A Ugandan citizen has dragged the government of Rwanda to the East African Court of Justice over what he terms as an illegal closure of border posts early this year. On February 28, Rwanda closed its borders with Uganda in Katuna and Chanika in Kabale and Kisoro districts respectively. Mr Steven Kalali, an advocate says he is aggrieved by the conduct of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He accuses him of ordering immigration and revenue officials at the border posts not to allow Ugandan citizens and traders to cross into the country over unjustified reasons. In a petition he filed against the Attorney General of Rwanda, Mr Kalali contends that what Rwanda has done defeats the spirit of the East African Treaty, Free trade and Common Market Protocol since the closed border posts were also serving other countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. Mr Kalali filed his petition at the registry of the East African Court of Justice at the Supreme Court in Kololo, Kampala. In his petition, Mr Kalali wants the justices at regional court, to order Rwanda open its borders that have been closed since February 28, opened, to allow a free movement of Ugandan citizens and goods in the spirit of free trade. The closure affected hundreds of cargo trucks destined for Rwanda. The Rwandan authorities advised the truck drivers to turn back and use Mirama Hill border in Ntungamo District, which is 100 kilometers away. Initially, Rwanda claimed it had closed the borders to...

An African trading bloc on Thursday urged member states of three regional economic blocs to sign and ratify the free trade area agreement as the deadline nears. Three regional blocs namely the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East Africa Community and the Southern African Development Community signed the tripartite agreement in June, 2015 in Egypt, comprising 26 countries. In a statement released after a meeting of the COMESA Intergovernmental Committee in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, the regional bloc urged member states to sign and ratify the agreement which lapses this month. The statement said so far only four countries in the three regional blocs ratified the agreement. The deadline of April 2019 was set in June last year during a ministerial meeting in South Africa, the statement added. Christopher Yaluma, Zambia's Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry said it was time for the remaining countries to sign the tripartite given that it was supposed to be the building block to the Africa Free Trade Area Agreement. "I can not overemphasize the absolute importance of all of us ratifying the tripartite agreement so that it enters into force immediately. After years of negotiation, the tripartite free trade area is ready for implementation," he said. The Zambian minister said 93 percent of the work of rules of origin has been completed, providing the basis for trade to begin while legal texts have been concluded and adopted. Source: Xinhua

Nigeria exports rubber and crude oil to South Africa. We earn more if we export more, and this gives us more purchasing power to buy minerals from Ivory Coast and visit the Gambia for holidays. In turn, Ivory Coast can now buy fertilisers from Morocco and mineral fuels from Nigeria. By trading amongst themselves, these countries get the broadest range of goods and services at the lowest cost. This is the principle of comparative advantage and trade; rather than trying to do everything themselves, each country focuses on the products with the lowest opportunity costs. Should Africa unite on trade? A quick look at the trade profile of developing nations will show their reliance on developed nations in trading relationships. For example, 80% of Mexico’s exports go to the United States, and Nigeria’s trade with other African countries represents less than 10% of our annual trade activities. Nigeria’s story is replicated around Africa, and that is the problem that ought to be solved by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). It seeks to create a Free Trade Areawithin the continent that would reduce or remove barriers to facilitate the movement of goods and services. Previously, African countries tried to boost regional trade through international commodity agreements (ICAs). As many African countries mainly trade commodities, the idea was to establish agreements that would help stabilise export prices and commodity supply. Over time, however, ICAs grew increasingly ineffective as negotiations were driven by political rather than commercial concerns. Developing country exporters came to look at the ICAs...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), an agreement trade between participating African countries , has received the minimum number of ratification needed to come into effect. This comes after Gambia signed the agreement becoming the 22nd country to ratify the deal hence effectively helping meet the minimum threshold, 12 months after the agreement was tabled in Kigali, Rwanda in March last year. The trade bloc spanning 49 countries with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$3 trillion, will facilitate inter-regional trade, boost growth and help to alleviate poverty. According to a report by New Times Rwanda, meeting the minimum ratifications opens room for negotiation among signatory members on aspects and modalities of effecting it. Among the major aspects to be deliberated include rules of origin, tariff concessions, payments and settlements, non-tariff barriers and trade information among others. Its promotion of tariff-free movement of goods, people and services across the continent is also expected to favour SME’s, who account for 80% of Africa’s employment and 50% of its GDP, according to the World Bank. Due to the nature of its complexity as well as involving multiple parties, trade experts have said that there is need for governments to commence the process immediately in order to meet its implementation target of mid-2020. Once in place, the AfCFTA will cover a market of 1.2 billion people and with the multitrillion GDP, it is the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization seven decades ago. According to the United Nations...

