Business experts have challenged the African youth, the continent’s biggest market, to consume products made in Africa if the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) Agreement is to be successfully implemented. According to some leading African entrepreneurs, trade and business experts, the profile of African products will be enhanced once Africans place them on top of their preferential list. The push for “Made in Africa First” came to the fore during a panel discussion on CFTA at the ongoing Youth Connekt Africa Summit in Kigali. The conversation sought to explore the benefits of the historic CFTA deal that was signed by African Heads of State and Government in Kigali early this year. “Right now, CFTA is at the signing phase and then ratification phase will follow. But after that, the actual challenge is about implementing,” said Issam Chleuh, Managing Director of Suguba Ltd. The Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) has similar trading arrangements, he said, yet it is still difficult to move goods between the member states because the existing laws are not enforceable. “We need to have a consumer mindset shift. If today Africans decided that we are going to consume Made-in-Africa before anything thing else, it would be one big way to push African products to a desired level,” Chleuh added. Chleuh’s assertion resonated with what was said by Rwanda’s Prime Minister. About 70 per cent of Africa’s population is under the age of 30, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said, suggesting that with Africa’s population projected to double by...

Fourteen years since the East African Community's Customs Union became operational, the Community has postponed the thrice the date of its full implementation. The region was expected to achieve full implementation of the Customs Union in 2010, but has postponed the deadline indefinitely as issues such as the harmonisation of internal and joint collection of taxes are yet to be thrashed out. Subash Patel, chairman of the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries, says that even though the Common External Tariff had been fully achieved, partner states are now choosing to go it alone because of slow implementation at the regional level. He cites the case of Uganda and Kenya, which have gone ahead and implemented the 35 per cent external tariff on steel products to protect their industries. Tanzania, on the other hand, has failed to do so, something that Mr Patel says is hampering the growth of its steel industry, as substandard and cheaper steel products from Asia flood the market. In its current form, experts say, the EAC Customs Union is benefiting a handful of people in the region and a larger number in India and China. This is out of sync with the premise that EAC integration is pro-East Africans. Currently Customs Union implementation benefits politically connected traders importing goods into the EAC. Nicholas Nesbit, chairman the East African Business Council, says the increase in imports and policies whose net effect is keeping East Africans in poverty can be blamed on partner states ignoring the voices of manufacturers...

East African Community member states will be racing against time to operationalise a single currency regime to eliminate exchange rate risks, boost trade and investment in the region and read from the same page of financial and economic policies. The establishment of a common currency regime constitutes the third pillar of the EAC integration, after the Customs Union and the Common Market, with political federation concluding the integration. The protocol for the establishment of the East African Monetary Union (EAMU) was signed in November, 2013 by the EAC member states, setting up a roadmap for a Monetary Union within 10 years, implying that a Single Currency regime should be up and running by the year 2024. EAC member country therefore has six years to implement a single currency regime and three years to comply with key macro-economic convergence criteria on inflation, fiscal deficits, forex reserves and public debt. The EastAfrican has however learnt that while the partner states have made some significant progress in laying the ground work for the Single Currency regime, there is still more work to be done. Community technical teams need to burn the midnight oils to realise the dream of a Monetary Union which also provides for the establishment of a single Central Bank for the region. It has emerged that while member countries are struggling to meet the macro-economic convergence criteria, the critical pieces of legislations required to set up Monetary Union institutions are yet to be put in place. The EastAfrican has learnt...

Nearly two decades after the region’s leaders signed on to the revival of the East African Community, progress on integration remains a case of one step forward, two steps back. The past 10 years or so have been particularly significant, having witnessed the geographical expansion of the Community from the initial three members to six, with a combined market of some 150 million people. Although it has been the cause of unease that threatened several initiatives, a Common External Tariff has for years brought predictability to the region’s external trade and given key sectors a level of protection across national borders. But that is as far as the good news goes. While the Common Market Protocol promised much, delivery has been staggered as the partner states employ different tactics to circumvent the more uncomfortable of its provisions. The result has been a disjointed Community where five of the member states have harmonised their financial year while one still holds out. Citizens can enjoy harmonised calling rates while roaming through four of the states, while they bleed money just to receive calls while transiting through the other two. Firms cannot deploy staff to Tanzania for short-term technical work, since Dar insists on a work permit. Citizens from elsewhere in the region cannot register businesses in Kenya and Tanzania without entering into partnerships with locals. Ugandan traders are for instance required to pay for a visa before they can engage in any business in Tanzania. Citizens from other member states have to...

