THE East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers has been tasked to furnish the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) with comprehensive reports on regular basis about implementation of pillars of integration. Specifically, the ministers are supposed to inform the august House on each partner state’s status in relation to progress in execution of the Customs Union Protocol and the Common Market Protocol. The resolution was moved by Dr Abdullah Hasnuu Makame (Tanzania Constituency) and adopted by the House. It further wants the Council of Ministers to direct all partner states to fully implement the Customs U nion Protocol by June 2020 and the Common Market Protocol, a year later. The House further urges the Secretary General, (Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko) to furnish the House with comprehensive reports on the implementation of the Food Security Action Plan, the Climate Change Policy and the Industrialisation Policy and Strategy. The Council of Ministers is also encouraged to develop Comprehensive Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting frameworks that would track implementation of major actions to be taken and adopted by the Summit of EAC Heads of State and other organs. According to Dr Makame, it is only the Customs Union Protocol that has a stipulated Treaty Timeframe under Article 75(7 ), with the Treaty documenting a period of four years in which to conclude it. He informed the House that, Article 7 7 of the Treaty forecast on the establishment of a Common Market through a Protocol that would be concluded without prescribing a timeframe to achieve...

Trade between the East African Community partner states is projected to grow by between five to eight per cent annually if countries fully implement joint policies and regulations, exploit individual competitive edge and eliminate non-trade barriers. Speaking at the bloc’s 20th anniversary, Nicholas Nesbitt, the chairman of the East African Business Council said East Africans, especially private sector players, now need to reflect on how far they have lived up to the ethos of regional integration. EAC is one of the continent’s fastest-growing regional blocs, registering an economic growth of 5.7 per cent in 2018. “The private sector should be a key partner in the integration process, providing the agenda for economic and social integration but most important, the region should look to becoming a single trading bloc,” said Mr Nesbitt, adding that both the partner states and private sector should expedite the domestication and implementation of harmonised policies. He commended the progress made so far in the improved movement of goods and people because, “starting with the informal sector, it is now easier to access cross border markets; work permit restrictions have been relaxed and professionals and companies are able to expand and establish their customer base.” However, he said intra-EAC trade volumes have not reached desired levels, at just 12 per cent, yet it has the potential to grow at between five and 10 per cent annually. Source: The East African

Most sad to say, Tanzania has lost to the Grim Reaper one of its most illustrious pillars in entrepreneurship and the private sector in general, Ali Mufuruki, who died yesterday in Johannesburg. The holder of a BSc degree (1986) in mechanical design engineering from Reutlingen University in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Mufuruki was a prosperous businessman, founder and board member-cum-chairman-cum-trustee of several flourishing entities in and outside Tanzania. Mufuruki was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the Infotech Investment Group family business; the founding chairman of CEO Roundtable of Tanzania (CEOrt), Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI East Africa), and Nairobi-based Msingi East Africa Ltd. He also served as board chairman of Vodacom Tanzania; Wananchi Group Holdings; a trustee of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS-SA); TradeMark Africa (Nairobi); Chai Bora Ltd; a trustee of Trustee ATMS Foundation and AMSCO (The Netherlands) and Legacy Capital Partners Ltd. Mufuruki also served at one time or another as council member-cum-chairman of the Grants Committee of the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences; chairman of the Tanzania Public Safety Trust Fund; Partner of East Africa Capital Partners (Kenya); Member of the Tanzania National Business Council, and of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Advisory Group on sub-Saharan Africa (AGSA). In early 2016, Mufuruki was appointed co-chairman of the UK Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the impact of UK Aid for Africa Free Trade Initiative (AFTI). Also, he co-authored a 2017 book with Rahim Mawji, Gilman Kasiga and Moremi Marwa titled Tanzania’s Industrialisation Journey, 2016-2056:...

