Firms eyeing water transportation services on Lake Victoria may have to make do with undeveloped landing sites, which could eat into their starting costs. It is a lesson starters like Globology have learnt the hard way, even though there are plenty of opportunities and great need for the infrastructure. The firm recently launched ferry services from Asembo Bay (Kamito) to Homa Bay, in an effort to revive the collapsed Lake Victoria transport system. But the excitement among locals did not match the reality on the ground  as it sought to navigate the Winam Gulf. Globology general manager Seth Onyango said the vessel landing sites are wanting and need to be constructed for the viability of the water transport. “During the launch the landing sites were a challenge, we had to suspend the operations. We are now improving on the landing sites in Asembo Bay and Homa Bay by building jetties,” said Mr Onyango. Now the company has to dig deeper into its pocket to put up Sh 700million jetties at the landing site for the new route. “For us it is a new route, we are still not sure we will meet our target to ferry at least 132 passengers per trip. It a matter of wait-and-see,” he said. The challenge is not exclusive to this firm. Experts say inland water transport is viable, given the increasing road network. But challenges remain. Kenya Maritime Authority branch Inspector Jeremiah Onyango said if properly developed, water transport could play a vital role...

Increased use of cargo scanners at the port of Mombasa and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport largely helped the taxman to grow daily non-oil revenue by Sh131 million in six months ended last December compared to the similar period in 2016, fresh data shows. The Kenya Revenue Authority said collections from non-oil imports averaged Sh1.257 billion daily in the July-December 2017 period compared with Sh1.126 billion a year earlier. Commissioner-general John Njiraini also attributed the growth in daily revenue flows at the Customs to “benchmarking of cargo values to address undervaluation” and “stricter application of cargo auction processes”. “Customs recorded overall growth of 7.7 per cent, with non-oil collections, which account for about 70 per cent of revenue growing at 8.1 per cent,” Mr Njiraini, whose second three-year expires on March 3, said in a statement. “Customs performance, however, continued to be adversely impacted by sluggish import growth with container volumes in H (first half) recording marginal growth of 2.8 per cent compared to growth of 4.9 per cent in H1 of FY (financial year) 2016-17 (which ended last June).” The Scanner Integration Project, which connects all readers at border entry points to a command centre at Time Tower, has been largely funded by the Chinese government. The integration started last October and was initially set to be completed by March. The integration is expected to help customs officials monitor and analyse contents of cargo entering and leaving the country from the command centre. About Sh1 billion was invested in...

This comes after the completion of the standard gauge railway by the Kenyan government from Mombasa to Nairobi. Kenya ports authority has opened its doors to Ugandan businessmen to begin picking their goods from Nairobi instead of Mombasa. This comes after the completion of the standard gauge railway by the Kenyan government from Mombasa to Nairobi. This was revealed by The Managing Director of Kenya Ports Authority Catherine Mthuri during a meeting with lawmakers of the East African legislative assembely at the port of Mombasa. Source: NTV

The East African Legislative Assembly has called for closer co-operation between Mombasa and Dar es Salaam ports to hasten importation and exportation of goods. The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has constituted two teams to look at the workings of the region’s transport corridors including ports. The Northern Corridor team, led by Mathias Kasamba, will cover the Mombasa port, the Kenya Revenue Authority and Holili-Taveta, Namanga and Malaba borders. “Much as the Mombasa and Dar es Salaam ports serve the East African Community, there are areas where they can co-operate and hasten importation and exportation of goods,” said Mr Kasamba. EALA is seeking to develop policies that will among others increase resource allocation for the expansion of the Port of Mombasa to further improve efficiency at the port. In September 2017, Kenya ports Authority(KPA) announced that it had secured a Sh35 billion loan from the Japanese government for the construction of the second phase of the second container terminal at Mombasa port aimed at decongesting the port. “We already have the Sh35 billion financing from the Japanese government. We are now in the tendering process but construction must commence by January 2018,” said Ms Mturi-Wairi at the time. The biggest port in East Africa and the region’s trade gateway, Mombasa handles imports of fuel and consumer goods and exports of tea and coffee from landlocked neighbours such as Uganda and South Sudan and its traffic flows serve as a barometer of economic activity in the region. EALA is also keen...

Zanzibar — MEMBER states within the East African Community now wish to establish National Kiswahili Councils within their respective countries to show commitment in promoting the language in the region. The call was made here yesterday by Prof Kenneth Inyani Simala, Executive Secretary, East African Kiswahili Commission (EAKC) during a meeting with team of the East African Legislatives Assembly (EALA) delegation on 'the on-spot assessment of institutions, installations and facilities of the EAC on the central corridor.' "Despite financial challenges facing the Commission, we have been playing our part well, advising the governments on how we should move on. It is unfortunate that there is slowness in implementation," Prof Simala said here yesterday at the Commission offices. "It is only Tanzania which has the Kiswahili Council. I urge other member states to do the same and implement other agreed plans," the Executive Secretary said as he also listed some challenges facing the commission. The team of EALA delegation led by Hon Wanjiku Muhia from Kenya heard Prof talk about weakness in legislation, insufficient budget allocation, under staffing, and last year's attempted theft of the commission's funds from its account (he did not release details at the open meeting). He said that after raising voice including reporting to the police about the missing money from the Commission's account, the amount was returned, "But we need to know who had taken the money and why?" Prof Simala said he has visited Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya to see the pace of building...

