Recently, there has been a widespread recognition towards agriculture as an engine of growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.  Yet the sector keeps under performing in many parts of our continent and other developing countries. Globally, women produce 50% of global food products and comprise, on average, 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries according to FAO statistics. In African countries, according to the UNDP, the economic and social discrimination against women actually costs Africa USD 105 billion a year or 6% of the continent’s annual Gross Domestic Product(GDP). In Tanzania, agriculture is a principal source of income and livelihood for about 65% of the population contributing an estimated 30%to the GDP. There is a greater participation of women than men in the sector split 81% and 73% respectively -the number increases to 98% for women in rural areas. Many of the world’s poorest countries rely on traditional agricultural crops for export however,it has been proven that participation in high-value export commodity chains such as horticulture and fisheries provides considerable opportunities for growth and poverty reduction. An analysis conducted by International Trade Center Non-Tariff Measures Surveys across 20 countries in 2015 revealed that when it comes to gender parity, far fewer women owned businesses are engaged in international trade than those owned by men. Diversification into high-value agricultural exports has been cited as a key means of linking the world’s rural poor to global markets. But how do we unlock this potential of agriculture for improved livelihoods...

Kenya and Ethiopia set to explore bilateral grain trade opportunities and investments to bridge cross border trade gap and enhance food security. A Kenyan delegation will convene in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 22nd to 25th October 2019 on a grain trade mission to explore business opportunities for grain trade and processing between Ethiopia and Kenya. Organized by the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC), the delegation will comprise of grain traders and processors, government officials and logistics companies to facilitate access to key economic and grain trade policies for optimal transport routes and indicative costs solutions respectively. The mission will include a business-to-business meeting in Addis Ababa, an experiential field visit to a grain handling and processing facility in Adama, and a visit to a Commercial Farm in Bahir Dar. Confirming the delegation’s intent to leverage on the existing trade opportunities in Ethiopia , the EAGC Executive Director said that : “Kenya has recently had an increasing demand for grain raw materials for industrial processing particularly soya beans used for processing of soya milk, soya meat and the by products used for animal feeds manufacturing.” Additionally, Kenya has seen several new investments in food and feed grain processing and with an additional demand for grain raw materials which cannot be fulfilled by the domestic production. “The Ethiopian grain market therefore offers a very viable source that can be competitive if well facilitated.” Added Mr.Masila. Ethiopia’s agriculture is largely dominated by the cereal production with major cereals such as wheat, maize, sorghum...

Kenya is pushing to bring on board all East Africa Community member countries to the regional electronic cargo tracking system to streamline cargo transportation and boost tax collection through the Single Customs Territory. Kenya’s National Treasury acting Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani said having all EAC countries using Rects is crucial in avoiding dumping of goods, minimising travel delays, improving cargo security and boosting tax revenues. Speaking at the 2019 taxpayer’s month forum, Mr Yatani said: "Plans are underway to roll out Rects to include South Sudan, Tanzania and ultimately to destinations outside the EAC bloc." But the biggest challenge is that Tanzania has its own electronic cargo tracking system (Tancis), a multi-vendor platform owned by private companies. The push to bring Tanzania on board, in particular, comes at a time when Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are increasingly using the Central Corridor as a viable option than the Northern Corridor via Kenya. While it is clear that South Sudan is set to join Rects as soon as the transitional government is in place this November, negotiations with Tanzania are ongoing. Source: The East Africa

The African continent cannot continue to rely on foreign aid to finance its transformation, President Paul Kagame has said. Kagame was speaking in Abidjan at the 8th CGECI (Confédération Générale des Entreprises de Côte d'Ivoire) Academy, the largest annual gathering of Private Sector in the West African country. The summit brings together the private sector of the West African countries and covers topics such as avenues to grow competitiveness, relevance and growth among other topics. "We have to reach a point where our countries have the capacity to finance our own transformation. Development aid has been useful and it continues to be useful, especially when we work to get the most impact out of every cent that we receive. But the point has never been to remain dependent forever when we have always had the potential to be wealthy ourselves," Kagame said during the keynote address. Rather than continuously look to other countries for aid, Kagame said that there are more productive ways for Africa to partner with various countries and regions for mutual benefit. This year's conference is themed around creating a conducive business climate. To create a more conducive business climate, Kagame said deliberation among public and private sector from various countries are crucial to share connections and experiences. "One way to advance this cause, is through forums like this one. Coming together here, we make useful connections, share experiences, and learn from each other. The starting point is ensuring that relevant actors in both the public and...

