The government of Rwanda has secured funding from the Netherlands to finance the development of four ports at Lake Kivu, with the aim of increasing maritime transport, trade and tourism. According to the agreement, the Netherlands will co-finance 45% of the construction of the ports and their facilities. Development of the port will be done with the support of TradeMark Africa who is financing 50% of the project while the government will finance the remaining 5%. The US $24m project will be built in the four districts of Rubavu (Nyamyumba), Rusizi (Bugiki), Karongi (at the Karongi cross-border market), and Rutsiro (Nkora region). They are projected to be operational by 2022. The Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA) said that there will be three major ports with a capacity of about 1.5 million passengers per year, projected to reach 2.8 million by 2036. A smaller port, the fourth planned port, in Karongi District will start with a capacity of about 300,000 passengers per year by 2020 and 400,000 passengers by 2036. Development of port infrastructure Rose Rutera, Transport Division Manager at RTDA, said that procurement of the first two ports (Rubavu and Rusizi) is at the final stage while the procurement for the remaining two ports (Nkora and Karongi) will start Early 2020. “Port development is prerequisite of the overall maritime transport initiatives, which will be followed by the development and operation of ferry services on Lake Kivu. At the moment, we don’t have good infrastructure from where we dock our boats....

The European Union and COMESA have signed 8.8 million Euros Contribution Agreement to increase private sector participation in sustainable regional and global value chains through improved investment/business climate and enhanced competitiveness in the COMESA region. The funds will be used to implement the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Program (RECAMP), focusing on agro-processing, horticulture and leather products. RECAMP will also support pre-selected value chains based on the potential to generate value addition, job creation and attraction of investments to the region. The EU Ambassador to Zambia and Permanent Representative to COMESA, HE Jacek Jankowski and Secretary-General to COMESA Chileshe Kapwepwe signed the Agreement. RECAMP will address critical issues, such as the provision of business information, facilitating market linkages, harmonizing regional industrial policies and creating a conducive business environment to attract investments. It will strive to ensure collaboration with activities of national trade support institutions and business development and service organizations in the Member States as they provide services to value chains as part of their mandate. These include product development; facilitate technology transfer, provision of business intelligence and connection to buyers. The program will identify champions or lead firms within the selected value chains that have both backward and forward linkages with SMEs and other intermediary firms in order to enhance effect coordination reduce coordination failures and improve competitiveness. In her remarks, Ms Kapwepwe said the program will make efforts to enhance the capacities and skills of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to make them capable players in...

The 20thEdition of the annual East African Community Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSES) Trade Fair, formerly known as JuaKali Nguvu Kazi Exhibition is set for 13th to 22nd December, 2019 at Gikondo Expo Grounds in Kigali, Rwanda. The 20th Edition Trade Fair themed;EAC@20: Building EAC through Micro and Small Enterprises jointly organized on a rotational basis by the EAC Secretariat, the East African Confederation of Informal Sector Organisation (EACISO) in collaboration with EAC Partner States, brings together artisans from the six (6) EAC Partner States comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. According to the Director-General Customs and Trade at the EAC Secretariat, Kenneth Bagamuhunda, the MSE’s trade fair is expected to attract up to 1,300 exhibitors from EAC Partner States’ Trade Facilitation Institutions and EAC Organs and Institutions. He disclosed that during the exhibitions, daily symposia will be conducted to build the capacity of the artisans on integration matters and other issues pertinent to the development of their businesses. The key areas of capacity building that will be covered by the symposium component include the following: Cross Border Trade, the EAC Simplified Trade Regime and dealing with NTBs Products value addition Standards, Quality Assurance, Metrology and Testing (SQMT), Benefits and opportunities of the EAC Integration Process to SMEs EAC Rules of Origin MSMES and MSE’s development and opportunities in the Republic of South Sudan The 20th MSE’s EAC Exhibition is expected to be officially opened by His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda....

