Agriculture accounts for 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of EA and it employs over 60% of the population of East Africa. In East Africa, it is reported to have annual value of $50b and this represents a 75% of the Agricultural products being traded from the commodities like maize, rice, potatoes, cassava, beans, wheat among others. Agricultural performance is critically important to pro-poor growth since it employs over 75% of EAC member population, where the majority of them live in rural settings. The sector provides a basis for improvement of livelihoods in both rural and urban populations. Despite the importance of the sector to the EAC economies, reviews of public expenditures and programmes that was recently conducted by Civil Society Budget group and other partners like Action Aid, Uganda Debt Network, Food Rights Alliance and ESAFF, indicates that, the input and output from Agriculture has continuously kept declining where inputs being the lowest in the sectors of the economy and is registered being below the National Development Plan target of 4.9% for the case of Uganda. Besides the decline in the East Africa member states with an exception of Rwanda have not prioritised Agriculture in their public spending to the extent that the sector receives less than 4% of the national budgets. This, therefore, calls for the Government and other partners to ensure that there is increased public financing for the sector in East Africa and need to invest more in Agriculture to better support the economies. The...

The irking story of high costs of doing business in the East African region is slowly changing to high returns, thanks to the implementation of the Single Customs Territory (SCT). At the bottom line is the execution of the Customs Union Treaty that seeks to promote cross border trade and attract investment into the enlarged regional market with minimal formalities in customs clearance. The Director for Taxpayer Services and Education at the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Richard Kayombo said in an interview that the system started with few goods and the number is progressively being increased to full-fledged. Kayombo also said that some of the goods that were assessed during the piloting period include rice, maize, sugar, neutral spirits, cigarettes, petroleum products, wheat, salt, edible oil and pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. “The story has changed in many aspects. For example, we currently talk of three-day travel from Dar es Salaam port to Kigali and only three blocks up to the Rwanda border,” he said. He said also that at the first point of entry, depending on the level of risk, customs officers from the destination country, who are posted at the first point of entry, can subject the goods to physical examination before release. He added, the system has called to an end cheating and dumping of transit goods into the local market because the cargo clearance goes together with the payment of all taxes. Customs declarations are made electronically and processed and released by the authorities from the country...

East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania: 28 May 2015: The Chairperson of the Summit of the EAC Heads of State H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has convened an Emergency Summit on the situation in Burundi to take place on Sunday, 31 May 2015 in Dar es Salaam, The United Republic of Tanzania. The Emergency Summit is a follow-up to the 13th Extraordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State held on 13 May 2015 also in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Emergency Summit shall be preceded by a meeting of Ministers/Cabinet Secretaries of the EAC Partner States to take place on Saturday, 30 May 2015 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, is among the leaders that have been invited to attend the Emergency Summit on Burundi. Others include South Africa’s President H.E. Jacob Zuma and Angolan President H.E. Eduardo dos Santos, who is the current chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICLGR).The Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) will be represented by his envoy to the Great Lakes region.​ Media Alert All Foreign and Local Journalists intending to cover the Emergency Summit are alerted that the Accreditation Process will commence from tomorrow, Friday, 29 May 2015 at the Maelezo offices (Tanzania Information Services-TIS) located on 9th Floor of the Golden Jubilee Towers on Ohio Street in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Source: East African Community

After 30 days of demonstrations and police confrontations following Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza's gamble for a third presidential term, 25 people are reported to have been killed. The wounded are reportedly standing at 450. Concerns are mounting in Burundi and around the world about the risks of the conflagration in the country and the Great Lakes region. The East African Community (EAC), of which Burundi is one of five members, comes under increasing pressure from the African Union, the United Nations and Burundi bilateral partners, to take action. In fact, the Burundi crisis puts EAC members in a quandary. They could push Nkurunziza out or let him proceed to elections. Whichever option they take, they know that it will be precedent setting in the broader region. An EAC summit on Burundi is scheduled for Sunday in Dar es Salaam, 18 days after the first was called off amidst an attempted military coup in Bujumbura. The request by protesters that Nkurunziza withdraws from the presidential race is based on the Accord for Peace and Reconciliation in Burundi signed in Arusha, Tanzania (the Arusha Accord), in August 2000. It clearly states: "No one may serve more than two presidential terms." A six-hour drive from Bujumbura, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, reflects the dilemma facing the region. An Africanness champion, Museveni chaired and led the "Regional Initiative for Burundi" which for eight years, managed to broker the difficult Arusha Peace Accord. For the Ugandan leader and for Africa, giving in to Nkurunziza's third term...

