THE Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), Libérat Mfumukeko, has stressed on the need for EAC member states to work closely in order to improve road safety and transport infrastructure in the bloc. In his condolence message to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta following the aftermath of the Kericho bus tragedy that occurred last Wednesday, the Burundian diplomat described the accident as a yet another call to all EAC partner states to continue to work together in curbing the scourge of road accidents. “We have lost too many lives in the recent past; this, therefore calls for an urgent need for member states to continue to work together improving transport infrastructure,” he observed. In the same vein, the secretary general commiserated with the families that lost their loved ones in last Wednesday’s tragic road accident at Fort Ternan in Kericho, which 56 people perished. “On behalf of the EAC and on my own behalf, I convey my heartfelt condolences to your Excellency, and through you to: the bereaved families, relatives and friends of the passengers, the government and the people of Kenya,” condoled the EAC secretary general. According to estimates by TradeMark Africa (TMA), road fatalities are said to reduce the economic output of EAC countries by about $115.6 million per year assuming average productivity per person lost to a road traffic fatality. The people lost would more than likely have long lives resulting in an estimated $5 billion worth of lifetime productivity from each year’s cohort of road...

Windhoek – Ports in Southern Africa are not upfront with their terminal handling charges, which makes the ease of doing business in the region difficult and the hidden cost thereof ridiculously expensive, says Ed Richardson, Freight and Trade Weekly correspondent. Richardson said while a growing number of ports in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is open to negotiation on charges, some simply do not respond to requests for information and information seekers have to rely on the World Bank for available data. This, he said, is due to the heavy competition experienced by the different transport corridors where there is no harmonisation of tariffs or political will to unify trading across borders. He stressed that ports that have invested in certain routes for over 100 years and have depots there would never advise a customer to go through another port. There are huge variations in terminal handling costs in the six ports in SADC countries, namely Namibia (Walvis Bay), Mozambique (Maputo, Nacala and Beira), South Africa (Durban) and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam). According to figures provided, the Walvis Bay port is unusually expensive, with double or three times higher tariffs, followed by Maputo and Durban, while the Dar es Salaam, Maputo, Nacala and Beira’s costs, which are the lowest, are on average similar. For example, for handling 20 feet cargo in transit, the Walvis Bay port charges US$216.88, while Maputo and Durban would handle the same cargo for US$148 and US$123, respectively. This is in stark contrast to...

After 20 years of bitter conflict, the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia is officially open for business and merchants are trading freely across the former war zone. Where soldiers stared each other down as recently as six months ago, a relaxed army presence now watches horse-drawn carts and buses full of visitors, as trade and tourism crosses the border of Africa’s longest-running conflict. Business booms between former rivals Merchants in the disputed territories once fought over between Eritrea and Ethiopia are now enjoying the benefits of open trade and a huge spike in the movement of people. For two decades, little more than soldiers, refugees and rebel fighters moved across the closed border between the two countries. However, now goods and people are free to cross the border, filling merchant shelves with goods that were previously out of reach. More importantly, the peace deal between Eritrea and Ethiopia has transformed a barren war zone into a border bustling with activity and potential customers for merchants to sell their product to. There are some early concerns developing from the open border, though. The business boom is accompanied by a surge in the number of Eritrean refugees crossing the border into Ethiopia in a bid to escape the repressive regime of Isaias Afwerki. There are also problems for Ethipiopian traders dealing with their new Eritrean partners, who have to deal with the unstable value of the Eritrean nakfa and unregulated exchange rates. While both governments have said they hope renewed trade will boost their economies,...

In March 2018, African heads of State gathered in Kigali to launch an initiative that will increase the level of intra African trade. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) points out that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a move in the right direction for the continent, as it will cover a market of 1.2 billion people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion, across all 55 member States of the African Union. In terms of numbers of participating countries, AfCFTA will be the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. Considering that informal cross border trade (ICBT) is a source of income to about 43 per cent of Africa’s population, boosting informal cross border trade on the continent is an integral part of achieving sustainable development. Further, small and medium-sized enterprises account for around 80 per cent of the region’s businesses. UNECA also indicates that women are estimated to account for around 70 per cent of informal cross border traders in Africa and are exposed to challenges such as harassment, violence, confiscation of goods and even imprisonment. By and large, ICBT is largely practised by the officially unemployed and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and is therefore also important for strategies of inclusion. An example of an intervention that is worth mentioning is one by TradeMark Africa (TMA) in a project in Rwanda aimed at increasing the economic power of women in informal cross-border trade. The project...

Fourth G20 Summit that saw over 55 heads of delegation attend came to close on Friday after a two-day meeting on the sidelines of IMF and the World Bank annual meetings with Argentine Minister of Treasury Nicolás Dujovne underscoring the progress made by member states. “We have discussed the outlook of the global economy, which remains positive, while global growth projections remain steady. However, the expansion has become less even across economies, and some of the downside risks that were discussed earlier in the year are starting to materialize,” Dujovne held. Dujovne said that monetary policy was normalizing in advanced economies while emerging ones were experiencing rigid financial conditions while other markets were experiencing market instabilities. The representatives from the G20 agreed to cooperate so as to sustain global financial stability. He said, “We agreed that international trade is an important engine of growth, and we need to resolve tensions which can negatively affect market sentiment and increase financial volatility.” 20 finance ministers, 17 central bank governors and 10 heads of international organizations attended the occasion in Bali, Indonesia which was chaired by Nicolás Dujovne, Argentine Minister of Finance and Verónica Rappoport, Second Vice-president of the Argentine Central Bank. IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group also attended the conference where discussions on threats to global economy, trade tensions and financial susceptibilities took place. Before the close on Friday, discussions around developing infrastructure as an asset class took place to promote private...

