Players in the transport sector have started mapping out black spot areas along the Northern Corridor in a bid to end road carnage. Ten “priority black spots” were identified in the five-day exercise conducted by the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Co-ordination Authority (NCTTCA), Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) and the Traffic Police Department. The exercise began along the Northern Corridor routes from Mombasa on March 4 and ended in Kisumu on March 9, 2019, covering a total of 845 kilometres. The 2015 Global Road Safety Status Report by the World Health Organisation shows that Kenyan roads are amongst the most dangerous in the world, claiming an average of 29.1 lives per 100,000 people. The report also revealed that road crashes are among the top ten killers and account for between 45 and 60 percent of all admissions to surgical wards that cost the country up to 5 percent of GDP. NCTTCA said the key objective for the exercise was to “confirm the existence of priority black spots and come up with a major injury and fatalities based black spot analysis”. The project was also meant to prepare guidelines on black spots management along the Northern Corridor route in Kenya and help in funds mobilisation in order to address safety concerns at the black spots. NCTTCA executive secretary Omae Nyarandi told Shipping & Logistics that the aim of the survey was to identify, diagnose and address issues that cause accidents,...

The proposed African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), currently being negotiated by 55 African countries, is a positive inter-regional initiative, one that is intended by its architects to be the largest free trade zone in the world, with a population of approximately 1.2-billion and a combined GDP of $2.5-trillion. The effort to unite the economies of Africa into a single free-trade agreement began at the 18th ordinary session of the assembly of the African Union (AU) heads of state and government, held in January 2012 in Addis Ababa. The participants agreed to progressively eliminate barriers to trade, services, intellectual property and investment in the context of an ACFTA. Such a pact would build on existing sub-regional and bilateral arrangements and help create a more integrated market in the continent. Since its signing in March 2018, the agreement and its associated protocols and annexes have been open for country-level ratification. For the treaty to enter into force, a minimum of 22 countries must ratify it. Ratification processes vary by country, but generally include approval by the legislative body and consent by the executive branch of the country. It is important for African countries to recognise that signing a trade pact is not the same as achieving free trade. To be sure, constructing a free-trade area (FTA) linking some of the middle-income and poorest countries, and largest and smallest countries in Africa, is a daunting task. Given the diversity of incomes, factor endowments and comparative advantages of these nations raises the question...

The United Kingdom is working to modify its trade and investment approach to African countries, Emma Wade-Smith, the UK Trade Commissioner for Africa has said. In an exclusive interview, the envoy told The New Times on the sidelines of the on-going Africa CEOs Forum that her country has been engaging African countries on trade and investment for the past two years. Throughout the process, Wade-Smith said, the UK has been highlighting its stance in Africa and reinvigorating the approach towards investing and trading with the continent, especially as it prepares to leave European Union (EU). The UK is currently in the process to divorce from the EU, despite a stalemate on the form of the separation that has kept the process in balance over two years after British people, through a referendum, voted to leave the bloc. “We want to focus increasingly on supporting income development and market access, particularly capital markets and other financial markets, which I know are key drivers for job creation and economic development,” she noted. Britain targets to become the largest investor in Africa, she said. UK trade investment in Africa currently stands at a little over 30 billion pounds, which makes it the second largest investor in Africa. “We have an ambition to become the largest G7 investor in Africa over the next three to four years. I am ambitious for what we can do and I see there are opportunities across a whole range of sectors,” she said. Last year, British Prime Minister Theresa May...

Women are severely underrepresented in newsrooms and other areas of the media industry in Rwanda, an issue that has remained enigmatic to all stakeholders involved. This subject was top of agenda at a conference on gender equality and women empowerment in the media sector that was held Tuesday. The conference was organised by ARFEM (the Association of Rwandan Female Journalists) with support from United Nations Development Programme and Media High Council. Different discussions at the meeting centred on gender gaps within the media, how to build strong women’s voice in media content, among others. A recent study by Media High Council shows that there are over 34 radio stations in the country but all were established by men and mostly managed by men, with only two women with top managerial roles at these radio stations. This is the same with TV stations which are 14 and were all established and are managed by men. Peacemaker Mbungiramihigo, the Executive Secretary of Media High Council, said that even though more women are involved in the wider communication sector, few have gained positions at the decision making level, on governing boards and bodies that implement and influence media policies. With this, he pointed out that there is need to seek ways to make greater push for the advancement of women in the media sector. Mbungiramihigo pointed out factors such as mind-set, fear and culture that tend to hold back women from making it to the top echelons of the industry. “This important forum...

Africa lags behind in the international trade of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) goods earning just a small percentage from the lucrative sector. The continent’s share of the USD 2.1 trillion in 2017 remained negligible despite the demand for electronic components used in Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices driving the value of trade in international ICT goods in 2017. According to figures released by UNCTAD, trade in ICT goods grew slightly faster than merchandise trade representing 13.4 per cent of the total in 2017. The Global ICT Trade Indicators. Africa still lags behind importing more than it exports. The global market however shrunk from the 16.1 per cent high during the dot-com boom in 2000 but it remained the highest in two years. By comparison, in 2017 machinery and transport equipment accounted for 37 per cent and food for 8 per cent of merchandise imports. “This is the first time that global ICT goods imports have rebounded since 2014, showing a good 6 per cent annual growth and bringing a reprieve to the past two years of decline,” Shamika Sirimanne, Director of the Technology and Logistics Division at UNCTAD, said. Among ICT products, trade in electronic components continued to expand with an annual growth rate of 8 per cent – just below that of computers and consumer electronics (9 per cent) – and it shows long-term, steady growth. “The expansion of electronic components, which are the basic building blocks of electronic circuits and semiconductors, reflects the fact that more and more products...