The port of Mombasa is losing business from Rwanda as more traders opt for the to Dar es Salaam. Figures from the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) show that 70 per cent of Rwandan imports passed through Tanzania via the Central Corridor. Only 30 per cent of the country's imports passed through Mombasa port before finding their way into Rwanda through the Northern Corridor. According to the RRA Deputy Customs Commissioner Alex Mujeru, recent improvements at the Dar es Salaam port had spurred efficiency, coupled with a relatively shorter distance from the Tanzanian port to Kigali. This has encouraged Rwandan traders to use Dar for their imports. “So many changes have taken place along the Central Corridor since the East African Community (EAC) initiated the Single Customs Territory (SCT) which have led our traders to favour the Dar port,” said Mr Mujeru in an interview with The Standard in Kigali last week. “For example, the non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that hindered transport of cargo in the Central Corridor, and which led our importers to take the business to the longer Northern Corridor beginning from Mombasa port, have been eliminated. The Dar port is more favourable now,” he added. Some of the NTBs include roadblocks. From Dar to Kigali, there were 28 roadblocks, which could slow down transportation of cargo by up to 16 days. The roadblocks have since been reduced to four, cutting cargo transport to Kigali by up to seven days. Again, as a result of the enactment of SCT along...

A photo on the East African Community’s (EAC) website is worth a thousand words: It shows two beaming faces; one of the EAC Secretary General and the other of a senior official in the German Ministry of Foreign affairs. Germany had just pledged funding worth 61.5 million Euros to commemorate 20 years since its cooperation with the EAC. The cooperation is nothing more than the annual financial aid without which the EAC would not function. That is a state of affairs the community had not been ashamed to live with all that time. In fact, the German official alluded to it when he suggested that the EAC strengthen its own financial resources. It was like reminding them that they were tired of supporting someone who was unwilling to stand on their own. Every now and then, we hear about EAC members falling behind with their financial contributions. Some have arrears that go back years as if they are members by name only but have no real commitment. When we have members that have not fully implemented the Common Market Protocol, when Non-Tariff Barriers are still in place and have not yet adopted the Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) to ease the movement of professionals in the region, one wonders whether the monetary union – leave alone political federation – will ever see the light of day. The image of the EAC SG gratefully shaking hands with the German godfather is really disturbing and we should be ashamed of moving around with...

Arusha. The German government’s committment of 61.5 million euros (Sh162 billion) to the East African Community (EAC) is set to boost the private sector development in the region. Also to benefit are entrepreneurship projects for the youth as well as technical and vocational training. “We, at the EAC, fully embrace the priority areas embedded in our cooperation with Germany,” said EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko here on Friday. He spoke to a high powered delegation from the economic power house in Europe which visited Arusha with a pledge of 61.5 million euros as economic support to the region. The event coincided with the 20th anniversary of the joint partnership between Germany and the EAC economic bloc which was in its infancy stage. Mr Mfumukeko hailed the German support to the Community in the last two decades, saying it has enabled the bloc to record significant achievements in diverse sectors. Sectors which benefited include monetary harmonisation, trade and customs, institutional capacity strengthening, health and pharmaceuticals,gender and education and the Partnership Fund. Economic diversification, mobilisation of the private capital, value addition and investment in entrepreneurship are among other priority areas in the German-EAC development cooperation, he explained. Mr Niels Breyer, the head of the Division East Africa at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Germany, elaborated his country’s support to the EAC is based in the Marshal Plan for Africa. The plan aims aims to support the six partner countries in the region in implementing the development visions...

