12th April 2022, Nairobi: Transport and transit information along the Northern Corridor is now available at a touch of a button following the launch of the Northern Corridor Transport Observatory Portal by the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) today. The automation of the portal will dramatically improve development and increase access of various metrics needed by policy makers to facilitate to better transit, trade facilitation and cooperation between NCTTFA Member States. It was funded by UKAID, USAID and Denmark through TradeMark Africa at a cost of US$ 1.15 million. The Transport Observatory houses 48 key indicators grouped into six categories displaying; trade volumes and capacity, transit times and delays, transport costs and rates, efficiency and productivity, Green House Gas emissions and Intra-regional trade. Users will also be able to access newsletters and weekly performance trackers such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual reports and Green House Gas emission updates. Also available is the Geographic Information System (GIS) module that allows users to view the status of various infrastructure along the Northern Corridor including border posts and weigh bridges. Prior to the now automated portal NCTTCA and policy makers relied on manual collection and verification of data that was costly and time consuming, resulting in delayed resolution of issues and publication of various reports. The system lacked modern features such as Geographic Information System (GIS) lowering the ability to easily filter information based on location. Speaking at the launch event, NCTCCA Executive Secretary CPA Omae NYARANDI said,...

Mombasa, 31st March, 2022: East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) announced the automation of the Mombasa Tea Auction by unveiling the Integrated Tea Trading System (iTTS).  The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) -through TradeMark Africa- funded the USD 2Million digital platform. The importance of automation has been amplified by current efforts to mitigate the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region and facilitate safe trade. The Mombasa Tea Auction is the world’s largest black CTC tea auction for export.  Each week, teas worth over US$20 million are traded from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique and Ethiopia. Tea is one of the top export foreign exchange earners for Kenya, generating US$1.14 billion in 2021, and with more than 55 per cent of teas sold at the auction originating from small holder farmers, the auction is an important lynchpin in the industry, as well as the economy more broadly. The Integrated Tea Trading System (iTTS) project has automated the manual processes along the tea value chain. This covers the dispatch of made tea from the factory, receiving of the tea by the Warehouse, cataloguing and offering the tea for sale by the Broker, buying of the tea and paying for it by the buyer and the finally collecting the bought tea from the warehouse. The introduction of the automated trading platform sought to remedy the limitations in the old manual set-up, such as the lack of in-depth consolidated auction statistics, and limitation...

Dar es Salaam, 31st March 2022: Today, the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA), launched the Central Corridor Transport Observatory (CCTO), a system that provides reliable and timely information to policy makers in the region, facilitating formulation of policies that lead to better transit, trade facilitation and cooperation between CCTTFA Member States. The systems was developed by CCTTFA with support from TradeMark Africa (TMA) and funding from Denmark, Ireland, Norway, UKAID and USAID. The Central Corridor Transport Observatory (CCTO) aims at assessing the efficiency of the logistics chain along the Central Corridor and in turn making all this information available the click of a button. Users will now be able to access information on more than thirty-eight indicators grouped into six categories including: Volumes of transactions, Transit times, Cost of Services, Efficiency and Productivity, Green House Gas emissions and Safety. The Observatory provides access to special features the performance of the Corridor to include joint reports with Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority and Green House Gas emission updates. Also available is a Geographic Information System (GIS) module that allows users to view the location and status of various infrastructure. The event was graced by Mr. Mohamed Salum, Director of Legal Services, Ministry of Transport Tanzania, who represented the Permanent Secretary Mr. Gabriel Migire, CCTTFA Executive Director Capt. Dieudonne Dukundane, and TMA Tanzania Country Director Monica Hangi. Speaking at the event, Executive Director of CCTTFA Capt. Dieudonne Dukundane acknowledged the technical and financial support from TMA that has...