On a trip to East Africa last week, a beaming French President Emmanuel Macron was driven through the grounds of the Kenyan president’s official residence in a locally assembled Peugeot 3008 car. Two days earlier, he toured churches hewn into the rock in Ethiopia. On a visit last year, he went to a Nigerian nightclub. Macron, 41, is trying to recast the style of France’s engagement in Africa, where it was once a colonial power, hoping that building warmer cultural and personal ties will help boost business, trade and investment. He signed contracts worth about €2 billion ($2.27 billion) while in Kenya, whereas British Prime Minister Theresa May did not conclude any on a similar trip last August. A consortium led by Vinci secured a 30-year concession worth €1.6 billion to operate a highway linking the Kenyan capital and Mau Summit in western Kenya. Renewables firm Voltalia sealed a €70 million contract for a solar power plant and an Airbus-led consortium won a €200 million deal for coastal and maritime surveillance. But Macron’s four-day tour of Kenya, Ethiopia and former colony Djibouti showed how big a battle France faces in Africa, where China, Turkey and others have moved in quickly and aggressively, and competition is fierce from African countries. In 2017, French exports to Kenya, a former British colony, were about $200 million — about half Uganda’s exports to its neighbor. China exported $3.8 billion, making it Kenya’s biggest trading partner. The personal touch is vital when competing with China,...

Ethiopia’s parliament on Thursday approved the membership of the country into the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), bringing the number of ratifications across the continent to 21. The African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Albert Muchanga took to Twitter to celebrate the news, describing the decision as timely and historic. ‘‘One more parliamentary approval and we move towards launch of the operational phase of AfCFTA,’‘ read part of Muchanga’s tweet. While up to 44 African countries enacted the AfCFTA last year in Rwanda, 22 ratifications are required to effectively bring the agreement into force. Once in force AfCFTA will be the largest trade zone in the world, increase intra-African trade by 52% by the year 2022, remove tariffs on 90% of goods, liberalise services and tackle other barriers to intra-African trade, such as long delays at border posts. Source: Africa news

Tanzanian and rwandan tour operators have signed an agreement to promote their tourism products as one package. The pact between the Tanzania Association of Travel Operators (TATO) and Rwanda Tours and Travel Association (RTTA) signed in Kigali on March 5, is designed to market the two countries as complementary destinations and offer more products to tourists. “The key objectives of this strategic partnership is to make the best use of our comparative tourist products advantages for mutual benefits. We are hopeful that it will be a fruitful partnership," said TATO chief executive officer Sirili Akko, who signed the deal with the RTTA vice chairperson Carolyn Namatovu. The agreement was the culmination of a networking event in Kigali to share ideas on how to improve tourist numbers in the two countries. The organisations will introduce travel itineraries that cut across the border. Rwanda and Tanzania are popular tourist destinations, and each country recognises tourism as an important forex earner. The sector contributes over 50 per cent of Rwanda’s gross domestic product, mainly through the sale of permits to track the endangered mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park. The cost of one such permit was doubled from $750 to $1,500 in 2017. Other top tourism products offered by Rwanda are chimpanzee watching and a canopy walk offering scenic views in Nyungwe Forest National Park, plus kayaking and boat cruising in Lake Kivu. Tanzania is known for exceptional wildlife viewing safaris in its national parks, which now is number 21 after five...

A majority of African countries collect only about 16 percent of their GDP in taxes undermining their capacity to fund development projects. South Africa and Rwanda are some of the few countries that have been able to leverage new technologies to expand revenue collection to at least 25 percent. Ms Vera Songwe, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) executive secretary, said the ability to increase revenue collection is key to the continent’s capacity to finance its own development, in particular Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and Africa’s Agenda 2063. She was speaking at the opening session of the 38th meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Marrakesh, Morocco on Thursday. “The potential of Africa is, and has always been, promising. With a growing working-age population; abundant arable land and a multitude of other resources, the continent has all the pre-requisites for rapid economic transformation in the next decade,” she said. “However, ensuring the availability of adequate public resources and quality investments to drive structural change requires responsive policies that promote fiscal sustainability, optimise returns from economic activity, and enable economies to fully participate in an increasingly interconnected and globalised world.” At the conference, delegates are expected to discuss modalities of how to better finance Africa’s growth and ways to ensure that the young populations participate in the economies. Adam Elhiraika, the director of the macroeconomics and governance at ECA said African countries greatly needs policies to diversify...

Just when poverty-reduction efforts around the world were already slowing, recent forecasts indicate that the global economy is heading into a period of deepening uncertainty. That makes measures to boost growth and expand economic opportunity all the more urgent – which is why revitalising trade must be high on the global policy agenda. The evidence is clear: as an engine of economic growth and a critical tool for combating poverty, trade works. With today’s trade tensions, it is easy to lose sight of the progress the world has made over the past few decades of economic integration. Since 1990, more than one billion people have lifted themselves out of poverty, owing to growth that was underpinned by trade. And today, countries are trading more and deepening economic ties even faster than in past decades. There are currently more than 280 trade agreements in place around the world, compared to just 50 in 1990. Back then, trade as a share of global GDP was around 38%; in 2017, it had reached 71%. Open trade is particularly beneficial to the poor, because it reduces the cost of what they buy and raises the price of what they sell. As new research from the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation makes clear, farmers and manufacturing workers earn more income when their products can reach overseas markets. In Vietnam, for example, a series of trade reforms in the 1980s and 1990s helped transform the country into an export powerhouse, sharply reducing poverty there....