Israel Deputy Ambassador to Kenya Eyal David says that the unit, located at the Embassy of Israel in Kenya, is part of ongoing efforts by his government to enhance relations between Israel and Africa. The Kenya – Israel bilateral relations are set to improve especially in the sharing of experiences, ideas, business and practices in several sectors after Israel opened a commercial regional office in Nairobi. Israel’s success in agriculture despite being majorly a desert is one of the areas that Kenya is set to explore. Speaking at Zetech University in Ruiru, Israel deputy ambassador to Kenya Eyal David said his government remains committed to strengthen trade relations between the two countries. Other areas the two countries are exploring to improve relations include the resumption of direct flights between Kenya and Israel, plans which were temporarily suspended on security grounds. Israel has two other trade attaché units in the continent, namely in South Africa and Ghana with Kenya having the latest unit. Source: KBC

Kenya and South Sudan have said they will continue seeking ways to strengthen trade relations between them.Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma yesterday said they had planned a series of talks ahead of a visit by President Salva Kiir to Nairobi.Dr Juma said Kenya would be seeking to benefit from South Sudan's wealth as a form of payment for her peacekeeping efforts in the country.Juma said among other things, they planned to launch the first ever joint commission for cooperation with Juba. counterpart, Regional Affairs Minister Nhial Deng Nhial, in Nairobi.Juma said also to be discussed during President Kiir's visit would be review of security and management of the border between the two countries.The two delegations will also discuss how to fast-track implementation of the peace process in South Sudan and how Kenya could cooperate on regional infrastructure development.Deng said South Sudan was keen on strengthening “our relationship” as neighbours."We'll also discuss various bilateral agreements and explore ways of working together in the region," Deng said. “As always, we are grateful for Kenya's contribution to South Sudan, key among them peace and security," he said.Also expected to feature in the talks is the ease of movement of persons and goods between the two countries.Since joining the East Africa Community in April 2016, the country has been keen to improve relations with countries in the bloc. Source: Standard Digital

East Africa Community (EAC) States are optimistic that the EAC Standard Gauge Railway once completed in different states, will enhance trading between the members as well as movement of goods and services. Development of railway lines within EAC has been underlined as a means for enhancement of connectivity and linkages between the ports and the inlands to enable cross border trade and heavy industrial development harnessed by the cheaper means of transport. According to the managing director of Kenya Railways, Atanas Maina, the development of the railway transport is one way through which EAC countries can attain middle income status. “The development of standard gauge railway is supposed to provide a transformative land transport infrastructure that will help the region move towards the middle income status” he states Kenya has been at the forefront in implementation of the Northern Corridor Standard Gauge Railway, having completed their part from Mombasa to Nairobi in 2018. Uganda and Rwanda are yet to start on the planned 1,500km-long railway from Mombasa to Kigali Although there have been delays in the implementation of the project, officials at the EAC council are impressed with the EAC states commitment to infrastructure development According to Libe’rat Mfumukeko, the Secretary General EAC, building the SGR remains a priority for all EAC and will be implemented fully as planned “Over the last three to four, most EAC countries have doubled their budgets for Infrastructure Development. This is a very good move because it is through infrastructure that we can push...

Kenya’s main port of Mombasa handled 6.3% more cargo in the last eleven months thanks to higher efficiency, a surge in imports and greater capacity after the port was expanded, the facility’s management said on Monday. The rise in cargoes came despite uncertainty after 75 tax agency staff including customs workers were arrested last month over allegations of fraudulent clearance of merchandise among other charges. Mombasa, a gateway to east and central Africa, processes imports and exports for Kenya and several other countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Burundi. Cargo handled by the port was up 6.3% to 29.8 million tonnes in the eleven months ending May this year compared to the previous period, data released by the port’s management showed. “The positive performance was mainly driven by increased handling (of) cargo for Uganda, D.R.C and South Sudan,” Daniel Manduku, the port’s managing director, said in a report. Container traffic increased by 13.1% to 1.27 million Twenty feet equivalent units (TEUS) over the eleven-month period while cargo destined for other countries was up 10%. Mombasa port underwent expansion works in 2012 that included construction of a new container terminal and dredging to enable bigger vessels access to the port. The first phase of the expansion project partially-financed by Japan was inaugurated in 2016. Kenya is also building a second port in Lamu, north of Mombasa, with a capacity of 23 million tonnes per year. (Editing by Elias Biryabarema, editing by Deepa Babingon) Source: Reuters

the Alliance for Commodity Trade in East and Southern Africa (ACTESA), German Society for International Corporation (GIZ) and the Kenya Agribusiness and Agroindustry Alliance (KAAA), at the 15th CAADP Partnership Platform Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. CABI’s Dr George Oduor, Global Director Value Chains and Trade is leading the side event – entitled ‘Operationalizing AfCFTA – Partnerships and elimination of barriers to trade in Africa’ with a view to addressing some of the key challenges in agricultural value chains. Representatives from participating organizations, which also include various Ministries of Agriculture, FAO, AGRA, Common Market for East and Southern Africa, Economic Commission of West African States, Trademark East Africa and the East African Community (EAC), are taking part in the session which presents African countries and their development and technical partners with the opportunity to reflect together, share best practices and identify strategies and policies to foster integration, enhanced market access and intra-regional trade in agricultural commodities and services. “The agricultural market is growing and is currently estimated at more than US $3 trillion – about 70 percent of this comes from smallholder farmers, who are particularly vulnerable to production challenges including climate change”, said Dr Oduor. “Some of the key questions and talking points which will form the basis of the discussion will look at ways in which we can promote and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality and structural transformation.” Dr Oduor added that international trade and travel have expanded significantly in recent decades – increasing the rate...

