TradeMark Africa (TMA) and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), signed this afternoon a €29.9 million (approx. USD 35.5 million) grant agreement to contribute to more sustainable and inclusive regional economic integration in the Horn of Africa. The funding comes from the European Union, who delegated it to AFD via a €32 million total financing agreement, signed one week earlier between the two parties. The TMA-AFD project will focus on the Djibouti corridor as the main artery of trade for Ethiopia, whilst also supporting more inclusive trade between Djibouti and Ethiopia. The overall objective is to enhance the competitiveness of this corridor through logistical and regulatory improvements (reduction of transport and transit times at ports and border crossings, simplification of procedures and reduction of associated costs) and strengthening the capacity of stakeholders to benefit from these improvements, including the most vulnerable. It will be implemented according to four lines of operation: Reduction of trade costs and time along the Djibouti-Ethiopia corridor, from Djibouti Port to the Galafi border post and the dry ports in Simplification and harmonisation of procedures, standards and regulations governing trade between the two countries, bringing them into line with the various trade agreements signed, with a view to their Support to enterprises and producers in the logistics sector both in Ethiopia and in Djibouti and in the export Support to the most vulnerable populations: small traders at the borders, women operating in export sectors, , to enable them to take advantage of these improvements. In 2019,...

The number of countries that ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement has increased to 40 with the recent ratification of Zambia, Malawi, Algeria and Burundi, a top official told reporters on Friday, July 9. Secretary-General Wamkele Mene was addressing his second quarterly press briefing. He noted that the DR Congo, Seychelles and Burundi ratified but are yet to deposit their instruments of ratification, quickly adding: "But it's a very positive signal, the fact that 40 countries have ratified." "This is a very important development," Mene noted, adding that he recently visited Tanzania and had fruitful discussions with its leaders. End last month, the Secretary-General visited the country and met with President Samia Suluhu Hassan. "Its President told me that Tanzania will ratify by September and that means that one of the biggest economies in Africa is also going to ratify," he said. "With Tanzania (ratifying) it means that EAC, the entire Customs Union, will now be part of the implementation of the AfCFTA." Burundi ratified the AfCFTA on June 17, becoming the fourth East African Community (EAC) country to ratify following in the footsteps of Rwanda, the most committed country to the Agreement, Kenya and Uganda. The agreement initialed in Kigali, on March 21, 2018, aims to create the largest free-trade area in the world and the EAC business community wants things fast-tracked. The Continental Free Trade Area aims to reduce all trade costs - eliminate 90% of tariffs - and enable Africa to integrate further into...

Malawi and other countries in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) stand to benefit from the $40 billion (about K33 trillion) adjustment fund designed to lessen the economic impact of tariff reduction to support the implementation of the agreement. The AfCFTA Secretariat said recently it had already made available $1.5 billion (about K1.2 trillion)for the fund and was mobilising resources to increase it to $40 billion. Further to this, the secretariat is mulling on establishing a Pan- African payment platform which would offer businesses an opportunity to conveniently make payments without necessarily converting their currencies. In an interview this week, Ministry of Trade spokesperson Mayeso Msokera described the AfCFTA Adjustment Facility as an important financing instrument that “will contribute significantly in complementing measures taken at national level to lessen the possible impact of trade liberalisation under the AfCFTA, such as the loss of tariff revenue”. On the digital payment platform, he said the platform will offer the country’s merchants a convenient and affordable means of receiving and making payments for their transactions. Said Msokera: “Currently, to make payments for goods and services bought within Africa, most business people have to first convert the funds from, say Malawi kwacha into dollars before it is transferred; and then the recipients will also have to convert the dollars into their local currencies [or vice versa]. “This increases the transaction costs in terms of money and time. This digital platform will, therefore, enhance cross border payments by eliminating the need to buy a...

