Kenya spends at least Sh500 million in defending a single case filed by investors at international courts under the Bilateral Investment Treaties, according to a regional trade negotiation institute. The Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) and EcoNews Africa said the provisions under the treaties are very risky. The two bodies said the funds used in legal protection and which mostly are not recovered, could be directed in state-led development. BITs are agreements between countries for the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments. However, according to the institutions, BITs have increasingly protected foreign investors, with the capital-exporting countries using the agreements to further their market liberalisation. “With the funds used in protection of these legal risks, then we can really begin to question whether it is necessary to sign them. If we cannot reject the BITs then we need to make sure they are free of ambiguity,” EcoNews Africa Edgar Odari said. Kenya has signed 19 BITs with countries including China, Finland, Germany, Iran, Japan, UK and Netherlands. Out of this, 11 treaties are in force. BITs with France and Switzerland expire on July 10 and May 26 respectively and will be automatically renewed. According to Odari, the Kenya- France treaty is in French language, capable of raising a legal implication. If the government does not submit a renegotiation deal, then the treaty will be renewed for 10 years. SEATINI's Uganda country director Jane Naluga said there is need to adopt the recently approved East Africa...

AGRICULTURE On the second day of May, Uganda will host a regional ministers' summit on agriculture and trade in Kampala. The three-day conference will take place at Speke Resort Munyonyo and is expected to feature delegations from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique. It has been organised by the agriculture ministry in conjunction with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). Other critical delegates invited for the summit include heads of regional economic communities; East African Community (EAC), Common Markets for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), Inter Government Authority for Development (IGAD) and representatives from the African Union (AU). Also invited are director generals of national agriculture research institutes from all ASARECA countries, development partners, private sector actors, farmers' organisations among many others. Agriculture minister Vincent Sempijja told reporters at the ministry headquarters on Tuesday that the summit is aimed at co-ordinating the generation of research solutions to challenges affecting agricultural sector such as the management of trans-boundary diseases such as cassava brown streak disease and maize lethal necrosis virus. "We shall also discuss how to co-ordinate and harmonise rationalisation of policies for cross-border trade in agricultural commodities and for exchange of agricultural commodities," he added. The summit has been organised under a theme 'Repositioning ASARECA for accelerated African agricultural transformation, and a sub-theme; Enhancing productivity, Resilience and Prosperity in Africa'. It is aimed at pulling a team of scientists in the region to work on...

EAST African Business Council (EABC) has gone a notch higher in resolving challenges facing the regional economies, with the launch of the regional programme on Public-Private Sector Dialogue (PPD) for Trade and Investment. Jointly launched by the EABC and TradeMark Africa (TMA), the project that spans from 2019 to 2023 aims at enhancing advocacy and dialogue on transport and logistics, trade facilitation, customs and tax, standards and Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) at regional and country levels. The five-year programme is said to extend beyond the EAC and incorporates the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and Africa Continental Free Trade Area (Af- CFTA). “The Council is keen to enhance dialogue and partnership between the private and public sector, hence EABC will spearhead the programme in close collaboration with all national and regional sectoral private sector associations in EAC,” EABC Chief Executive Officer Peter Mathuki said. He noted that for businesses in the region to grow and expand within and beyond the EAC, there is need for technical and financial support to EABC to advocate and input substantive issues affecting the business community in regard to policy formulation and implementation. The Public-Private Dialogue can facilitate trade and investment climate reforms by promoting better diagnosis of investment climate problems, transparency and inclusive design of policy reforms, making policies easier to implement,” he disclosed. According to Mathuki, barriers to trading across borders like multiple product standard inspections and bureaucratic trade procedures, delay business transactions and increase...