Duplicate standards and regulations across different state agencies are stifling businesses and investments in the country, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has warned. The UN specialized agency that promotes industrial development yesterday called for harmonization of standards and regulations, both in the private sector and government, to ensure the cost of doing business remains low. According to UNIDO, the private sector has for long suffered from regulations and standards that are similar across the ’numerous’ state agencies, where costs such as licensing and inspection fees are payable. This has continued to ‘punish’ business and the private sector at large, the agency notes. “Government needs to have regulations and standards that address the real problem not just over regulating, it needs to address only the problem, we don’t want laws to become roadblocks we want laws that are facilitative,” said Andrew Edewa, UNIDO standards expert. He spoke during the World Standards Day(2019) celebrations in Nairobi, an event snubbed by the Industry, Trade and Cooperatives CS Peter Munya and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) managing director Bernard Njiraini. According to the UN, there are laws in the health department, trade, industry among other state organs that are duplicated, adding pressure to the private sector. These add to business to business standards which all put together, they are stifling businesses. “The government is speaking tough on their end , private sector has its own business to business standards, the marrying of these two seems to be a problem and it is affecting...

The value of Kenya’s exports to key East African Community’s markets hit a three-year high in first eight months of 2019, official data shows, partly helped by Nairobi’s efforts to ease trade tensions with Tanzania. Earnings from goods sold to Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda stood at Sh77.32 billion in the January-August period, fresh data from the Central Bank of Kenya indicates, a 5.98 percent growth over Sh72.99 billion in similar period in 2018. Kenyan factories have in recent years struggled to grow exports in regional markets largely due to tariff and non-tariff barriers fuelled by mistrust and unresolved trade disputes, particularly with Tanzania and, in some isolated cases, Uganda. Manufacturers have also blamed multiple fees and levies, relatively high power charges and inefficiencies at factories for piling up the cost of production, making locally-made goods expensive in regional markets. Ministries of Trade and EAC Affairs have been reaching out to their counterparts in Tanzania and Uganda with a view to finding a long-lasting solution to on-and-off disputes that usually hit Kenyan products such as confectionery and cement. “The Kenyan team has done a very commendable job in working with the EAC secretariat in bringing both tariff and non-tariff barriers down, and we are also seeing very concerted efforts also on the part of Tanzania to bring these barriers down,” said Sachen Gudka, the chairman of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). Source: Daily News

Kenya  Revenue  Authority (KRA) has urged traders to avoid engaging in smuggling of Goods at the Kenya Tanzanian Border and instead comply with the law by using official border points. The taxman encouraged traders to use the official border points like One Stop Border Points (OSBPs) where Customs officials are ready to assist them by expediting the clearance of their goods. Speaking during an event to mark the Customer Service Week at the Lunga Lunga One Stop Border Post to appreciate KRA Customers and which doubled up as a sensitization forum on the operations of Customs at the Border, the Lunga Lunga OSBP Deputy  Station Manager, Anthony Namboka said the role of Customs is to make it simple for traders to either import or export their Goods and not to frustrate trade. He informed participants at the sensitization forum attended by Clearing and forwarding agents, transporters, importers and other stakeholders that those who import goods from Tanzania and other East Africa community member states are exempted from paying import duty as long as they produce a certificate of origin to confirm where they imported the goods. The  Deputy  Station Manager, said  the Authority is also keen to empower small scale traders asking those who deal with importation of cereals from  EAC member states to obtain simplified certificates of origin from the source of the imports to be facilitated to move the produce. Namboka  said importation and exportation along the border is simple and there is no need for traders to use...