Arusha — East African Community (EAC) Secretariat staff have been advised to cut out unnecessary travel. In the run-up to the 2015/16 budget being passed last week, a report of the General Purpose Committee (GPC), presented by the Chair Dr. Odette Nyiramilimo suggested the need to further curtail excess travel and enhance implementation of the decisions and directives of the Council of Ministers. Consequently the Committee called for more Video Conferencing and that all departments within the EAC should adjust their budgets to reflect the same. In its report the Committee also expressed concerns that the social sectors at the EAC have been chronically underfunded over time. Committee members called for the re-allocation to the extent possible in order to restore some activities of the sector to allow for their effective implementation. The GPC also wants an overall strengthening of EAC Sensitisation policy and the requisite prioritization in funding. "While the Committee has previously recommended strengthening of the Corporate Communications Department to be able to spearhead the process, the Committee is of the view that efforts have to be enhanced and funding increased to facilitate Organs and Institutions to optimally participate both jointly and as entities, in the sensitization of East Africans," a section of the report reads. Dr Nyiramilimo also calls for improvement of the conditions of service and emoluments of the EAC Staff to make the Institution more competitive and to retain the best caliber of staff. The Committee raises concern over the impending high number of staff...

Agriculture accounts for 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of EA and it employs over 60% of the population of East Africa. In East Africa, it is reported to have annual value of $50b and this represents a 75% of the Agricultural products being traded from the commodities like maize, rice, potatoes, cassava, beans, wheat among others. Agricultural performance is critically important to pro-poor growth since it employs over 75% of EAC member population, where the majority of them live in rural settings. The sector provides a basis for improvement of livelihoods in both rural and urban populations. Despite the importance of the sector to the EAC economies, reviews of public expenditures and programmes that was recently conducted by Civil Society Budget group and other partners like Action Aid, Uganda Debt Network, Food Rights Alliance and ESAFF, indicates that, the input and output from Agriculture has continuously kept declining where inputs being the lowest in the sectors of the economy and is registered being below the National Development Plan target of 4.9% for the case of Uganda. Besides the decline in the East Africa member states with an exception of Rwanda have not prioritised Agriculture in their public spending to the extent that the sector receives less than 4% of the national budgets. This, therefore, calls for the Government and other partners to ensure that there is increased public financing for the sector in East Africa and need to invest more in Agriculture to better support the economies. The...

Volatility of the local currency stems from the global financial crisis, worsened by the shilling’s turmoil domestically in 2011, insecurity and closing down of several forex bureaus. Recovery lies in avoiding excessive turbulence and minimising the negative impacts on investor opportunities and risks, write Dr Mbui Wagacha (top) and Dr Eric Aligula (bottom) Three key factors determine a country’s exchange rate:the relative purchasing power of its currency; its investment opportunities and risks; and its demand for goods and services. Against this background there is reason to ponder the recent depreciation of the Kenyan shilling. This year, it has shed approximately 5.1 per cent of its value against the US dollar, compared with annual declines of 4.8 per cent, 0.27 per cent, 1.1 per cent, 5.29 per cent, and 6.48 per cent for 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively. The current global exchange rate scene is rooted in the financial turbulence of 2007/2008, the management of the ensuing economic contractions (deflation), and the impacts of policy choices made in major economies to fight the great recession. The US chose its policies wisely. It implemented expansionary but “unconventional” central banking policies combined with an expansionary fiscal stimulus to address financial stability and stimulate the economy by restoring private spending. The policy mix cut interest rates to historic lows but caused capital “spillovers” abroad, especially in the so-called “carry trade”. The policy mix worked to reverse a plunging economy. It yielded a strong recovery and created or saved millions of jobs. The...