After two years of physical disconnect, the moving parts of the African ecosystem have the opportunity to come together at GTR Africa. A great opportunity to connect and network – but how can we ensure synergies to implement solutions between these parts when we all go home after the event? It has never been more necessary to have the discussion of how, than now! The World Bank predicts that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will boost regional income by $450bn by the year 2035 and lift 30 million people out of poverty. This environment should be a game-changer for entrepreneurs on the African continent but there are some very real questions about whether the ecosystem for entrepreneurs is primed for this growth. As an organisation that is positioning itself as the leading Pan-African banking group on the continent, we enjoy some unique insights into the ecosystem on the continent and we see critical challenges which need to be addressed before we can capture the projected growth. Let’s have a look at where we are now, before addressing how we can move forward. FRICTIONLESS COMMERCE While the Fintech eco-system has been the recipient of some significant investment and we have seen significant transactions concluded in places like Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. African-focused entrepreneurs have voiced a key concern in relation to the alignment gaps which exist between the physical and financial “supply-chains”. Consider the textile manufacturing market and trade between Ethiopia and South Africa. These supply chains need...

Kenya is set to host the first trade facilitation summit in the East African region as the country seeks to increase international trade. The one-day summit themed “Re-imagining Trade Facilitation in an era of Technology” to be held on March 31, 2022, is organised by the Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade) as part of its 10 years of trade facilitation celebrations. KenTrade Chief Executive Officer Amos Wangora says over 200 stakeholders in the trade facilitation eco system are expected to attend including members of the African Alliance for eCommerce (AACE) which Kenya is a founder member and current president. Speakers will include Trade Facilitation experts from within and outside the African Continent. The summit is aimed at building linkages between customers in the region and reducing blockages that inhibit international trade. During the summit, KenTrade will also be launching the Trade Facilitation Platform, the upgrade of the Kenya TradeNet System in which TwentyThree Partner Government Agencies have been onboarded. “Kenya is an important regional gateway to the landlocked East Africa and wider Great Lakes countries. The northern corridor links Kenya’s maritime port of Mombasa to Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. This corridor mainly facilitates intra-regional trade and regional integration by ensuring the smooth movement of goods and persons across member states,” Wangora said. KenTrade is a State Corporation under the National Treasury established in January 2011 to implement and manage the National Electronic Single Window System (KenyaTradeNet System) and to facilitate trade. Kenya TradeNet System...

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) will put up a yard at the Malaba border in Busia county to contain traffic jams. KPA acting Managing Director John Mwangemi said the yard will remove trucks ferrying goods mainly from Mombasa Port to other parts of the East African region, off the road. He said KPA had embarked on a series of interventions meant to spur growth across the country and region. Traffic gridlock “This yard will offer a permanent solution to the incessant traffic gridlock, which is always witnessed at the Malaba border, sometimes extending to 50 kilometres towards Bungoma,” said Mwangemi. “Upon completion, the marshalling yard will effectively remove trucks from the road, improve efficiency at the border point while improving welfare of the drivers,” he added. Mwangemi made the remarks in a speech read on his behalf by the KPA General Manager for Infrastructure Development Vincent Sidai, during a corporate Golf Nyanza/Western Circuit dinner at Kakamega Sports Club. Read original article

As stated by President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi A. Adesina, “trade finance is an important instrument for influencing Africa’s long-term economic development and structural transformation”. According to a report by the AfBB and the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim), Trade Finance in Africa: Trends Over the Past Decade and Opportunities Ahead, the region was one of the most integrated with the rest of the world in 2011. However, in the last decade, Africa’s trade growth has been one of the worst among the major regions of the world. This is as a result of a number of factors including falling commodity prices, competition, inadequate foreign exchange liquidity, regulatory challenges and access to trade finance, as banks have gradually been scaling back activities from riskier markets. The study showed that although trade finance remains a popular activity among banks in Africa, the participation rates continue to decrease, falling by 16% between 2013 and 2019. As a result, the trade finance gap in Africa averaged USD 91 billion for the period between 2011 to 2019. Furthermore, the trade uncertainty in Africa was exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a twin supply-demand shock across the continent. Supply was affected by mass production shutdowns and supply chain blockages and demand for products from Africa decreased globally. Despite the persistently large trade finance gap, trade remains a key driver of Africa’s social and economic development. As a result, banks such as the AfDB and Afrexim have sought to stay on top of market developments...