Africa’s future growth depends on policies that allow free movement and enable young people to look for opportunities beyond national borders. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) secretary-general Mukhisa Kituyi said at the ongoing Kusi Ideas Festival at Intare Arena in Kigali that the continent currently has a generation of young people who were more interested in collaborations than competition. Dr Kituyi spoke on the panel discussion themed, ‘Borderless Africa and why it is a winner’, that also featured Linus Gitahi, a board member of Msingi East Africa, and Rwanda Development Board chief executive Clare Akamanzi. “These young people look for opportunities beyond national frontiers. They overlook analogue boundaries and all the physical boundaries as they chase their dreams. This is the future and governments now need to create policies for them to ease travel, access and movement across the continent,” Dr Kituyi said. The panellists challenged Africa’s leaders to open up their borders to migrants and allow them to thrive within the continent as opposed to being self-centred and closed up, putting restrictive travel and migration policies. “We need to understand that almost 53 percent of migrant movements is intra-African and for Africa, we should take advantage of this. “Migrants are good both for the country they move to in terms of new and fresh human resource and also the countries they come from, through remittances. We need to encourage that,” Dr Kituyi said. “The millennials want to trade the way they go about their activities in...

EAST African businesswomen are calling for the establishment of a digital economy to facilitate women doing business in the region. The women who met here last week under the auspices of the East African Women in Business Platform (EAWiBP) observed that they still lacked skills of doing business using digital economy. They also decried the lack of regional accreditation for Women in business and the lack trust when doing online business among business women. “We are calling the six partner states to establish a digital platform for showcasing products and services to boost regional trade and develop an EAC business accreditation policy,” outlined Ms Nancy Gitonga, the platform’s regional coordinator while delivering the recommendations from women in business focal points from the six partner states at a consultative workshop on mainstreaming gender-related challenges in the EAC regional agenda. The East African businesswomen opined that creating a database for the service providers as business centre will help them access business services across EAC partner states. They also rooted for the formulation of a creative technological based service platform for linking farmers and traders for enhancing trade as well as establishing women in business innovation and incubation hubs within the EAC. “There’s limited digital infrastructure that can benefit women small and medium entrepreneurs there it is equally important to have such platforms,” suggested the EAWIBP regional coordinator. EAWiBP also wants the inclusion of its members in the EAC Common External Tariff(CET) review team. Among other things, the review team will seek to...

The East African Community Secretariat and the EAC GIZ programme supporting East African Integration on behalf of the German Government, today signed an implementation agreement worth US$16 million for continuing support for EAC regional integration through their SEAMPEC and Pandemic Preparedness programmes. The programmes are managed through the EAC-GIZ partnership to continue to grow regional economic and social integration which already has a significant impact in the region. The Support to East African Market Driven and People Centred Integration East Africa (SEAMPEC) programme, through its multiple cross-cutting initiatives, takes a holistic approach to regional integration that encompasses civil society as well as the public and private sectors. Through targeted work in sectors including agro-processing, pharmaceuticals as well as services sectors such as tourism and ICT, SEAMPEC aims to facilitate the improvement of framework conditions to help create more competitive industries and cross border opportunities. “GIZ and the Secretariat have been developing and managing key projects working with partners across the EAC region with a focus on making the Common Market, Customs Union and integration a reality. Through the SEAMPEC programme many businesses and civil society organisations have all benefited from collaborating on the ground and high-level networking and coalition activities. We are proud to continue to implement programmes which are showing real results and bringing tangible benefits to the citizens of the EAC,” said Dr Mike Falke, GIZ Country Director for Tanzania and EAC. Another US$3 million of the funding are going towards the ‘Support to Pandemic Preparedness in the EAC Region’...

The recent 20th anniversary of the East African Community (EAC) was marked by a High Level Business and Investment Summit, hosted by the East African Business Council (EABC). In his keynote opening speech Hon Professor Kabudi, Tanzania’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, cited Mwalimu Nyerere’s view that “East Africa integration is a necessity not a choice”! But, Hon Kabudi cautioned that to make the integration aspiration achievable it had to be people centred, and private sector driven. Whilst the EAC has come a long way, and indeed is still the most cohesive regional economic community in Africa, there was acknowledgement that it should have progressed further - for example, intra-EAC trade currently stands at only around 12 per cent, whereas in the EU it is over 70 per cent. Greater integration both at the EAC level, and going forward at the Africa level (courtesy of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), is seen as a key enabler in relation to industrialisation aspirations. Some challenging questions were raised: Why not make it easier to fly within the region? Why is it so expensive to roam? Why not respect each other’s standards? And importantly, can we not accept an approach on regulation (for example, local content) or taxation (for example, excise duty) where “local” is defined to be East African? Certainly, in the long term protective measures do not help as they tend to work against enhanced efficiency and ultimately competitiveness. Source: The Citizen