Way back in History, Africa was not mentioned by authors writing about the global economy. It was as if Africa didn’t exist... Or it ‘existed’ only when media organs were writing about civil wars, famines, severe malnutrition and migration – mostly illegal migration! It was a continent of no hope; a continent of woes. However, all that has drastically changed in the last few years – and, in this article, I explore six areas of greatest opportunities in Africa. Today, there are about 400 companies that earn annual revenues of $1 billion or more in Africa – and, on average, they are both fast-growing and more profitable than their global peers. Africa has become an important test lab for global innovation. If you can build a product, a service or a business model that’s cost-effective and robust enough to succeed in Africa, chances are that it will be competitive anywhere else in the world. Admittedly, there are huge challenges to doing business in Africa. But, these same challenges also provide opportunities for value-creation. In all those opportunities the golden thread running through them is technology. More than perhaps any other continent, Africa is piloting digitally-enabled breakthroughs that aid companies in surmounting entrenched barriers and unlocking exponential progress. 1. Millions in Africa lack access to savings and credit facilities. To serve the excluded households and businesses – and to do so in a profitable, sustainable way – banks and other financial institutions must use efficient but easily operable technology-based solutions; and...

Tea export volumes from East Africa to the rest of the world recorded a 21 per cent growth, the latest April auction report has shown. Records from the auction held on April 15th and 16th at the Mombasa auction, show that the regional exported a total of 9.6 million kilogramme bags, up from 7.5 million kilogramme bags shipped around the same time the previous year. At least six Eastern African member states actively participated in the auction out of the nine auction listed countries. These included Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Ethiopia. The other countries on the list but did not trade include DR Congo, Malawi and Mozambique. Reason  Uganda’s tea production has continued to show positive growth which has largely been attributed to good agronomical practices and increased acreage. Mr George William Ssekitooleko, the General Secretary Uganda Tea Association, in an earlier interview with Prosper magazine said: “Good production as result of increased acreage is responsible for this performance.” In the year ending 2018, tea exports recorded a 15 per cent increase – the highest performance that industrial players attribute to good production. A total of 71 million bags of tea were exported up from 60 million kilogramme bags average exported the previous consecutive years, according to Bank of Uganda records. Performance The auction report by the East African Tea Export Auctions showed that Kenya exported over 7.2 million kilogrammes bags more than the 5.7 million it exported the same time last year. This indicated a 19.7 per...

  EAST African Community’s (EAC) private sector is this week expected to get updates on the negotiations for establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The private sector will also give its views on AfCFTA’s viability in the regional sensitisation workshop this Thursday. East African Business Council (EABC) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) organised one-day workshop aims at assisting to unlock the potential of the private sector during the implementation of AfCFTA. According to an EABC issued statement, the workshop will also engage the private sector on what they need to do to realise positive benefits from the AfCFTA. “It’s important that the EAC private sector takes the position on how they want to participate in AfCFTA and how they intend it to be conducted,” the statement read. Launched in Kigali, Rwanda on March 18 2018, the initiative is expected to benefit the private sector in boosting speed and reducing the cost of customs procedures and port handling through implementation of trade facilitation measures, increasing cross border trade and investment thus enhancing market access for goods and services produced in Africa, and increasing competitiveness of the African industrial products through harnessing the economies of scale of a continental- wide market. It also envisages promoting innovation and enterprise through protection of intellectual property rights of the African private sector, establishing an Africa free trade area by building on regional blocs like the EAC where trading nations already work together. The EAC declaration also aligns with the...

According to the Principal Secretary, East African Community and Regional Development, Dr Margaret Mwakima, Uganda and Tanzania, are producing the agricultural produce in surplus and it will be prudent if Kenya will import from them annually to bridge the gap of food security by the year 2022. Grain production within the East African region increased by 50 per cent in the period between 2007 and 2016. Uganda and Tanzania registered notable amounts of the region’s staple food commodities measured in surplus. On the contrary, Kenya has continued to record a considerable deficit in staple food production for a range of reasons such as climate change and pesticides. According to Dr Mwakima, inter-regional trade in agricultural commodities will be the ultimate solution to cover the deficit whilst boosting the food security agenda of the government in the next three years. The PS says that for Kenya to compete with its neighbours in green business the government has instituted a business environment program that will ensure policies are streamlined. Speaking during Regional Grain Stakeholder Forum, AGM, the Chairman of the East Africa Grain Council said, the council has formulated strategies that are geared towards improving green business investment for the member stated so as to eliminate the burden of overdependence among member states. The agricultural sector contributes approximately 30 per cent of the country’s GDP annually and creates jobs for the populations at the rate of 65-85 per cent. In June 2014, the African Union Summit adopted the MALABO declaration which gave...