Kenyans are staring at tougher times as truckers announce a 5 percent increase in transport costs in the wake of a rise in fuel prices announced on Monday.The Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) announced immediate increase in transport charges starting Tuesday after the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) announced a 10-year high fuel price in its latest monthly review.KTA chairperson Newton Wang’oo said fuel contributes up to 35 percent of total direct transport costs and indirectly affects other costs such as for tyres and spare parts since they are all imported.Mr Wang’oo said transport charges have remained constant from the period when the diesel pump prices in Mombasa were between Sh75 and Sh80 per litre compared to the current Sh108-110 per litre.“Transporters’ margins can no longer sustain any increase in costs and regrettably have to pass on the increase to the cargo owner for road transport sector to survive,” Mr Wang’oo said.“KTA wishes to advise transporters countrywide to increase their transport rates by a minimum of 5 percent to sustain their businesses under current circumstances and to circumvent a total collapse of their businesses.”Abdul Mahamud, a Mombasa transporter who owns 11 trucks operating across East African countries, said he is now forced to fuel in the neighbouring countries where prices are comparatively lower.“I ferry goods to Tanzania and Uganda. I have no otherwise but to fuel my trucks in such countries to ensure the fuel is enough to makes round trip so as to mimimise transportation cost,” said Mr Mahamud.“As...

The African Development Bank (AfDB), which sets its primary tasks of contributing to the continent’s economic and social development by providing the necessary concessional funding for projects and programmes, as well as offering and coordinating assistance in capacity-building activities, has now embarked on various post-COVID-19 initiatives throughout the continent, especially in the least developed African countries. In the latest was the mid-March event where potential investors have examined more than $50 billion of curated bankable projects in key priority sectors identified in the Africa Investment Forum’s 2020 Unified Response to COVID-19 initiative. The sectors include agriculture and agro-processing; education; energy and climate; healthcare; minerals and mining; information and communications technology and telecommunication; and industrialization and trade. Nine of these projects are women-led, with a potential value of $5 billion. The AfDB has secured $32.8 billion in investment commitments for projects in Africa. The largest deal secured at the three-day Africa Investment Forum was $15.6 billion for the Lagos-Abidjan mega highway of about 1,200 km (745 miles) will have four to six lanes, connecting West Africa’s two major cities in Nigeria and Ivory Coast, said AfDB President, Mr Akinwumi Adesina. “Africa is a very bankable continent. We’ve gone through hard times because of the Covid-19 situation but here we are on a rebound,” said Adesina. “Africa is back for investments.” The projects, part of the bank’s Covid-19 response, touch on sectors including agriculture and agro-processing, education, energy and climate, healthcare, minerals and mining, and information and communications technology. Adesina said that...

If the world is to achieve the 2030 development goals, African countries must institute government-backed efforts to switch to the sustainable Circular Economy model of production/consumption. The circular economy is a model of sustainable production and consumption that shifts economic growth from resource consumption to more sustainable approaches. For example, the Circular economy demands designing products for longer use and ease of repair rather than consumption, a profit-oriented approach that produces short life products to force resell. Economy experts describe the circular economy model as a new paradigm for business that aims to achieve economic growth through new sustainable business models. There are various factors that influence the transition to the circular economy including market awareness, behaviour change, greater access to data and regularization of informal activities. For the circular economy to work, it requires rational practices by all parties of any given product value chains, from producers all the way to the consumer, all are responsible. In this regard, multinational companies (MNCs) are key because they have long value chains including their suppliers, consumers, and even financial and government institutions. To meet global circularity goals, as articulated in Sustainable Goal Number 12 'Responsible Production and Consumption,' circular economy principles require extremely close cooperation between the MNCs and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) suppliers who are mostly in developing countries. However, the trouble is that SMEs are reluctant to switch from Linear economy models because they are profitable in the short run. To ensure this noble goal is met, there...