Florence Atieno and Robert Ogola are among the cross-border traders in Busia who have been adversely affected by COVID-19. They’ve lost a huge chunk of their customer base and their revenues have taken a tumble since March when the first case of COVID-19 was reported. “Right now we don’t have business because of COVID-19. We don’t have stock to sell since we don’t have access to Uganda to bring the stock. We don’t have any business right now,” says Atieno. Robert also expressed that that business has been very low and the prices of commodities have increased while the quality of commodities has drastically dropped. Through the Safe Trade Emergency Facility programme, TradeMark Africa (TMA) is working together with the European Union in Kenya to keep trade going at the border point for people to get the goods, food and medical supplies that they need. The initiative is also working with the private sector to adapt to the new environment, especially through the production and distribution of PPEs and hand sanitizers to the border point workers like traders, immigration officials and health workers. TMA also rolled out an app for truckers that will allow for electronic COVID-19 certificates, tracking off the trucks for monitoring of the trade corridor  efficiency and bottlenecks and it was also help with contact tracing if the need arises. FAO Kenya Land Governance Programme In the Sere-Olipi community in Samburu East, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Kenya has fully adopted social distancing as...

Barcelona, September 24, 2020.- The global pandemic of the Coronavirus Covid19 remains, increases its expansion in many countries and does not have a near end. Its economic consequences are unprecedented in the last 100 years. However, we have to learn to live with this situation and conjuncture. The transport and logistics sector is one of the most important to keep us alive. The Freight News South Africa’s publication has highlighted some keys to the proper functioning of the global supply chain: Globally, movement restrictions, health screening, and border controls and closures – put in place to ward off the virus that caused Covid-19 – had led to an estimated 18% average decline in annual turnover for goods transported by road, Hügel said Unlike anything before it, the Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of harmonising legislation governing the transport of goods across borders. This was the message from all four speakers at the second webinar hosted by the Southern African Transport Conference (SATC) earlier this month. The webinar explored Covid-19’s impact on freight and logistics, and was addressed by Transnet group chief executive Portia Derby, TradeMark Africa senior director of transport Abhishek Sharma, and International Road Transport Union senior advisors Jens Hügel and Kazeem Asayesh. The view of every speaker was that harmonising the legislation that governs cross-border good transit would bolster economies by reducing transport and warehousing costs, and thus increase individual countries’ resilience in the face of economic crises. Sub-Saharan Africa had taken several hard knocks due to...

Trademark East Africa (TMA) partnered with the Burundi Federal Chambers of Commerce (CFCIB) signed a Public Private Dialogue project in Burundi worth this Wednesday 9th. September, 2020. The project is expected to last for 2 years aiming at providing a platform to expose communication challenges for Burundi traders as well as trade Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs). The project comes midst coronavirus pandemic where Burundian traders encountered several challenges related to the free movement of goods and the lack of enough information on trade, customs, and goods clearance procedure. The country representative of TMA Christian Nibasumba while launching the project focused on its importance as it will enable and provide materials on key trade procedures and drive the evolvement of trade and environment affairs in Burundi and in the region. “We intend to come up with solutions of different challenges that affects businesses in transport and logistics affiliated to it, facilitating trade along with industry in general to reduce different existing barriers, to harmonize customs procedures, and at last enhance standard and phytosanitary norms”, said Mr. Nibasumba. The project is expected to reinforce the technical capacity of CFCIB together with sectorial chambers and hand over clear support to the National Committee of Non-Tariff barriers to allow them to become proactive first-actors of this East African Community region. Among key takers of the Public Private Dialogue, the project targets and concentrates on advocacy on PSOs (Public Safety Officers) institution support as well as provide a platform of dialogue on trade facilitation such as...

This presentation was made by Ms. Gloria Atuheirwe of Trade Mark East Africa during the Virtual public forum on the Plight of Women Traders during the COVID-19 pandemic; Trade in Services, Trade in Goods and the Policy Environment held on Thursday, 10th September 2020. [download id="55709"] Read original article

The East Africa Community (EAC) Secretariat and its Partner States have rolled out a Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTS) in a virtual event held Tuesday. RECDTS is designed as a mobile phone application and will enable the issuance of the EAC COVID-19 digital certificates that are mutually recognised by Partner States, thus eliminating need for multiple testing as well as contributing to alleviating ongoing congestion at East Africa border crossing points. The RECDTS App is designed to stop Corona in its tracks along EAC key transport corridors. The roll out was witnessed by the EU Ambassador to Kenya H.E Simon Mordue and the Ministries of Health in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and the Ministries of East Africa Community in the Partner states. RECDTS provides a surveillance system to monitor long distance truckers crew health and enable contact tracing. It allows partner states to electronically share truck drivers’ COVID-19 test results; therefore, minimising need for multiple COVID-19 tests in a single trip. The reliance on manual certificates and delayed test results at the borders has been reported as one of the main reasons for costly long delays at border points, such as those witnessed in Busia, Malaba, Nimule and Elegu. Some of the delays have caused tail backs of trucks measuring tens of kilometres in some cases. Also Read  WHO ramps up COVID-19 support to hotspot countries in Africa The EAC developed the app with funding from European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and United Kingdom through...