The IOTA NFT Marketplace aims to solve the existing challenges of other NFT platforms like a high-fee structure. Access to the test version of the IOTA NFT marketplace is now available as users can create free accounts on the platform. IOTA, the open-source distributed ledger and IoT-specific blockchain platform, is now diving into the world of NFTs. On Monday, July 12, the IOTA community announced the launch of the IOTA NFT marketplace. The launch happened on the IOTA 2.0 DevNet illustrating the future of digital assets and NFTs that are accessible to all. IOTA notes that its feeless protocol helps it to deliver the right NFT infrastructure while solving some of the existing limitations of the NFT market. Non-fungible tokens have created a massive rage in the crypto space over the last six months. Besides, the market has witnessed NFT sales worth Millions-of-dollars in a short time. As the name suggests, non-fungible tokens help in the unique representation of assets. This could be anything like a piece of artwork, videos, images, etc. Thus, NFTs are basically cryptographic tokens representing something unique in a digitized form. In today’s world, anything can be digitized and represented as an NFT. While NFTs have seen major market acceptance because of their value proposition, IOTA thinks that there are still many drawbacks. With the existing setup of the NFT market, getting the NFTs to the buyer is very expensive. It involves high-end costs like the minting fee for creating the NFT, platform listing costs additional, then comes...

Most African governments seem lost to find the solution to Covid-induced economic problems. Africa recorded its first Covid case in Egypt on February 14 2020. Since then, all the countries have reported cases with some economic distress plunging in. Initially confined to capital cities, cases are now reported in a significant number of countries, multiple provinces and regions. By May 4 2020, the number of confirmed Covid cases had risen to 44, 873 and caused 1, 807 deaths. The African countries with the highest number of infections are South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria. However, the full scope of the pandemic remains uncertain, as cases are underreported and the accuracy of data collection varies considerably. On April 17 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that Africa could be the next epicentre of the coronavirus. Although the number of Covid cases and fatalities might still appear comparatively low in Africa than in other regions, the looming health shock of Covid could have disastrous impacts on the continent already strained health systems, and could quickly turn into a social and economic emergency. Beyond health risks, the Covid shock to African economies is coming in three waves: Lower trade and investment from China in the immediate term; a demand slump associated with the lockdowns in the European Union and a continental supply shock affecting domestic and intra-African trade. It is shaking commodity-driven growth models that had largely failed to create more and better jobs or improve well-being. On the health front, greater...

In a bid to drive U.S. investment in the African energy sector, the U.S.-Africa Energy Forum (USAEF) 2021 kicked off on Monday with a virtual session – organized by Energy Capital & Power – featuring petroleum ministers from Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea along with leading energy and finance industry leaders. Under the theme, The U.S.-Africa Energy Partnership: Successes and New Horizons, the first of two virtual sessions identified key factors behind investment success stories on the continent, as well as leading opportunities for future cooperation, centering on the clean energy value chain and full implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). Opening remarks were given by H.E. Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, Minister of Hydrocarbons of Republic of the Congo – a veteran of the oil and gas industry and one of the founding members of the National Petroleum Company of Congo – and NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber (AEC). “Cooperation between America and Africa will be a key factor for the global future,” said H.E. Minister Itoua. “In energy, Africa is not the problem. Africa is the solution. This becomes even more true when you talk about the transition. We have substantial quantities of oil, but more importantly, we have substantial quantities of gas – which is the first part of the energy transition – as well as one of the most important potentials for renewables.” “We can no longer accept that more than 650 million on the African continent go without electricity every day,...

Summary Trade information portals (TIPs) are now operational in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda while it is still being developed in Burundi Arusha. Trade within the East African Community (EAC) bloc received a boost this week as Tanzania launched her Trade Information Portal. Trade Information Portals (TIPs) are now operational in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda while it is still being developed in Burundi. “The portal is expected to boost intra-regional trade in East Africa as well as the region’s share in international trade,” the EAC secretariat has said. The facility was launched during the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) by Zanzibar’s Trade and Industry Development minister Said Omari Shabaan. TIPs are intended to map out all imports, exports and transit procedures, fees as well as scrapping all unnecessary bottlenecks. According to the EAC secretariat, the facility will be launched in Burundi on July 23rd while itr will be developed in South Sudan later. Speaking at the event, Mr Shabaan underscored the importance of the portal “and how it can help traders to get right and accurate information on trade”. For his part, Tantrade director general Edwin Rutageruka urged the private sector to exploit the opportunity availed by TIP. He said the micro; small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can use the facility “to grow their businesses by tapping into new markets”. EAC’s TIP Project regional coordinator Munyampundu Evariste hailed Tanzania for her efforts to facilitate trade in the region. He said the newly-launched TIP would have a positive impact on intra-EAC...