The African continent is set for a major shift in Private Equity investment trends after a major announcement was made in Nairobi this week. During the 16th annual African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) conference, fund managers from around the globe, mainly the US and European markets said they are ready to deploy up to US$1 trillion for investment in the continent. This is through PE funds, a move that now places the continent at a strategic position to tap into the funds for investments in various areas. If tapped by local investment firms, the pool of funds could more than double the number and value of deals reported in the last six years, with regions such as East Africa, West Africa and Sothern Africa reaping big. “It is a plus for Africa,” said Baba Alokolaro, Managing Partner at Nigerian law firm- TNP (The New Practice),“From what we have seen, investors are taking Africa more serious than they had in the past,” Alokolaro who led a team of experts from TNP to the Nairobi event said the continent should angle itself for more deals this year, singling out Kenya as one of the countries set to benefit in East Africa. “We expect to see a lot of deals going forward. In East Africa, Kenya will remain a top investment destination,” he said. AVCA latest data shows the value of reported African PE deals between 2013-2018 was US$25.7 billion, on a total number of 1,022 deals. During the period, total...

STRATEGIC establishment of more special economic zones (SEZ) will transform and build a strong industrial economy in the region, EPZA Director General, Joseph Simbakalia has said. “Special economic zones contribute significantly to social economic development and rapid industrial upgrade in the country,” he told a delegation from Kimaka Defence College in Uganda that visited the Benjamin William Mkapa Special Economic Zone in Dar es Salaam yesterday. He said in a presentation that the special economic zones also contribute to building up industrial production output with high impact on export trade and employment. He said the EAC regional integration is an important platform that offers huge market opportunity to investors and attract more inflows of investments into the partner states for building strong industrial base. “Establishing more strategic export processing zones in the region with such a bigger market opportunity is vital and can hook more investment to benefit the economies of the partner states,” he noted. He said it was important to invest more on export processing zones to capitalise on the regional geographical advantage of the Indian Ocean mentioned in the recent studies that it will in the future control over 60 per cent of the global trade. He underscored the need of bringing onboard the participation of local private sector in order to achieve industrial sustainability and building inclusive industrial economy. For example, he said the increased manufactured export led products will definitely boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings to benefit the economy as well as making the...

Ikigo gishinzwe gutsura ubuziranenge, RSB, cyahawe na Trade Mark East Africa (TMA), miliyoni y’amadolari ya Amerika, ni hafi miliyari y’amanyarwanda agenewe umushinga wo kwita no gukurikirana ubuziranenge ndetse n’ubucuruzi bw’ibiribwa. Aya mazererano hagati ya RSB na TMA yasinywe tariki ya mbere Mata 2019, gusa n’ubwo byanyujijwe muri TMA, amafaranga yatanzwe na USAID. Umuyobozi wa RSB n’uhagarariye TMA mu Rwanda nyuma yo gusinya amasezerano RSB ivuga ko uyu mushinga w’imyaka ine uzagirira akamaro abari mu ruhererekane nyongeragaciro rw’ibiribwa kugirango babashe kugera ku mabwiriza mpuzamahanga y’ubuziranenge, bikarushaho ku bafungurira imiryango ku masoko yo mu karere ndetse na mpuzamahanga. Iyi nkunga kandi izanafasha RSB kunoza imitangire ya serivisi ndetse no gutungaanya integanyabikorwa y’imyaka irindwi. Aya mafaranga ari muri gahunda ya TMA ya miliyoni 50 z’amadorali ya Amerika yemereye Leta y’u Rwanda mu guteza imbere gahunda zirufasha guhangana mu ruhando mpuzamahanga, ku isonga hakaba ibijyanye n’ubuhinzi nka kimwe mu bikorwa by’ubukungu gifatiye runini igihugu n’abagituye dore ko butanga 33% by’ubukungu bw’igihugu, bugakorwa n’abasaga 70% by’abaturage, bityo gutera inkunga ibikorwa by’ubuhinzi bikaba ari ugufasha ibibukomokaho byinshi kugera ku masoko, bigaha benshi akazi kandi bikarwanya ubukene. Nyuma yo gusinya aya masezerano, umuyobozi mukuru wa RSB, Raymond Murenzi yagize ati "RSB ifite ubushake bwo gufasha abikorera kubahiriza amabwiriza y’ubuziranenge no kugeza ibyo bakoze ku masoko yaba ayo mu karere na mpuzamahanga, ubufatanye twagiye tugirana na TMA bwatanze umusaruro mwiza, twishimiye kubuvugurura ngo turusheho kunoza imikorere". Patience Mutesi-Gatera uhagarariye TMA mu Rwanda we yagize ati, “Uko umusaruro ukomeza kwiyongera n’imbogamizi zo kugera ku masoko zigenda zivaho, niko ibijyanye...

