In another article for nasdaq.com, IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener explained how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will revolutionize the industry and especially the supply chain. As Schiener describes, the supply chain is a constantly moving part of the corporate infrastructure, the pursuit of which is “traditionally a challenge” and “generally known for reactive rather than proactive analysis”. “That will soon change,” says Schiener. DLT can be applied to the traditional supply chain infrastructure to reverse the market logic and create demand chains. Instead of waiting for the market to respond to a product, a demand chain would ideally respond directly and in real time to consumer behavior and link the data back to the actual supply side. In effect, market demand could be met automatically as soon as it exists, rather than waiting for total supply to run out. This would empower businesses to not only have a wealth of supply chain data, but reform their supply chain processes to become more efficient and create a more sustainable future. However, as the IOTA co-founder also emphasizes, this requires consumers to trust the network. Ultimately, consumer transparency can only be implemented in a trustworthy ledger. In return, however, a demand chain would be created, which would mean a “relocation of actual production”. Contrary to the current system, in which supply is produced on the basis of past history, production would be based on demand. Ultimately, a highly effective system of rapid response to demand could be created that can be changed in the middle of...

App helps truckers skirt coronavirus challenges - Aviation tariff row sours German winemakers' sales

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Donatille Mukabalisa, has said that the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the need to embrace the savings culture. She made the observation on Monday, November 2, at a press briefing where she flagged off a countrywide tour of parliamentarians. The field visits, which run till November 8, aim to inspect government activities under the socioeconomic sectors amid Covid-19 pandemic, among other issues. MPs will discuss engage citizens on savings initiatives such as EjoHeza, the Speaker disclosed, adding that MPs will assess the budget use by the local government. EjoHeza is a pension scheme for informal sector workers. Increasing savings, Mukabalisa emphasised, is necessary to cushion citizens against adverse effects of emergencies. “The Covid-19 caused us major problems, but also provided lessons to us. We will talk to the people so that we establish whether they are using the savings initiatives that were established because you know that those who managed to save were not much affected [by the pandemic],” she said. “It [the Covid-19] thought us a lesson that requires us to find out whether residents are embracing the available [savings] initiatives.” Under EjoHeza, she said, there are categories of people that are entitled to savings support from the Government. Information from Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) – which administers EjoHeza— shows people in the first and second category of Ubudehe, the economically disadvantaged, must save a minimum of Rwf15,000 per year to qualify for the Government contribution equivalent to 100 per cent of...

The Labour party has urged the UK trade secretary, Liz Truss, to end delays over rollover deals with Kenya and Ghana to prevent them being slapped with high tariffs when the UK leaves the EU on 1 January. Negotiations with Kenya and Ghana have yet to be signed off with only nine weeks to go before the UK’s transition deal with the EU comes to an end, when import charges would be imposed on goods worth £2.6bn from the African countries. Labour officials fear Truss is trying to drive a hard bargain with individual nations that depend on foreign income from sales of bananas, cocoa and flowers to the UK to make up for deals that largely favour foreign imports. With EU trade talks hanging in the balance and discussions with the US barely started, the trade department signed a deal with Japan last month that the shadow trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, warned massively favoured the world’s third-largest economy. Shadow trade minister Gareth Thomas said in a letter to Truss that he was concerned that the department’s attention had switched from talks with the East African Community (EAC) trade bloc to bilateral deals with individual countries. He said that the failure to sign deals with Kenya and Ghana had left them unable to plan for next year and, worse, the current proposals left them facing duties on exports to the UK. “The terms of the continuity agreements you have been proposing would lead to new barriers to trade between both...

Representatives from the eight-member East Africa bloc are set to meet in the Kenyan capital Nairobi next week to assess the development for the regional infrastructure master plan due in December, the bloc said on Sunday. The two-day meeting organized by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) economic cooperation and social development division will seek to educate and inform stakeholders of way projects will be designed in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner with the necessary mitigation measures. The meeting will be attended by over 50 participants drawn from environmental and social issues connected NGOs and non-state actors from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Analysts say infrastructure development initiatives need to adhere to the right codes of environmental and social developmental requirements, espousing the motto of sustainable development. The regional infrastructure master plan is aimed at enhancing regional economic integration through trade, free movement of goods and persons and poverty reduction amongst IGAD Member States. The master plan is covering the regional sub-sectors of transport, ICT, energy and trans-boundary water resources. Read original article

Regional trade has hit a snub as a result of the COVID-19 greatly affecting border communities and traders. But could there be a compromise to enable an accelerated bounce back? CNBC Africa’s Arnold Kwizera spoke to Trademark East Africa Country Director, Patience Mutesi Gatera for more. Read original article