In 2016, the African Union (AU) announced plans to introduce a new African Union passport that would travel across the continent much easier. “The scene seems to be set to realize the dream of visa-free travel for African citizens within their own continent by 2020,” the AU said in a statement announcing the launch. However, in 2018, crossing borders remains a difficult process for the vast majority of Africans. Even now, African citizens on average need a visa to travel to more than 50% of nations across the continent. This makes travelling in Africa significantly easier for Americans, Brits and various other nationalities than it does for the majority of Africans. It’s not only African citizens that feel the constraints of travel difficulties either. Business travel is a painful process between African countries and the impact on trade between the continent’s nations is undeniable. So why are Africans still waiting for visa-free travel? Progress is being made The visa-free travel dream in Africa is taking longer than some African union optimists might have hoped but true progress is being made. In November last year, six nations – Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo – announced visa-free movement for citizens among their nations under the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). Meanwhile, Kenya became the latest country to relax visa requirements from citizens from African nations, who no longer need to get a visa prior to their arrival. According to the African Development Bank, which monitors visa openness...

Arusha — Performance of the recently established one stop border posts (OSBPs) in East Africa will come under scrutiny during an on the spot assessment by the regional lawmakers. Fresh from the recent session in Kampala, the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) members this week began a mission to assess the progress of the regional institutions including OSBPs. The jointly operated and shared facilities on the visit schedule include the famous Namanga and Holili on the Tanzania/Kenya border as well as Malaba on the border between Kenya and Uganda. Others are Katuna/Gatuna on the Uganda/Rwanda borderline, Kabanga/Kobero (Tanzania and Burundi) and the Rusumo OSBP along River Kagera that separates Tanzania and Rwanda. "The on-spot assessment commenced yesterday (Monday) and runs up to February 23rd", said Bobi Odiko, the spokesperson for Eala, adding that the visit will cover other infrastructure projects. One of the two groups will inspect projects along the northern corridor; Mombasa through Nairobi and Kampala to Kigali while another will do the same on the central corridor; Dar es Salaam to Bujumbura. OSBPs which are being established along the key routes at the borders of the East African Community (EAC) member states to lessen time in exiting one country and entering another have come under scrutiny for some time especially from the regional MPs. For instance, an on the spot assessment carried out in 2015 by Eala members found out that some of them can turn into 'white elephants' due to unwarranted delays to complete the basic structures...

As anticipated, the standard gauge railway (SGR) is going through “market entry” rigours that any new business has to undergo. We have seen SGR adjust its operations, systems and tariffs to penetrate a logistics arena that has been a virtual monopoly of road transportation. Transport dynamics are essentially market driven, with the client (cargo owner and passenger) having a major input on choices. The SGR business can be segmented into three logical phases— the Nairobi destination, Western Kenya, and transit into Uganda— defined by the project completion times. There is also a classification into cargo and passengers which are either from or to Mombasa. In the case of cargo it is imports, exports or local transfers. Each one of these areas has unique opportunities and challenges requiring different approaches to maximise business value. And from what we read, SGR appears to be working on the right solutions to penetrate the market. The cargo owners are interested in the least total freight cost, and the shortest cargo turnaround time. The passengers are keen on both the fare cost and trip convenience. As and when SGR enters Uganda, it will open up cargo transit opportunities with Rwanda, Eastern DRC and South Sudan. Rail transport economics are favoured by the longest possible distances as these substantially reduce unit operating costs while multiplying revenues. For this reason, transit business should always remain the ultimate prize for SGR with the government of Uganda being a highly valued partner. The main pushback and competition for SGR...

Exporters using the standard gauge railway to transport cargo to Mombasa incur huge losses because it arrives after vessels have departed. The SGR freight services schedule does not coincide with the schedule of vessels’ docking at the Port of Mombasa. Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) national chair William Ojonyo said on Monday that most of the time trains arrive at the port when vessels have already weighted anchor. Then they incur additional storage costs, can’t meet orders and thus lose their orders abroad. Ojonyo said Kenya Railways has not given exporters a proper schedule of the SGR freight services. He said KR is supposed to load the cargo at the Nairobi Internal Container Depot and move it to Mombasa in readiness for export, but there has always been a delay in loading “On many occasions, the export containers are delayed getting to the port in time for export vessels, since KR lacks logistical capacity,” Ojonyo said. SGR has inherited the perennial logistical hitches from the Rift Valley Railway and therefore cannot be relied upon for efficient facilitation, he said. He said exporters will continue using trucks that can be monitored directly along the logistics chain without depending on a third party, as they await stakeholders engagement. “As logistics experts, we are yet to be assured how the empty containers will get back to appointed depots for the interchange to facilitate deposit refund,” Ojonjo said. The Kenya Shippers Council said, however, they have not received any complaint from exporters...

The East African Business Council (EABC) board met in Kigali, last week, to discuss strategies that will help encourage the implementation of key projects by East African Community (EAC) states that seek to improve the business environment. This comes on the back of a lot of frustration among the business community because of the slow pace by partner states in the implementation process despite Heads of State directives for the projects to be prioritised. Lilian Awinja, the EABC chief executive officer, says the fact that some partner states are backtracking on some of these projects when others are undertaking the projects is very discouraging and unfortunate. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Business Times’ Peterson Tumwebaze after the meeting, Awinja said the delay is costing the region in terms of trade, investments, jobs and economic prosperity. Excerpts: You held an EABC board meeting in Kigali last Friday. Briefly tell us what it was about We mainly wanted to discuss issues affecting regional businesses and how we can address them as a region. Some of these issues are policy challenges, while others are financial in nature. For example, the directives that were issued by Heads of State for immediate implementation across the region are yet to be enforced. This is very discouraging for us as a business community. Awinja says delay in implementation of some EAC projects by states is hurting the business community. / Net. We still have a long list of pending projects aimed at improving doing business in...