The chief executive of Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Clare Akamanzi, has challenged local entrepreneurs to improve the competitiveness of their products, arguing that for a product to be made in Rwanda is not enough for people to buy it. She was speaking in Kigali on Tuesday at the inaugural National Business Forum (NBF) organised by Private Sector Federation. “Would a person buy a product made in Rwanda, just because it is made in Rwanda? Definitely no! We derive a lot of pride in being able to make things in Rwanda and to be able to live those goals in the country… it is a source of a lot of pride. But when it comes to quality, patriotism is not enough,” she said. Akamanzi further explained that the products to be branded nationally and internationally, they should be competitive in terms of quality and standards. The Chief Executive Officer of the National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB), Bill Kayonga, explained that quality and consistency should go hand in hand. “Out there, Rwanda has become increasingly associated with quality, getting things done, having a clean environment. In whatever we do, we really have to focus on quality. And there are quite a number of factors that also determine that.” At the market out there, he explained, consumers want consistency in the production of quality. Among other topics, the NBF discussions revolved around raising the competitiveness of local products, mindset change, building the brand for locally manufactured products as well as investing in...

In December 2017, the Government of Rwanda issued the Made in Rwanda Policy which provided a holistic roadmap aimed at increasing economic competitiveness by enhancing Rwanda’s domestic market through value chain development. Though the Made in Rwanda was being promoted for some years through the private sector, the new policy was aimed at bringing together existing government interventions under a clear policy framework and to address supply-side bottlenecks. Four years down the road, according to the Minister of Trade and Industry Soraya Hakuziyaremye, the numbers show that Made-in-Rwanda has taken major strides and contributed greatly to the economy. Hakuziyaremye, who was speaking at the inaugural National Business Forum (NBF) organized by the Private Sector Federation (PSF) said that since 2015, Made-in-Rwanda has contributed about Rwf510 billion to the economy –a sign that Made-in-Rwanda works. “The average rate of expansion of the manufacturing sector has been at a greater rate after the Made in Rwanda campaign started,” “In the three years prior to the campaign, manufacturing was stagnant at Rwf323bn for 2 consecutive years,” she said, citing the stagnated period being between 2011 and 2014. “From 2015 onwards, we have seen an annual growth of 11 percent on average contributing Rwf510bn in the last fiscal year,” “Adding mining and the construction sector, the contribution of the industry sector to the GDP is Rwf1456bn, up 49 percent from 2015,” she said, adding that Made-in-Rwanda works. In regard to exports, Hakuziyaremye said that the yearly rate of export growth has risen since the...

The 20th Edition of the annual East African Community Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Trade Fair, officially known as JuaKali Nguvu Kazi Exhibition is set for December 13 to 22 at Gikondo Expo Grounds in Kigali, according to the EAC Secretariat. The trade fair themed “EAC@20: Building EAC through Micro and Small Enterprises” jointly organized on a rotational basis by the EAC Secretariat, the East African Confederation of Informal Sector Organisation (EACISO) in collaboration with EAC partner states,  brings together artisans from the six partner states: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. In a statement, the Director-General Customs and Trade at the EAC Secretariat, Kenneth Bagamuhunda, the trade fair is expected to attract up to 1,300 exhibitors from EAC Partner States’ Trade Facilitation Institutions and  EAC Organs and Institutions. It is noted that during the exhibitions, daily symposia will be conducted to build the capacity of the artisans on integration matters and other issues pertinent to the development of their businesses. Key areas of capacity building that will be covered by the symposium component include: cross border trade; products value addition; standards, quality assurance, metrology and testing; benefits and opportunities of the EAC integration process to SMEs; the bloc’s rules of origin; in addition to small and medium enterprise development and opportunities in the South Sudan. More about the JuaKali Nguvu Kazi Exhibition The EAC Secretariat in collaboration with the partner states and EACISO have organized the annual exhibition, since 1999, in order to support promotion of the...