A contracting manufacturing does not bode well for the economy and according to the latest economic survey 2015, this is what happened to the industrial sector last year. Growth in the sector was down by 2.2 per cent from 2014. This growth was supported by animal feeds, tobacco products, pharmaceutical products, furniture, fabricated metals and other non metallic mineral products while the shut down of the refinery took its toll on us. For a long time now the country has been running on one engine only, that of domestic consumption. Our biggest export market is the EAC and total trade increased in 2014 which is an improvement. Our exports to the EAC in 2014 recovered somewhat from the drop that was witnessed in 2013 to a total 162,456,423 though not in equal measure to 2012 when we had exports totalling to 165,803,523. A two-year moving average analysis of exports to EAC partner states shows that our exports to Burundi have consistently increased over a period of5 years, while our exports to Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda have been decreasing. We are increasingly importing from Uganda which is now our biggest import market in the region. A positive blip in all this data is that the sector as a whole delivered on its promise to create more jobs. Formal employment increased by 2.9 per cent creating 8,000 new jobs, informal employment created 112,200 new jobs, compensation to employees was up by 11.2 per cent and our imports of industrial machinery increased pointing...

Despite spirited efforts by regional authorities to make the East African Community (EAC) free market protocol succeed, non-tariff barriers remain a stumbling block to integration. An investigation by Sunday Nation at the Isebania border of Kenya and Tanzania showed that the free movement of people, labour, goods and services is being hampered by formalities, multiplicity of institutions, duplication of clearance procedures and limited institutional capacity. Other obstacles are technical requirements and travel restrictions that increase the cost and transit time of goods. Traders interviewed expressed their frustrations, saying they were yet to see meaningful benefits from the EAC. “Harassment and intimidation by authorities of the two countries still remain. We are not seeing any positive change,” said Mr Chacha Mwita, who has been doing business at the border for the past 15 years. “Clearance of goods takes hours despite assurances by the two governments that it should not take more than 30 minutes. We are still far from realising the intended benefits of EAC.” The Sunday Nation observed a long queue of trucks awaiting clearance whose crews had spent days waiting for the green light to proceed. Truck driver Mohammed Abdala, who was heading to Kigali, Rwanda, urged EAC leaders to “come up with practical solutions that will save our valuable time when crossing the borders”. The number of officials working at the border posts should also be increased to cope with the increased workload, he said. Customs officials from both Kenya and Tanzania said they were trying their best...

The East African Community (EAC) has achieved much since being revived in 1999. However, it is now entering a crucial phase that requires greater levels of single-mindedness. Two senior IMF officials PAULO DRUMMOND and ORAL WILLIAMS give their personal views of what is in store in the coming years ahead. The East African Community (EAC)—comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda—has the ambitious goal of introducing a single currency by 2024. This journey towards integration commenced in 2000 and is underpinned by three main protocols: the customs union (2005), the common market (2010), and, more recently, the monetary union (2013). This increasing integration, which the East African heads of state see as steps towards their ultimate goal of a political federation, facilitates the free movement of goods, services, and capital around the region, which in turn improves the welfare of the general population through sustained, durable, and inclusive growth. Economic success As the EAC has improved macroeconomic management as part of the integration process, these efforts have delivered steady growth in real per capita incomes, which have remained above that for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in recent years. The EAC is also the second-fastest growing economic bloc after the Association of South East Asian Nations. Other reasons for the region’s success relate to progress made in financial inclusion in part through e-banking and ease of doing business. The region has attracted some $24 billion in foreign direct investment since 2000. More recently, several countries have become first-time issuers of...