The RECDTS App is designed to stop Corona in its tracks along EAC key transport corridors The East Africa Community (EAC) Secretariat and its Partner States today held a virtual roll out event to mark the technical completion and development of the Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTS). RECDTS is designed as a mobile phone application and will enable the issuance of the EAC COVID-19 digital certificates that are mutually recognised by Partner States, thus eliminating need for multiple testing as well as contributing to alleviating ongoing congestion at East Africa border crossing points. The roll out was witnessed by the Chair of the EAC Council of Minister, Hon Prof Nshuti Manasseh,  Ministers of Health from Kenya and Uganda as well as the EU Ambassador to Kenya, H.E Simon Mordue. RECDTS provides a surveillance system to monitor long distance truckers crew health and enables contact tracing. It allows Partner States to electronically share truck drivers’ COVID-19 test results; therefore, minimising need for multiple COVID-19 tests in a single trip. The reliance on manual certificates and delayed test results at the borders has been reported as one of the main reasons of long delays at border points, such as those witnessed in Busia, Malaba, Nimule and Elegu. Some of the delays have caused tail backs of trucks measuring tens of kilometres in some cases. The development of EAC the app with funding from European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and United Kingdom through TradeMark Africa was in accordance with...

The launch of a regional electronic cargo and driver tracking system which had been slated to take place mid last month and later postponed was launched virtually on Tuesday, September 8. It is one of the measures introduced by the East African Community to prevent further spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) infections in the region. The virtual rollout of the East Africa Community Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTS) was broadcast live from the Malaba-Malaba border crossing point between Uganda and Kenya and the Mirama Hills-Kagitumba border crossing point between Uganda and Rwanda. During the event, officials linked and transmitted a real-time demonstration of driver registration and verification of EAC digital certificate at the borders. The system will issue jointly recognised EAC Covid-19 digital certificates, which will improve efficiency in regional freight transport, by avoiding multi testing for drivers at all points of entry. Despite the borders being closed to human traffic in most regional countries, cargo transport has remained in operation, but drivers are subjected to multiple tests at borders which leads to delays. The EAC developed the App with funding from the European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and the United Kingdom through TradeMark Africa and in accordance with the mandate given by a joint ministerial meeting of EAC ministers responsible for Health and EAC Affairs. The App provides a surveillance system to monitor the health of long-distance truck crew members and enable contact tracing. It allows partner states to electronically share truck drivers’...

The launch of the new Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) last week provides an excellent opportunity to reset the UK’s economic engagement with low- and middle-income countries. As the new department takes shape, it is crucial to consider the stated benefits of bringing development and diplomacy together through this merger of the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). One area in which the benefits could be large and visible is economic development, but so far there has been little attention to the role of the FCDO as an economics ministry. This is perhaps surprising: DFID is rightly proud of its recent experience in managing economic development programmes such as Trademark East Africa and Nepal’s Economic Policy Incubator. A new set of essays, published last week by ODI, considers 10 ways the experience of the FCO and DFID could underpin economic policy in the FCDO. Ten new opportunities for the FCDO The essays offer 10 economic development proposals for an imaginative new approach to capitalise on mutual interest and help achieve development goals. They are: 1. Publish a coherent UK–Africa strategy This must help to reinvigorate UK-Africa trade and investment relationships following a decade of stagnation, during which time Africa has stepped up engagement with other parts of the world. Leaving the EU means the UK needs to consider new trading arrangements with African countries, which are set to integrate through the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The UK-Africa Investment Summit in January also needs follow up. It is time for an ambitious Africa strategy. 2....

No cruise ships are docking at the port of Mombasa but the business has continued uninterrupted with cargo ships delivering goods from across the globe. The business at East Africa’s largest port is further buoyed by the resumption of flights and increased demand for jet fuel, after a six months suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re now importing jet fuel, we’re seeing a little bit of growth on that side. In terms of bulk cargo and general cargo, it’s okay, we have not seen much drop, maybe 3 percent,” Captain William Ruto, the General Manager harbor operations master said. According to Ruto, there is a steady rise in operations as compared to the last three months where general cargo and petroleum products slumped slightly. “In terms of bulk cargo, that’s general cargo, we were not hit that much. The decline was less than 3 percent. In terms of container vessels calling, we had few blank sailings, that’s ships not calling on schedule which I can say on average from 2020 Feb. to Aug. we had about 6-8 percent.” Data from the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) shows the Mombasa port’s overall throughput was 34.44 million tonnes in 2019 compared to 30.92 million the previous year, marking a growth of 11.4 percent. Total transit throughput also posted a growth of 3.6 percent to 9.95 million tonnes in the same year. Captain Ruto however submitted that during the six months of the pandemic, those results were slightly affected. Mombasa’s port is crucial to serving landlocked countries including Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Figures...

The Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC) received 33 cases from July 2019 to June this year, highlighting yet another milestone for the dispute settlement institution. The record included three emergency arbitration cases, according to KIAC. Beyond Rwanda, the cases registered in the year 2019/20 came from eight countries including India, Singapore, Egypt, China, Kenya and France. Overall, 67 per cent of the new cases were domestic in nature while 33 per cent were international. KIAC says the increase in international cases is a statement of confidence that Rwanda is playing a key role in positioning Africa on the market of international arbitration, as well as its global appeal to users from diverse legal systems and cultures. Launched in 2012, KIAC was established by the Rwanda Private Sector Federation (PSF) in partnership with the government. Since then, about 160 cases have been submitted to the centre missioned to do commercial justice by the use of arbitration and other alternative dispute resolutions such as mediation and adjudication. The biennial 2020 SOAS Arbitration in Africa Survey Report ranks KIAC amongst the top three arbitration centres that were chosen in Africa. This, KIAC says, confirms that fact that it is now one of the leading arbitration institutions in Africa providing ADR services in both national and international contexts. KIAC administers cases under its arbitration rules and those of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) arbitration. The Secretary General of KIAC, Fidele Masengo, said the centre has achieved a "milestone". "When we...