenyatta further said the citizens of the region were yearning to freely move, work and enjoy the tangible benefits of integration. The President was addressing a Special Sitting of the 2nd Meeting of the 4thSession of the 3rd Assembly. Keanyatta reiterated his commitment and that of his government to the integration process. “I will begin by repeating my Government’s complete commitment to East African integration. I know that the future of each of us in the region is bound up with the fate of all the rest.  Leaders must create the laws, the institutions, and the framework that will help us face that future together. Kenya will play its part in that great task,” he said. According to a press release, the President further urged...

As long as not enough momentum is built up over the East African economic integration ideal, the issue of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) is likely to stay with us for sometime to come. It is easy for politicians to pay lip service to these great ideals. Technically that is their job. For people on the ground it can be a totally different story. Here we are talking about protection of jobs and livelihood. Paradoxically, it is also frequently the same politicians who shout for the elimination of NTBs who then turn around and tell their people to ignore what they are saying in public. Most trade barriers are put up in response to competition or specifically fear of competition. NTBs are a  favourite tool, because the government can think of plenty of other reasons to impose them other than competition. They can also cite unfair competition when one government subsidies the production of an enterprise. It is well and good that there is a mobile phone system that allows one to report NTBs in real time. But dismantling NTBs will only quicken when all EAC governments are singing the same song of ‘free trade across  borders’. This is not to say that there are no genuine reasons why one product or commodity should not be restricted. But let us not use these same genuine reasons to impose NTBs out of fear of competition. On paper, the East African Community Treaty is a momentous collection of what can define a great undertaking. You...