Over the past three decades, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has seen a major restructuring in its trading relationships. Some countries, through regional communities such as the East African Community (EAC) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have deepened trade and economic ties with their neighbors, resulting in faster and more sustained growth. Until the early-1990s, almost 90% of the SSA region’s trading counterparts were extra-regional and predominantly advanced economies, with SSA mainly exporting undiversified primary commodity products and importing consumption and capital goods. Beginning in the early 1990s, trade with advanced economies began declining rapidly and was increasingly replaced with countries in emerging Asia, including but not limited to China. Over the same period, intra-SSA trade also rose sharply and is now at its highest since records began, making the SSA region’s trade with itself the third-most important regional export destination. Despite the increase of recent decades, it is generally accepted that intra-SSA trade is still low and has significant scope for growth. Like SSA, the trading relationships of other developing regions of the world are predominantly outward looking. In 2018, intra-SSA exports accounted for 21% of total exports to the world; in developing Asian countries, that figure was also 21%. But it was lower for countries of the Western hemisphere (16%) and the Middle East and North Africa (14%). Compare this to advanced economies – which trade more with each other – with exports to other advanced economies accounting for 64% of total exports in 2018, whilst imports...

British businesses are being urged to see beyond Brexit and look to new opportunities in Africa by an architecture and engineering firm celebrating 20 years of success in East Africa. FBW Group has operations in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania – but its roots are in the UK and it has a base in Manchester. It has now unveiled ambitious expansion plans across all four countries. The company’s growth plans come as the UK government works towards its ambition to be the largest G7 investor in Africa by 2022. That ambition was announced by Prime Minister Theresa May on a visit to Africa, alongside a range of measures to boost trade and encourage UK investment, including the creation of a new Africa Investors Board. An Africa Investment Summit is also planned later this year. It will bring together the UK and African governments, alongside major international investors to grow awareness of opportunities on the continent and ensure progress towards the 2022 goal. FBW Group says, regardless of its attempts to leave the EU, opportunities for UK businesses in Africa, with its young and dynamic population – set to make up a quarter of the world’s consumers by 2050 – are clear. FBW, a major player in the region’s construction and development sector, was founded in 1994 by architects and engineers working in Tanzania, including Geoff Wilks, from Stockport, who is still the chairman of the group. He arrived to work for an international company, recognized the opportunities that existed and...

With Gambia’s ratification, a massive new African free trade zone is springing into being, said a top African Union official on Tuesday. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) “market is being born and is one step ready for launch of its operational phase in July this year,” Albert Muchanga, African Union commissioner for trade and industry, wrote on Twitter. “The AfCFTA’s work on rules of origin; tariff concessions, payments and settlements; non-tariff barriers; and trade information are the other steps and are also progressing very well for the launch,” he added. The deal will make Africa the world’s largest free trade area created in terms of the number of participating countries since the World Trade Organization was formed in 1995. It will create a market of $3 trillion and a market of 1.2 billion people with no tariffs or border restrictions. Twenty-two countries are required to ratify the deal, and Ethiopia and Gambia took the deal over the line. Intra-African trade accounts for around 16 percent of the continent’s total trade, according to the African Union, and under the AfCFTA this could increase by half. Source: AA