In Summary Kenya’s Principal Secretary for East Africa Community, Kevit Desai, said that the region was putting in place strategies to ensure economic recovery in all partner states. The Principal Secretary also said that the EAC budget for the Financial Year 2021/2022 will also prioritize Private Sector engagement by putting in place appropriate strategies to ensure the private sector takes an active and participatory role in the EAC integration agenda. East Africa countries will focus the 2021-2022 financial year with a focus on economic recovery through industrialization and inclusive growth following the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the region. Kenya’s Principal Secretary for East Africa Community, Kevit Desai, said that the region was putting in place strategies to ensure economic recovery in all partner states from the destructive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. “As a region, we have witnessed the devastation created within the economies of the partner states, including the fall in intra-regional trade, job losses, limited mobility within the region, and loss of lives,” said the PS. Desai, who is also the Chairperson of the Coordination Committee that brings together Permanent, Principal, Under Secretaries for EAC Affairs in the Partner States, was addressing the media at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha on Monday. Desai said that intra-regional mobility has further been hindered by the Covid-19 mitigation measures that require travellers to have valid test certificates to travel within the region and often times subjected to double testing - before departure and upon arrival at the destination...

Kenya and Tanzania manufacturers are calling for East African Community (EAC) member states to promptly resolve pending non-tariff barriers to enhance intra-trade within the region. During a trade investment forum held on Thursday hosted by Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, the industry stakeholders called for speedy resolution of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and the review of the East African Community Common External Tariff (EAC CET). Trade between Kenya and Tanzania has improved in recent years in favour of the latter and is expected to be boosted by renewed talks after a long period of hard stance. “The visit by Her Excellency the President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu heralded a new dawn, in the relationship between Kenya and Tanzania. Let us take advantage of this enhanced friendship, to resolve outstanding non-trade barriers that hinder trade between the two countries. A win for our community, means prosperity for us all,” said Dan Kazungu, Kenya’s High Commissioner to Tanzania. Kenya’s exports to Tanzania declined from Kshs. 34 billion in 2016 to Kshs. 31.6 billion in 2020 while Tanzania’s exports to Kenya grew from Kshs. 12.6 billion to Kshs. 27.6 billion in 2020. EAC Principal Secretary Dr Kevit Desai, urged traders in the region to embrace the Buy East Africa Build East Africa Initiative in order to enhance regional intra-trade “Through this initiative, governments will be more encouraged, to promote their respective local content. Additionally, it is important that all stakeholders complement each other’s...

Nairobi, July 7 (Xinhua)-East Africa needs to green its leather and textile sector to promote exports, the International Trade Center (ITC), a joint body with the World Trade Organization, said Wednesday The report published in said. United Nations. According to the report, these sectors are the most polluted and have a negative impact on the local environmental quality, especially water resources. “The international value chain and textile value chain are working together to be environmentally friendly and reduce our ecological footprint,” a report co-authored by the Kenya Manufacturers Association (KAM). Says. The ITC says that most of this change towards environmental sustainability is due to large global fashion brands that require supply chain players to comply with internationally agreed standards for wastewater and chemical management. Said it was being promoted. “For East African companies, failure to comply with these standards poses a risk of being left behind in the global supply chain, and missing export market opportunities can be costly,” the report said. The findings show that textiles and leather are promising sectors in East Africa as they can create jobs, drive innovation and economic growth, and drive exports. The report states that these sectors have also been prioritized by most governments in the region in their industry blueprints as a means of paving the way for higher incomes. UN agencies say that despite the existence of comprehensive global standards and best practices, East Africa lacks an understanding of the steps required for compliance. The report states that local policymakers,...