On July 7, 2019 African Heads of State and Government held their summit in Niger and signed up the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The signing was a continuation of a long process. It includes the summit where 44 Heads of States and Governments met in Rwanda in March 2018 to deliberate on the matter. The free trade area is among the key issues of discussion in the continent and beyond. New as it is, there are many unknowns in this potentially very important initiative to boost trade in Africa. This piece contributes in making the AfCFTA more known. AfCFTA The AfCFTA is a free trade area outlined in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 of the 55 African Union nations. Source: The Citizen

Parliamentary Diplomacy has played a key role in Global Governance. Experts from all over the world have analysed empirical case studies to demonstrates that parliamentarians and parliamentary assemblies have an increasingly important international role. The European Parliament, said to be one of the strongest autonomous institutional actors in world politics has been at the center of Parliamentary Diplomacy but the world has been turning attention to Africa: looking into the role of parliament and cabinet in foreign policy making, especially in South Africa and the East African Legislative Assembly. According to Weiglas and de Boer (2007, pp.93-4), Parliamentary Diplomacy is the full range of international activities undertaken by parliamentarians in order to increase mutual understanding between countries, to assist each other in improving the control of governments and the representation of a people and to increase the democratic legitimacy of inter-governmental institutions. In this article, Joel Okwemba, the Managing Director at the Centre for International and Security Affairs, shares his thoughts on Why we need a Structured Parliamentary Diplomacy for Africa. Why we need a Structured Parliamentary Diplomacy for Africa. However, opportunities are abounding when it comes to: how Parliaments interact with Foreign Policy questions; how Parliaments engage with the State on these questions; how to create form and structure on Parliamentary Diplomacy; and in the development of academic and theoretical literature on the Parliamentary Diplomacy theory in Africa. Parliamentary Diplomacy also referred to as Parlomacy[1], creates opportunities that are alternatives and complimentary to traditional diplomatic approaches that rely on...

The African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism’ was organised as part of the 3rd African Pension Funds and Alternatives Investment Conference. It was well attended by an audience mostly composed of industry players – private pension fund administrators, trustees, asset managers, government pension funds and development finance institutions. This grouping clearly demonstrates the interest to develop such initiatives to scale up greater investments in the African infrastructure space. The session was moderated by Dr Morgan Pillay Senior Infrastructure Finance Expert from GIZ, who presented the objectives of the AUDA-NEPAD session. To objectives were; to gauge the appetite of institutional investors (pension funds) for the implementation of the African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism and discuss its financial potential; and to make use of the Pension Fund conference platform to consult on what can make the concept a reality. This includes possible implementation strategies and concrete action steps towards scaling risk mitigation and an African Guarantee Scheme to enable the mobilisation of African pension fund investment for African infrastructure. The session panel, with representatives from the AUDA-NEPAD, the African Development Bank; the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Trade and Development Bank gave its interpretation of the African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism as instrument of risk mitigation. Industry players were requested to give their thoughts on how the development of such initiative could bring value in facilitating alternative investments in the African Infrastructure space. Deliberations included working with development partners in the development of similar initiatives such as the African Development Bank and its co-guarantee...

Last week, Rwanda president Paul Kagame sounded war drums in a terse tone to an anxious parliamentary chamber. The president promised hell to his country’s enemies who have “gone behind their backs.” This came on the backdrop of a relatively successful year in the region marked by several positive developments. The DR Congo is open for business, leading a number of high-powered trade missions in the region. Peace in the DRC has also given breathing space to the Banyarwanda/Banyamulenge diaspora to trade at the borders and further inland. The local unit has absorbed this effect in its strengthening against the US dollar at a record 3,680 to the greenback up from 3,950 in July 2018. The DRC has started talking to Uganda over the $10 billion war debt arising from liability imputed by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Inside the DRC, there may be some tension between former president Joseph Kabila’s party, which is normal as he wants to potentially run for office again, but president Tshisekedi hasn’t run into direct combat with him, leaving that task for his Chief of Staff and political coalition partner. There is now a big opportunity for Uganda and Rwanda to relocate factories into the Congo, especially if DRC’s application to enter the East African Community, (EAC) is considered. In South Sudan, the warring parties are being nudged towards a settlement. Even Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby are planning to come. The price of crude oil may yet...