Government has listed priority areas to energise the economy in financial year 2020/2021 against the backdrop of widening trade deficits and local revenue gaps. In its report on the Budget Framework Paper presented by the Committee on Budget, MPs warned of a growing trade deficit. The report blames the decline on trade wars with Kenya and the closure of Uganda’s border with Rwanda which has frustrated commercial activities. Tanzania, which has always shown cold shoulders to East African Community economic integration projects, has also been singled out. Victoria University “…[T]he trade surplus with EAC slowed down in the FY 2018/2019 compared to FY 2017/2018 mainly on account of existence of non-tariff barriers in some of the partner states – most especially in Tanzania,” partly reads the report. It continues: “the temporary closure of Uganda-Rwanda border and the decline in agricultural exports such as beans and maize to the region has also affected trade.” In figures, Uganda’s trade deficit has shot from $2.4 trillion to $3.7 trillion, an increase of $1.2 trillion (about Shs4.4 trillion). In recent months, Kenya has banned Uganda’s milk from its market and levied prohibitive taxes on poultry products from Uganda, a protectionist response to demands from local farmers to bar Ugandan products from their market. Rwanda, on the other hand, has maintained a closed border with Uganda, and an expected rise in global oil prices, noted the Committee, will worsen the economic situation, as government largely relies on petroleum imports to fuel the economy. To address...

The African Union-led agreement is designed to establish the world’s biggest free-trade zone by area, encompassing a combined economy of $2.5-trillion A truck and trailer drives into a Beitbridge customs and immigration control point on the SA border with Zimbabwe. Picture: REUTERS Nyoni Nsukuzimbi drives his 40-tonne Freightliner for just more than half a day from Johannesburg to the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe. At the frontier town — little more than a petrol station and a KFC — he sits in a line for two to three days, in temperatures reaching 40°C, waiting for his documents to be processed. That’s only the start of a journey Nsukuzimbi makes maybe twice a month. Driving 885km farther north gets him to the Chirundu border post on the Zambian frontier. There, starting at a bridge across the Zambezi River, trucks snake back miles into the bush. “There’s no water, there’s no toilets, there are lions,” says the Zimbabwean. He leans out of the Freightliner’s cab over the hot asphalt, wearing a white T-shirt and a weary expression. “It’s terrible.” By the time he gets his load of tiny plastic beads — the kind used in many manufacturing processes — to a factory on the outskirts of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, he’s been on the road for as many as 10 days to traverse just 1,600km. Nsukuzimbi’s trials are typical of truck drivers across Africa, where border bureaucracy, corrupt officials seeking bribes, and  myriad regulations that vary from country to country have stymied attempts...

Conference is being hosted jointly by Pakistan and Kenya and will also be attended by dignitaries from other African States. Conference will provide an important opportunity for Pakistani and African businesses to interface, identify the areas for enhanced engagement, and develop proposals for customized economic collaboration. During the visit, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will hold meetings with the Kenyan leadership including Cabinet Secretaries for Foreign Affairs & International Trade, African Community and Northern Corridor Development. Source: IPPMEDIA

There has been much hype about a major Africa investment summit being hosted by the UK. Attended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and an array of royals, a great deal of hopeful win-win-win rhetoric abounded linked to forging new partnerships for a post-Brexit future.At the summit, Ghana, it seems, is being given top treatment as a favoured destination, while Zimbabwe appears to have been snubbed despite being “open for business”.UK aid policy these days is focused on promoting UK trade interests abroad, with the government adopting a global business promotion approach for UK firms. The linking of aid and trade, of course, has a history in Britain.In 1994 the Pergau dam scandal – in which aid was used as a sweetener for an arms deal – led to the commitment to untie aid. It also led to the establishment of a separate development department and an Act of Parliament specifying how aid must be spent. This consensus on aid since the mid-1990s, however, is now under threat. Trade and investment can, of course, help reduce poverty, promote women’s empowerment and be good for children’s rights.But the opposite may be true too. There are many different business models – and so labour, environmental and rights regimes – with very different outcomes. We’ve been looking at some of these issues over the last few years across several projects.All were funded by the UK’s Department for International Development. The project compared three broad types of commercial agricultural investment: estates and plantations; medium-scale commercial farms;...

The Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) has started the process to construct part of the 460-kilometre East African Coastal Corridor development project. Tenders were advertised for the two phases of the 13.5km Mombasa—Mtwapa (A7) section, which entails the construction of a four-lane dual carriageway. The works include construction of a grade separated junction, service roads, storm water drains, major and minor drainage structures, access roads and social amenities along the road. The project has already received funds from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and a grant from the European Union. Last June, Gabriel Negatu, East Africa director general of AfDB said construction of the road would begin this year. “Both the Kenya and Tanzania governments have finalised all their requirements to pave way for the construction of the coastal highway,” Mr Negatu said. The Coastline Transnational Highway project, conceived more than two decades ago, covers Bagamoyo-Tanga-Horohoro on the Tanzania side and Lunga Lunga-Mombasa-Mtwapa-Malindi on the Kenyan side, and is expected to cost $751 million. According to an agreement signed last November, AfDB will finance 70 per cent of the highway and the governments of Kenya and Tanzania will cover 30 per cent. Last December, AfDB approved of the $384.22 million financing package for the road construction a few months after the EU gave a grant of $33.41 million or 7.7 per cent of the total project cost to the government of Kenya. The road is a priority item in AfDB’s Eastern Africa Regional Integration Strategy and the Country Strategy Papers...