After decades of unabated downturn, rail transport is steadily bouncing back, thanks to technological innovation, a shift in management approaches and effects of climate change. This has seen increased sensitisation on environmental issues. But in Africa, this renaissance has encountered some bottlenecks, owing to inadequate government commitment in some countries. The African Development Bank (AfDB), in its 2015 report titled Rail Infrastructure in Africa: Financing Policy Options, said Africa is experiencing an unprecedented economic recovery, with strong growth projections over the next three to four decades. According to the report, the growth was driven by a fast-growing demographic and large-scale urbanisation. The operation of new mines, gas and oil fields, as well as the increase in intra-regional and international trade, were additional growth factors. Notably, the transport sector can accelerate and intensify trade in Africa. Rail transport, in particular, as a result of its energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower cost per tonen kilometre, is expected to play an increasingly important role in the conveyance of freight over long distances. In comparison to other means of transportation, railways are particularly useful in mass transit systems for both inter-city and urban settings. Investment But even as Africa becomes more and more attractive as a destination for infrastructure financing in many sectors such as energy, telecoms and transportation, investment in railways is still small compared with other sectors. This calls for more institutional reforms and more mature financial markets to up-scale the implementation of new approaches to infrastructure finance commonly...

After decades of unabated downturn, rail transport is steadily bouncing back, thanks to technological innovation, a shift in management approaches and the effects of climate change, which have seen increased sensitisation on environmental issues. This renaissance has encountered some bottlenecks, owing to inadequate government commitment in some countries. The African Development Bank, in its 2015 report Rail Infrastructure in Africa: Financing Policy Options, says Africa is experiencing an unprecedented economic recovery, with strong growth projections over the next three to four decades. According to the report, the growth is driven by a fast-growing demographic and large-scale urbanisation. The operation of new mines, gas and oil fields, as well as the increase in intra-regional and international trade, are additional growth factors. Notably, the transport sector can accelerate and intensify trade in Africa. Rail transport, in particular, as a result of its energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower cost per tonne kilometre, is expected to play an increasingly important role in the conveyance of freight over long distances. But even as Africa becomes more and more attractive as a destination for infrastructure financing in many sectors such as energy, telecoms and transportation, investment in railways is still small compared to other sectors. This calls for more institutional reforms and mature financial markets to up-scale the implementation of new approaches to infrastructure finance commonly found in developed countries such as project bonds. In Kenya, the standard gauge railway, a flagship project of Vision 2030, financed by the China Exim Bank, has already...

You are in the tech industry. What opportunities can East Africa leverage from the sector? I firmly believe the time is now for East Africa to really leapfrog and catch up with other parts of the developing world, and the way to do that is with digitisation. Digitisation, especially if it is done properly, the one benefit you get out of all that is trust. When you have trust in the data that you are collecting, that you are storing, that you are analysing and you are using to make decisions then you have a much better chance of ensuring a more favourable outcome. One of the biggest problems of businesses, whether they are East African or international, is the lack of trust about doing business in Africa. They [investors] cannot trust that the money that they are putting into these countries is going to be used properly, effectively, and that they are going to get returns they expect. Therefore, it is so much easier to move your money to a different part of the world and, as I said, we can raise our trust levels once we start using technology to capture everything digitally. Do you have specific examples of how this can happen?  One technology, I think, is going to take us to the next era of digitisation is blockchain. Blockchain is a technology that allows you to store data about a transaction in multiple places simultaneously in a ledger so multiple people can have information simultaneously about...

Kisumu International Airport, has recorded much-improved traffic of over 32 flights per day with reduced affordable air tickets that have made customers enjoy an enhanced competition by airlines. This is an indication of increased activity and passenger traffic between Kisumu and Nairobi and Mombasa. While Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport are ‘international’ in their true sense, meaning serving regional and international destinations, Kisumu has not yet been elevated to this status. Early this month, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said it also has plans to shift the miraa transportation and cargo from JKIA to Isiolo International Airport, which will be serving the Somalia market. The implementation of the international status can greatly enhance the logistics, trade and tourism of Kisumu. As it is, Kisumu serves the whole Western Kenya and South Rift Region. The recent major milestone was in regards to a direct flight from Kisumu to Mombasa. With an increased investment in road network and infrastructure in the region, especially the Sirare-Ahero Road among others, transportation, logistics and warehousing opportunities have great potential. In recent times, the hospitality industry has expanded with increased openings and investment in infrastructure. Investment in hotels and transport has been on an upward trend and visitors no longer lack better accommodation. In addition, the county governments along the lake have increasingly mapped out the tourist sites, national parks and game reserves. As of the six months to June 2018, imports from Uganda, already stood at Sh30.2 billion. Kenya’s exports...

Arusha. The six member countries of the East African Community (EAC) are considering changes to their respective immigration rules. This development comes almost eight years after a deal that was meant to recognise post-training certificates issued by the member countries failed to boost cross-border movement of professionals as originally intended. Established as an economic bloc that aimed at leading to, and result in, regional economic integration and, finally, a fully-fledged East African Federation, the community is currently made up of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. In the event, the six countries are contemplating functional regulatory and other frameworks that would not only allow, but also enable, professionals who are nationals of the EAC member countries to freely move across the common borders to engage in employment, research and related activities in countries of their choice. Noting that several measures had already been taken to achieve the common objective of facilitating cross-border exchange of labour and services, officials at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha said that the measures had nonetheless largely failed in that objective. These include the Common Market Protocol, put in place in 2010 to allow the free movement of Labour/Workers, Persons, Services, Goods and Capital, as well as the Rights of Establishment and Residence. “We are working on a regulatory framework that recognises temporary movement of labour so as to enable professionals who (for example) want to relocate for just a few days to complete their projects,” said the EAC principal education officer, Dr James...