The East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP), the top private sector body for tourism in the region on Tuesday, October 20, advocated for harmonized reopening protocols in partner states. This is to allow east Africans and international tourists to take advantage of attractions in the region and discover the hidden treasures. The call was made during a press conference in Kigali, shortly after handing over of the baton between the Kenya Tourism Federation as outgoing host of the EATP secretariat and the Rwanda Chamber of Tourism, the incoming host of the secretariat. Fred Odek is the incoming chairperson, noted that it is important to have harmonised protocols including health or safety measures now in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Odek said: "If Rwanda is testing two times, for example, and Kenya more, why can’t we have this harmonised? The same goes for isolation." "We are looking at ways to harmonise protocols; without having harsh conditions, work out a way to ease travel in East Africa, because easing travel is easing doing business." The platform is encouraging east Africans to travel within their countries and the region. According to Susan Ongalo, CEO at Kenya Tourism Federation, they are looking more at "regional domestic tourism" where people travel using national IDs. She said: "As we hand over to the Rwanda Tourism Chamber we hope and are confident that EATP is growing farther." Odek stressed that there is a need to unlock the challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic to tourism to enable...

Last month, Mastercard announced a partnership with Samsung, Airtel Africa and Asante Financial Services Group to launch a Pay-on-Demand payments platform and drive the digital economy across Africa. By enabling digital access to everyday products and services for under-served consumers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the continent could experience positive economic growth covering even the poorest which has been elusive for decades. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) notes that the launch and growth of digital financial services has led to an unprecedented increase in the number of people enjoying access to formal financial services. Today, Africa has more digital financial services deployments than any other region in the world, with almost half of the nearly 700 million individual users worldwide. Mobile money solutions and agent banking remain the most preferred since they now offer affordable, instant, and reliable transactions, savings, credit, and even insurance opportunities in rural villages and urban neighbourhoods even without bank branches. This, quite literally, banking at your fingertips – is for everyone and it has revolutionised how transactions are carried out. The impact of this convenience is that it extends beyond the individual since the impact can be felt across society. “Ten years after the breakthrough of digital financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa, we are seeing evidence of this. Field studies show that access to mobile money services has increased daily per capita consumption levels of households, lifting them out of extreme poverty,” notes Reeta Roy who is the President and CEO of Mastercard...

Lack of preparation, poor bookkeeping and inability to write good proposals is hindering local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in horticulture from accessing funds from the €16.2m scheme. The €16.2m Investment in Horticultural Development in Rwanda (HortInvest) is a four-year project launched in 2018 funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Government of Rwanda. Bookkeeping means the recording of financial transactions, and is part of the process of accounting in business with. Running between 2018 and 2021, the project seeks to increase horticulture production and horticultural value chain, improve nutrition and support the growth of growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, Out of 153 proposals submitted since the launch, only 20 SMEs have managed to get grants from the project due to gaps that trigger rejection. SMEs in horticulture said that lack of adequate financial records, skills and other requirements have hindered them from accessing the funds. “We have challenges in bookkeeping. When you do not have ideal and clean financial records, sponsors become afraid of giving you money. That is why we tried to apply but in vain,” said Enock Nduwayezu, the owner of an SME “ZEAN Ltd” based in banana business in Nyabihu District. He said that his business engages in farming and buys bananas from other farmers and supplies to various markets while those which lack markets are used in bakeries for post-harvest handling. During peak seasons, he said, he supplies 12 tonnes per week and three tonnes during low season...

The new Ambassador of Rwanda to Zambia Amandin Rugira and the British High Commissioner to Zambia Nicholas Woolley have been accredited to COMESA as Permanent Representative and Special Representative respectively. The two presented their letters of credence to COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe on yesterday at the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka. Amb. Rugira reiterated his country’s commitment to regional integration pledging to build on what his predecessor had done towards serving the regional community’s interests for deeper economic integration. Woolley said the United Kingdom attaches great importance to having strong regional institutions such as COMESA to tackle key regional issues. “Today’s formal accreditation sets the scene for a stronger future relationship between COMESA and the UK, framed around our ambition for stronger partnerships for mutual benefit,” he said. As part of the collaboration, the UK government has announced a new partnership between Trademark East Africa and Zambia to improve trade flows at one of Southern Africa’s busiest borders – the Nakonde border post between Zambia and Tanzania were 135,000 trucks pass every year. Two weeks ago, the UK Minister for Africa James Duddridge visited the COMESA Secretariat and held discussions with Secretary-General on various areas including COVID-19 response, trade facilitation, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), support for the development of regional value chains and countries preparation for COP26 submissions At the same time, the Minister announced that the UK is partnering with the UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to provide advice and training to traders, governments and...