Arusha/Dar. The East Africa Legislative Assembly (Eala) has turned down the much-anticipated EAC regional Statistics Bill after the Committee on Communications, Trade and Investment (CTI) overturned recommendations made by the ministerial committee. Many of Eala members from the six partner states wanted Section 7 (2) of the draft made during the ministerial committee meeting to be reinstated. In the ministerial committee through the section in question ministers proposed that the director position for the new regional body should be filled by people who hold a master’s degree in statistics with ten years of experience. However, after going through the recommendations, CTI proposed that the head of statistic bureaus from the partner states should automatically hold the positions. It was sent back for amendment and will be debated in the next session scheduled for November. “The Bill drew stiff debate in the house as most of the members opposed the proposals made by the CTI,” Dr Abdullah Makame, from Tanzania told The Citizen over the phone. Reports indicate that Tanzanian Eala members wrote a letter to the Clerk of the regional Assembly on Monday to request for reinstatement of the earlier provision of Clause 7 (2) of the said bill. In effect, Tanzanian member, supported by those from other member states rejected the amendments. Thirteen lawmakers from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan supported the adjournment of the debate of the crucial legislative document. However, Paul Musamali from Uganda opposed the Motion on adjournment of the Bill as announced by...

The East African Business Council has asked member states of the East African Community to adopt the regulatory framework for Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs), as stipulated in the region’s Common Market Protocol, in order to facilitate easy movement of professionals in the region. Nicholas Nesbitt, the Council Chairman said although the six member states signed the protocol, the movement of labour especially in specialized fields has not been implementing because of the failure by member states to implement MRAs. MRA is an international pact by which two or more countries agree to recognize one another’s conformity assessments. The objective for signing an MRA is to enable professionals in one country to be recognized in all regional states, thereby easing free movement of specialized services across the region thus facilitating free movement of professionals across the EAC. Currently, professionals including veterinary doctors, accountants, architects, and engineers, among others cannot freely export their services in the region. According to Nesbitt, the challenge is that some partners have not liberalized some services sectors under the MRAs while others lack regulatory authorities to facilitate implementation of the MRAs. “Tanzania has not liberalized the architectural and veterinary services while Kenya has not liberalized the veterinary services,” said Nesbitt. To overcome such challenges, the East African Business Council wants the EAC member states to finalize the signing of all pending MRAs alongside liberalizing of professional services where MRAs have been negotiated among the member states. Furthermore, to ease the movement of professional skills in the region,...

East African Community partner states continue to introduce tariff and non-tariff barriers that are hindering intra-regional trade and putting integration at risk. Manufacturers of confectionery in Kenya, oil and fats in Uganda and a wheat and juice producer from Tanzania reported encountering tariff and non-tariff barriers that blocked them from entering regional markets. Yasin Billo, export manager of Tanzanian industrial conglomerate Bakhresa Group, said the company currently has 15 trucks stuck at the Tanzania-Kenya border because the Kenya Revenue Authority changed the rules and systems for exporting goods to the country. However, Tanzanian Commissioner for Customs and Excise Ben Usaje said Bakhresa Group believed they were being mistreated because of the continued dispute over Kenyan confectionery. Customs officials in Tanzania have blocked Kenyan confectionery products because they were allegedly manufactured using sugar that was imported at zero rate, instead of the EAC’s 100 per cent CET. Sugar dispute In 2017, Kenya faced a sugar crisis that prompted importation of sugar at a zero tariff. Under the EAC regulations, this rate should have been 100 per cent, since sugar is a sensitive product that needs protection from dumping. Mr Usaje said it is this sugar that the confectionery manufacturers are using and such products will not be allowed into the Tanzanian market unless a 25 per cent import duty is paid on them. Mr Usaje added that Kenyan confectionery will not enjoy duty free rates in the Tanzanian market until the EAC forms another committee that declares their processes legitimate. An...