THE East African regional economic and social integration agenda received a major boost on Thursday following the German’s Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ ) 29.8bn/- ($ 13m) commitment to the East African Community (EAC). The grant aims to support the community through the East African Market Driven and People Centered Integration East African (SEAMPEC) which focuses on trade and value addition. Speaking here shortly after sealing the agreement, GIZ Country Director, Dr Mike Falke noted that the SEAMPEC programme, through its multiple cross-cutting initiatives, takes a holistic approach to regional integration that encompasses civil society as well as public and private sectors among partner states. The GIZ boss exuded optimism that through targeted work in agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, tourism and Information and communications technology (ICT) SEAMPEC will facilitate the improvement of framework conditions to help create more competitive industries and cross border opportunities. “GIZ and the secretariat have been developing and managing key projects working with partners across the EAC region with a focus on making the common market, customs union and integration a reality,” explained Dr Falke. He further revealed that many businesses and civil society organizations had all benefitted from SEAMPEC through collaborating on the ground and high-level networking and coalition activities. “We are proud to continue to implement programmes which are showing results and tangible benefits EAC residents,” he added. Meanwhile, the EAC Secretariat and GIZ inked a 6.8bn/- ($ 3mn) agreement that will be channeled towards supporting pandemic preparedness among the six member states. The project which...

The movement of workers from lower to higher productivity employment is essential for growth in low income countries. However, even with this movement economic structures have changed very little and this has been a concern for economists and policy analysts. Historically, manufacturing drove economic transformation in many developed nations but today new technologies have spawned a growing number of services and agro-industries including agriculture. They are tradable, have high value added per worker and can absorb large number of moderately skilled workers. Like manufacturing they benefit from technological change, productivity growth. One of the changes emerging in Africa is Manufacturing led transformation of East Asia, ICT-based services, and tourism and transport are outpacing the growth of manufacturing in many African countries. Between 1998-2015, services exports grew more than six times faster than merchandise exports. Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa have vibrant ICT based services. Tourism is Rwanda’s largest single export activity accounting for about 30 percent of total exports, in 2014, 9.5 million tourists visited South Africa contributing three percent to its GDP. Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal all actively participate in global horticulture value addition chain. Ethiopia has achieved extraordinary success in flowers exports, so much so that the country is now a global player in the sector. Kenya has achieved extraordinary success in Tea exports and the country is a global player in the sector. It's possible to develop a strategy for structural transformation based on three factors that have largely shaped the global distribution of manufacturing,...

The European Union and COMESA have signed 8.8 million Euros Contribution Agreement to increase private sector participation in sustainable regional and global value chains through improved investment/business climate and enhanced competitiveness in the COMESA region. The funds will be used to implement the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Program (RECAMP), focusing on agro-processing, horticulture and leather products. RECAMP will also support pre-selected value chains based on the potential to generate value addition, job creation and attraction of investments to the region. The EU Ambassador to Zambia and Permanent Representative to COMESA, HE Jacek Jankowski and Secretary-General to COMESA Chileshe Kapwepwe signed the Agreement. RECAMP will address critical issues, such as the provision of business information, facilitating market linkages, harmonizing regional industrial policies and creating a conducive business environment to attract investments. It will strive to ensure collaboration with activities of national trade support institutions and business development and service organizations in the Member States as they provide services to value chains as part of their mandate. These include product development; facilitate technology transfer, provision of business intelligence and connection to buyers. The program will identify champions or lead firms within the selected value chains that have both backward and forward linkages with SMEs and other intermediary firms in order to enhance effect coordination reduce coordination failures and improve competitiveness. In her remarks, Ms Kapwepwe said the program will make efforts to enhance the capacities and skills of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to make them capable players in...