EAST African Business Council (EABC) has gone a notch higher in resolving challenges facing the regional economies, with the launch of the regional programme on Public-Private Sector Dialogue (PPD) for Trade and Investment. Jointly launched by the EABC and TradeMark Africa (TMA), the project that spans from 2019 to 2023 aims at enhancing advocacy and dialogue on transport and logistics, trade facilitation, customs and tax, standards and Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) at regional and country levels. The five-year programme is said to extend beyond the EAC and incorporates the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and Africa Continental Free Trade Area (Af- CFTA). “The Council is keen to enhance dialogue and partnership between the private and public sector, hence EABC will spearhead the programme in close collaboration with all national and regional sectoral private sector associations in EAC,” EABC Chief Executive Officer Peter Mathuki said here on Monday. He noted that for businesses in the region to grow and expand within and beyond the EAC, there is need for technical and financial support to EABC to advocate and input substantive issues affecting the business community in regard to policy formulation and implementation. “ The Public-Private Dialogue can facilitate trade and investment climate reforms by promoting better diagnosis of investment climate problems, transparency and inclusive design of policy reforms, making policies easier to implement,” he disclosed. According to Mr Mathuki, barriers to trading across borders like multiple product standard inspections and bureaucratic trade procedures,...

This is a pivotal time in the history of Kenya. The handshake last year that paved the way for a stronger democracy rooted in peaceful dialogue and post-election political stability has allowed the economy to continue growing. By all accounts, Kenya is poised to be Africa’s shining star. Opportunities for advancements in health, education, justice and prosperity are set clearly before us. The United States stands ready to help ensure those opportunities become realities for the Kenyan people. Our new strategic partnership with Kenya holds the promise of great prosperity for our countries and we want our investments – both public and private – to provide the maximum benefits possible. Our governments have built a relationship rooted in common values. The door is open for private sector-led growth to be the engine that will transform Kenya. INVESTMENT The United States government, non-government, and private entities contribute over Sh100 billion each year in healthcare, agriculture, education, security and more in Kenya. These are investments in Kenya’s people, not loans. Over one million people are healthy, productive members of society due to the antiretroviral medication provided free by the United States government, a Sh60 billion annual investment. Our work with the brave members of the Kenya Defence Forces to combat Al-Shabaab is keeping the country safe from terrorism. And groundbreaking new private investment is ‘jembe tayari’, so let’s get started. The United States economy depends on sound infrastructure and services to facilitate long-term growth in jobs, education and government revenues, and we...

The news that Uganda will set up a dry depot alongside another one being built by the Kenyan government in Naivasha has excited the logistics sector, with expectations of major benefits accruing from a network of inland container depots (ICDs) across the country. Experts have hailed Uganda’s dry port as the only way of securing transit business with Kenya’s largest trade partner even as they expressed hope that more of such facilities will be set up in other areas with potential to serve as “logistics hubs.” Other towns earmarked for development of dry ports are Taveta and Voi, with the business community in Nanyuki expressing their interest to see a similar facility will also be set up in the town after revelations that the Nairobi-Nanyuki railway line would be revived. Although the facilities have not been efficient in the past with the one in Eldoret having failed to attract goods and business, ICDs have for a long time been seen as the panacea for Kenya’s hold onto regional cargo handling business that has eluded the Mombasa port over the years. Recently when President Yoweri Museveni visited Mombasa, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya would provide land for Uganda to construct a dry port as the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is extended to Naivasha. There have also been talks that Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan may follow suit. Shippers Council of Eastern Africa (SCEA) chief executive officer Gilbert Lang’at said should Uganda build the dry port, this would...