Over seven hundred and eighty  micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya’s Lake Region are set to benefit from the new, ultra-modern Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) regional headquarters in Kisumu. The new facility not only houses the KEBS regional offices but is also equipped with four laboratories including Food and Agriculture, Microbiology, Biochemistry and Instrumentation. The laboratories will offer testing, metrology and calibration services to the Lake Region industries including fishing and fisheries, water purification and bottling, tea factories, grains and cereals, sugar, animal feeds, fertilizers and the hospitality sector. Speaking during the official opening of the facility, KEBS Ag. Managing Director Lt. Col (Rtd). Bernard Njiraini reiterated the institution’s commitment to promoting standardization in industry and trade at the county level through investing in requisite resources and infrastructure for standards development, conformity assessment, testing and metrology. “The Kisumu office will ensure that the region receives adequate support and assistance in all KEBS programmes through service delivery particularly in educational institutions and industries. As an institution, we want to ensure that there is efficient and effective service delivery in quality control and product certification in the water packaging and other food industries in the Lake region. This is in alignment with the national plan to standardize products and services in the country both at the national and county level,” said Mr. Njiraini. Over the years, through working with Lake Region stakeholders, KEBS has achieved tremendous success in a number of areas including product certification of Micro, Small and...

On May 30, 2019, the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement secured the minimum threshold of 22 ratifications for its entry into force. Sierra Leone and the Saharawi Republic were the 21st and the 22nd ratifications, required under Article 23 of the AfCFTA Agreement, for it to enter into force thirty days after deposit of the twenty second deposit. The Chairperson of the AUC Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, hailed the two deposits as timely and significant steps towards removing the fragmentation of African economies and markets, a process that is likely to create a large market for trade and investments on the continent. To operationalise the AfCFTA Agreement, the signatories must be ready to adopt supporting instruments (such as rules of origin, schedules of tariff concessions on trade in goods, online non-tariff barriers monitoring and elimination mechanism, digital payments and settlement platform, and African Trade Observatory Portal) to facilitate the launch of the operational phase of the Agreement. This process has to be firmed up by an Extraordinary Heads of State and Government summit due to take place on July 7, 2019. It’s quite important, however, to stress that a strong and sustained advocacy to have all AU Member States sign and ratify the AfCFTA Agreement. Like the Paris Agreement, which entered info force on 4 November 2016, after securing the minimum threshold of 55 Parties to the Convention almost a year after its signing, the AfCFTA Agreement was signed in Kigali, on 31 March 2018, making it the second...

The annual African Development Bank meeting took place this past week in Equatorial Guinea with the key subject of discussion, as is evident in the theme of the meetings - Regional Integration for Africa’s economic prosperity – being integration. “To integrate Africa, bring down the walls,” said Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the president of African Development Bank (AfDB), at the opening of the 25th annual meeting of the continental bank. Dr Adesina urged African governments to work towards the elimination of non-tariff barriers, saying ‘pulling down’ non-tariff barriers alone will spur trade by at least 53 per cent, and potentially double trade. According to the East African Community (EAC), the internal EAC market has about 146 million consumers, while the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) comprises 20 member states with a population of more than 460 million. Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi are all members of Comesa. The EAC was established in 1967 but collapsed along the way and was re-established in 2000. Its efforts play into the wider vision of the continental bank, now in its 55th year. This year’s opening ceremony was presided over by the host nation’s president, Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Also in attendance were King Letsie III of Lesotho; president Félix Antoine Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, the Prime Minister of Eswatini (Swaziland). High-level government officials from Rwanda, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Côte d’Ivoire were also present. The State minister of Finance, Dr Gabriel...

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched a partnership with global technology firm mPedigree to improve the agro-inputs protection technology among its members. The partnership, launched under the COMESA Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) Seed programme, will help the bloc to eliminate faking and counterfeiting of agro-inputs materials like seeds and fertiliser among its member states. This move promises a deeper penetration into the supply chains and access to new ecosystem support for Kenya, where the technology is already in use. “The system will assist the region to not only eliminate cases of fake agro-inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and crop protection products, but also boost trade in quality and improved certified seed,” said Serlom Branttie, mPedigree Global Strategy Director. Fraudulent trade in fake agro-inputs has greatly contributed to the poor performance of over 80 million small-scale farmers and to food insecurity in the region. Source: Mediamax

AfDB’s President, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina mentioned it during the Banks Annual meetings that are currently undergoing in Malabo, Guinea. He specifically sought support in the areas of Agriculture and Industry but especially agri-industrialisation. Adesina noted that it was critical to link infrastructure projects with agriculture development and industrial development for the benefits to reach the common citizenry in EAC. Dr Adesina said the bank is also supporting establishment of an AfDB coordination and capacity building unit at the EAC HQs noting that the AfDB portfolio has grown and therefore need for more coordination, strategic and analytical capacity; He said the Bank is committed to present EAC bankable projects to the AfDB coordinated African Investment Forum in November 2019 in South Africa. A joint team of EAC and AfDB will work on preparing bankable projects for presentation to that effect. Adesina noted that the EAC is the most active and dynamic regional economic bloc with very clear results and a very high level of political momentum. He lauded the EAC for the great gains made in the implementation of the Customs Union and the Common Market. He specifically commended the progress in free movement of people and increased trade. He noted that EAC Countries are now issuing the East African e-Passport. Source: IPP Media