The UK this past week opened a new chapter in its relations with African countries at a summit to set the tone for the country’s trade and diplomatic ties with the continent after exiting the European Union. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosted leaders from 21 African countries in London, where 27 deals worth an estimated $8.5 billion (£6.5 billion) were signed at the UK-Africa Summit held on January 20. The summit came just months after Japan and Russia hosted African leaders in their respective capitals last year. “We want to build a new future as a global free trading nation, that’s what we are doing now and that’s what we will be embarking on, on 31st of January,” Mr Johnson told the gathering in London. “But I want to intensify and expand that trade in ways that go far beyond what we sell you or you sell us.” The tone of the meeting signalled a shift in Mr Johnson’s attitude towards Africa. Eight years ago, as mayor of London, he wrote a commentary in the Spectator Magazine suggesting that Africa would have been better off if the UK was still its colonial master. Britain expects to start an 18-month transition from being a member of the EU beginning January 31, to being an independent country capable of signing bilateral or multilateral trade deals. Britain may have to renegotiate all trade deals initially signed under the EU, including with African countries. In the EAC, for example, Britain had been a...

With the AfCFTA expected to increase intra-African trade by 52 per cent by the year 2022, the journey towards making it a reality is in high gear. The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement seeks to have the removal of tariffs on 90 per cent of goods traded within the continent. Towards this, UNCTAD and the African Union have developed an online platform to help remove non-tariff barriers to trade in Africa. The tool became operational on January 13. Moving goods across the continent Traders and businesses moving goods across the continent can now instantly report the challenges they encounter, such as quotas, excessive import documents or unjustified packaging requirements. To improve the movement of goods across the continent and reduce the cost importers and exporters in the region face, the tool will help African governments monitor and eliminate such challenges which slow trade costing the continent billions of dollars annually. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 seeks to transform Africa into a global powerhouse of the future. The need to envision a long-term 50-year development trajectory for Africa is important as the continent needs to revise and adapt its development agenda due to ongoing structural transformations; increased peace and reduction in the number of conflicts; renewed economic growth and social progress; the need for people-centred development, gender equality and youth empowerment; changing global contexts such as increased globalization and the ICT revolution; the increased unity of Africa which makes it a global power to be reckoned with and capable of rallying support around its own...

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta at the London Stock Exchange. The country’s $40 million debut green bond received a lukewarm reception. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP Kenya and Rwanda are hoping to expose the East Africa region to sophisticated foreign investors after floating two bonds on the London Stocks Exchange (LSE) last week. However, Kenya’s $40 million debut green bond received a lukewarm reception with no trading recorded in the first week. While the cross-listing of the bond was intended to expose investors to a deep market that is significantly liquid, the issue has failed to generate interest from investors with LSE market statistics reflecting zero trading. Trading of the bond by Nairobi-based property developer Acorn Holdings has been flat in the secondary market. The World Bank floated a $40 million Rwandan Franc bond that offers investors an annual coupon of 9.25 percent payable in US dollars when it matures in 2023. The World Bank intends to raise funds to invest in government bonds issued in the local market. Source: The East African

Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA) has announced that in partnership with TradeMark Africa ( TMA), $12 will be invested in the construction of bridges across Lake Kivu in a bid to promote transport and facilitate trade. Residents of the five districts that touch on Kivu Lake said they have to cross the lake on a daily for different activities but that the travels last so many hours, some of them even spending the night halfway. All that is attributed to the lack of infrastructures including ships and bridges. Residents of Rubavu, Rutsiro and Rusizi told Radio Rwanda that having ships to allow them to cross over as well as ports, it would facilitate them enormously. Rutavogerwa Mussa, a resident of Rutsiro district said "There is a tourist ship which travels daily from Cyangugu to Rutsiro. It would be a great addition to our lives if we had one too as we would be able to travel to Cyangugu in 4 hours instead of 12." Rubavu and Rusizi residents requested more ships to avoid spending the night midway. Munyurwa Robert, a resident of Rubavu district said that some travelers, for fear of spending the night midway, choose to pass by the Democratic Republic of Congo to reach the Rusizi district. He said that with identification papers, you can take Rubavu-Goma-Bukavu-Rusizi route and that it is the shortest route. "cement, sand, alcohol and coal merchants use Goma-Bukavu-Rusizi route to reach Kamembe and it is very costly." Baziruwiha Valens said that due to...

The Epower forum, recently hosted at Nairobi’s Movenpick Hotel, unfolded the key issues regarding the way in which E-commerce can enable cross border trade for women in light of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA). In attendance were over 150 women owned SME’s. The basis of the event touched on how cross border trade can be made simpler, more cost effective, whilst creating new business opportunities and enhancing social development. This comes at a time where the advancement of technology is at an unprecedented level. Eric Wainaina, from Africa’s talking, said “It is annoying to hear, that Africa is not at par with the rest of the world concerning technology. It’s not true” With regards to how E-commerce is relying on technology, it was made increasingly clear that the uptake of more technology will allow for seamless patterns, instead for operating in a fragmented manner, ensuring more out of the value chains. This was emphasized by Gloria Atuheirwe, Director Women in Trade East Africa, “ICT to facilitate trade, automating and making trade easier. ICT to be the building blocks for improving outreach, processes and efficiency”. Outlining trade issues from two perspectives, barriers and cost of trade, alluding to how technology can ease up those processes. Through the inception of the Epower forum, women globally have learnt how to plug into E-commerce learning to harness the power of internet skills. Source: CIO East Africa