Indications are that the first berth of the new Lamu Port is nearly ready for business, with other reports indicating that highway infrastructure to feed and evacuate cargo from the new berth is far from ready - an unfortunate mismatch of project planning and implementation. The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset) corridor project was intended to link Lamu Port to South Sudan via a Lamu-Garissa-Isiolo-Lokichar-Juba highway and to southern parts of Ethiopia via the Isiolo-Moyale road which is already in place. For sustainable business at the new Lamu port the westward-bound highway will need to be constructed sooner than later. The multi-project Lapsset corridor was justified on the wider and longer-term principle of socio-economic opening up of the under-developed northern parts of Kenya through communication, trade, and improved security management. It was justified on economic not financial returns, and the socio-economic benefits are already visible in Lamu County. Benefits to the other counties along the corridor will accrue only when the highway is linked westwards. It was not the intention that the Lamu port competes for business with the Port of Mombasa and its captive Northern Corridor business. Further, the new SGR calls for maximum available cargo from Mombasa port. Using the Lamu port to trans-ship cargo which would otherwise be offloaded at Mombasa for the Northern Corridor appears inefficient and unlikely to pass tests in respect of costs from import ports to final importer location. The Lamu port was predicated mainly on new business opportunities from the neighbouring South Sudan...

President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to commission the second phase of the railway paving the way for passenger and cargo services on the railway line between Nairobi and Naivasha. President Kenyatta is also expected to commission construction of the Nairobi Expressway Project which connects Mombasa Road and Nakuru Highway at Rironi that is projected to cost 50 billion shillings and take 3 years to complete. The 120-kilometer standard gauge railway line between Nairobi and Naivasha connects Mombasa through Nairobi to the resort town of Naivasha, where a dry port is under construction to ease the movement of goods. The Nairobi-Naivasha railway line has been under construction since October 2016 with four stations at Ongata Rongai, Ngong Mai Mahui, and Suswa. The construction of the railway line is being undertaken by the China Communications Construction Company. The project is expected to be commissioned this Wednesday by President Kenyatta at the Suswa station, the largest of the four passenger stations. The contractor has been running trial text in the last one month in readiness to commission the project. Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has said the project has been completed within the budget and agreed time-frame. Some salient features of the line include the longest railway tunnel in Africa at 4.5 kilometers and a 6-kilometer super-bridge over the Nairobi national park. President Kenyatta is further expected to launch the construction of the Mombasa road to Rironi expressway. The 50 billion shillings project first proposed eleven years ago is expected to reduce travel...

As a part of its marketing strategy to promote the newly developed Lamu Port, the Kenya Ports Authority has invited shipping lines to tour the port. According to reports, more than 10 shipping lines have agreed to so far to visit Kenya’s Lamu Port. Edward Kamau, general manager corporate services at the Kenya Ports Authority told the media that, “We are taking the shipping lines to Lamu to see and appreciate the facility and infrastructure that is being put in place ahead of commissioning.” He added,” We also want them to understand what is expected of them once we commence operations at the new port.” The Kenya Ports Authority’s marketing strategy also includes offering promotional tariffs to logistic companies which includes a 30 days free storage period for transshipment and transit cargo, 14 days free storage period for domestic cargo and a 40 percent discount for cargo-based charges as per the Kenya Ports Authority’s tariff. Edward Kamau also revealed that the Kenya Ports Authority will promote Lamu as a transshipment port. Recently, Denmark’s – Maersk, which happens to be the world’s largest container shipping firm agreed to call at Lamu Port. Maersk, which is the largest container ship and supply vessel operator in the world since 1996, will connect the Lamu Port to 300 global ports. The Kenyan government is developing the first three berths at the planned 32-berth port which is part of the Sh2.5 trillion Lamu-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (Lapsset). The project, which was flagged off in 2012,...