The Horn of Africa coast is strategically important because it is on the Bab al Mandab Strait and Indian Ocean coast where nearly 20 percent of the world trade and maritime shipping pass through. Thanks to their sea port developments, it is set to be the gateway and the link that connects the sub-Saharan Africa to this international trade route, Suez Canal and the Arabian Peninsula on the opposite side of the Red Sea. The mercantile shipping vessels plying along the Bab el Mandeb can now drop their transit consignments at any of the Red Sea or Horn of Africa ports. Similarly, export goods from sub-Saharan Africa and their imports from the rest of the world can easily be picked or delivered from these ports and hauled across to central and West Coast of Africa by existing railways or roads. Recently, the significance of the Horn of Africa and its sea ports was boosted by the discoveries of oil, gas and other extractive minerals in the sub-Saharan Africa countries. Huge exploitations of the same are now in progress in Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, DR Congo and Kenya; among others. Additionally, the coastal Horn of Africa countries are experiencing a relative peace renaissance that has enabled development of their Ports and Roads developments not realised in the last 50 years. Hitherto, these countries were ravaged by civil and territorial wars, military rules and instabilities that hindered their endeavour to address their national development challenges. This peace...

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...

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:...

A new ‘ultramodern’ cruise terminal at Kenya’s port of Mombasa is 98% complete, according to a report by Tourism Update. The terminal will have a passenger reception facility, restaurants shops, office space and conference facilities. It’s hoped that the terminal, which is being constructed by the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in partnership with Trademark East Africa, will help the Kenyan government’s drive to grow tourism in the country. New cruise terminal building. Image credit: Kenya Port Authority Although the date has not been announced yet, it’s expected that the terminal will be commissioned early in 2020. Earlier this year, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, Najib Balala, said that Kenya would like to tap into the rapidly growing cruise industry. With around 76 million travellers using cruise lines every year, cruise tourism is on the rise globally. The MS Albatros, which is operated by Phoenix Reisen, docked at Mombassa’s new cruise ship terminal in November, bringing over 400 tourists and 300 crew members to the port. According to Tourism Update, ‘two more vessels are expected before the end of the year.’ ‘The KPA has prioritised cruise ships calling at the port of Mombasa due to the high impact created in the coastal region by the arrival of such ships. The KPA has committed its resources to modernise the cruise terminal to meet international standards,’ said Daniel Manduku, MD of KPA. According to Africaports.co.za, the Port of Mombasa is located on the site of one of Africa’s oldest surviving harbours and can be traced...

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...

President Uhuru Kenyatta has termed current trade agreements with the European Union as largely imbalanced. Delivering his maiden address as the incoming president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), he said the EU had been a long time export destination for products from the 79-member state group, but lamented the fact that the relationship has not always favoured the members. “For a long time, our relationship has been focused on sustainable development, poverty reduction, integration of the ACP in the global economy and access to development funding, especially from the EU,” President Kenyatta said. The ACP is holding its ninth summit at Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi. The summit, which started Monday and ends on Tuesday, has attracted 18 heads of state, several ministers, EU representatives and other top ranking officials from member states and development partners. Among the key issues under review at the conference are the revised agreements signed in Georgetown that created the ACP, an organisation that aims to ensure sustainable development and poverty reduction within its members. Source: Daily Nation

Trade and Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya says that Kenya is negotiating for a Free Trade Agreement with several African nations. The Agreement that brings together 44 African countries and about 1 billion consumers will boost Kenya’s exports with target countries expected to have signed the agreement by July 2020. Furthermore, Munya stated that bilateral agreements with East African Community members had brought on board 150 million consumers. Trade agreements with the United States such as the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) are likely to grant Kenyan products duty-free access to the American market. Kenya being a member of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has access to 500 million potential customers. The agreement presents new markets for Kenya’s agricultural and industrial products Source: Kenyan WallStreet

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 tonnes of cargo ferried on Kenya's standard gauge railway freight service rose about 12 percent in the first nine months of the year, new economic data shows on Thursday. The train ferried about 3.26 million tonnes of cargo from the port of Mombasa to the Inland container depot in Nairobi, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data revealed. This was an increase from 2.92 million tonnes of cargo that was ferried in the corresponding period in 2018. The bulk of the cargo was transported in August, with the service clocking 430,450 tonnes, while the least in February at 313,936 tonnes, KNBS data indicates. The cargo ferried in the nine months generated a revenue of 7.54 billion shillings (about 75 million U.S. dollars), according to KNBS. Passenger numbers during the period were almost flat, however, with the train ferrying 1.18 million people between Nairobi and Mombasa in the months to September. Both the cargo and passenger services of the train dubbed Madaraka Express remain popular in Kenya, with the later set to boom this December as holidaymakers travel to the coast. Source: Xinhuanet

Kenya is negotiating with 44 African states for a new Free Trade Area for its agricultural and industrial products targeting a market of one billion people, Trade, Industrialization and Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya has revealed. Munya said he was optimistic that all the target countries will assent to the Free Trade Area Treaty by July 2020 which will enable trade and other commercial activities to kick off among member states signatories to the agreement. At the same time, the Cabinet Secretary further stated that Kenya had entered into a new trade agreement with the United States of America (USA) where the two countries’ bilateral engagements had been upgraded to strategic status. Speaking in Nakuru when he presided over the inauguration of a Sh1.2 billion ultra-modern animal feeds manufacturing plant owned by consumer goods producer BIDCO Africa Group, Munya said favourable trade agreements within the East African Community (EAC) had exposed Kenya’s products to a market of 150 million people. “The new flow of local and foreign investments into the manufacturing sector in Nakuru is a blessing to both the region and Kenya as industrialization is the driving force for any economy. We need to create reliable regional and international markets for our goods and services if the economy is to grow,” he said. “No country has grown without industrialization, and no Industrialization is sustainable without reliable markets. Our negotiating teams have also ensured that our products easily access the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) without unnecessary...