Importers in East Africa will from July operate under a common Customs bond, which guarantees uniform import duties and taxes across all partner states. Currently, the value of Customs bonds varies from country to country because of the application of different duty rates, valuation and sensitivity of goods. Kenya requires importers of transit goods to secure a Customs bond issued by an insurance company, while delicate or sensitive cargo requires a bank or cash guarantee. In Uganda and Rwanda, the Customs bond is issued by an insurance company with rates based on the taxes charged by the destination country. According to the East Africa Community Single Custom Territory Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, the common Customs bond will reduce the cost of doing business and goods turnaround time. This common Customs bond is expected to be adopted during the Council of Ministers in July as part of the pillar to create a Customs Union. It is meant to create a level playing field for the region's producers by imposing uniform competition laws, Customs procedures and external tariffs on goods imported from countries outside the EAC. The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee met in Mombasa, Kenya to discuss how to tackle the remaining trade barriers. They agreed that enhancing integration of Customs and port functions will ease the seamless exchange of information among partner states. To secure cargo movement in the region, the revenue commissioners from Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda, who were in attendance, said they were already implementing cargo tracking...

HiPipo Reporter. TradeMark Africa will partner with the East African Community secretariat to train Nimule customs’ officials on One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) implementation and management, Damali Ssali, the acting Country Director for TradeMark Africa, Uganda revealed. Speaking at the commissioning of the Nimule OSBP, Damali Ssali noted that following the completion of the infrastructure construction, focus will now shift to training trade facilitation officers so as to ensure that the OSBP is optimally utilized. “The biggest challenge to cross border trade is redtape and bureaucracy. I am glad that the Nimule OSBP will help tackle that issue. We hope that very soon, we shall have customs officials from both countries in this facility clearing goods and facilitating trade,” Damali Ssali said, adding; “TradeMark EA in partnership with the EAC secretariat is committed and will train officials at the Nimule border in the one stop border post act and controls so that we cut down at the very least 50 per cent of the time take to cross this border, among other benefits.”  H.E. Dr. James Igga, the Vice President of South Sudan noted that the modern border crossing catalyzed by the new infrastructure and the planned training of customs officials will greatly speed up cargo clearance and improve service delivery to citizens of South Sudan and traders doing business in the country. The US$ 5 million Nimule One Stop Border Post (OSBP) Project, was funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) through TMA and undertaken in partnership with the...

By BusinessFocus Reporter TradeMark Africa (TMA) has handed over the recently completed Nimule One Stop Border Post (OSBP) to the Government of South Sudan aimed at further boosting trade between Uganda and South Sudan. The colourful handover held on Wednesday 6th February 2020 was  officiated by  Dr. James Wani Igga, Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan and Amelia Kyambadde, Minister for Trade, Industry and Co-operatives, Republic of Uganda. The US$ 5 million (Shs18bn) Nimule One Stop Border Post (OSBP) Project was funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) through TMA and undertaken in partnership with the South Sudan Ministry of Transport. The project scope included a modern office block to house various government agencies involved in cross border trade among them Customs, Immigration, Bureau of Standards, Security Agents, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Health. Other agencies active at the border include the World Food programme and Clearing Agents. The Nimule OSBP project also features access roads to the facility, a parking yard that can accommodate 150 cargo trucks as well as an examination yard for cargo processed through the border. Speaking during the project handover, Dr. James Igga noted that the modern border crossing would greatly speed up cargo clearance and improve service delivery to citizens of South Sudan and traders doing business in the country. “I am happy to note that with this new one stop border post, goods and travellers to our nation will be processed faster and in a more efficient manner, hence...

HiPipo Reporter. “It is only those that have never experienced war that overlook the importance of peace,” Beca Cunnyua, an informal cross border trader at Nimule told our reporter when asked about the impact of the recent developments at the Uganda-South Sudan border. The trader was indeed spot on. Following the recent peace pact between South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President, now main rival Riek Machar, a lot of progress has been registered in South Sudan. Among the positive things that have come with the current peace enjoyed in South Sudan is the construction of the Nimule One Stop Border Post, access roads and a cargo verification centre at a cost of USD 5 million. This morning, TradeMark Africa handed over the recently completed Nimule One Stop Border Post (OSBP) to the Government of South Sudan in an event officiated by H.E. Dr. James Wani Igga, Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan and Hon Amelia Kyambadde, Minister for Trade, Industry and Co-operatives, Republic of Uganda. Nimule is the most important border crossing for South Sudan, controlling over 90% of all trade cargo destined for the country. Inadequate border infrastructure, insufficient technical equipment, poor border design, duplicated border procedures and non-coordination of the border agencies has resulted in congestion, slow down movement of people and goods, thus raising the cost of business. It would take an average 4 days to process imports through the border prior to the construction of the Nimule OSBP. Further, in...

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 20: (Top L-R) South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Mandisa Pandor, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmend, Angola's President Joao Lourenco, Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, World Bank President David Malpass, UN executive secretary of Economic Commission for Africa Vera Songwe and IMF Africa Director Abebe Aemro Selassie, (Middle L-R) Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, Malawi's President Peter Mutharika, Britain's Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, Guinea's President Alpha Conde, Britain's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo, Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi and Tunisia's President Kais Saied, (Bottom L-R) Britain's International Development Secretary Alok Sharma, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio, Senegal's President Macky Sall, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi, Morocco's Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othmani and Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara pose during the family photo at the start of the UK-Africa Investment Summit on January 20, 2020 in London, England. The British PM is hosting African leaders and senior government representatives along with British and African businesses during the UK-Africa Investment Summit, aimed at strengthening the UK’s economic partnership with African nations. By CNN For Citizen Digital British companies have made bigger profits investing in Africa than in any other region of the world, according to a new report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), which urges firms to...

In Summary The committee noted that there was a significant improvement of cargo transit time along the Northern Corridor following infrastructure initiatives undertaken in Kenya between 2013 and 2019. On infrastructure, the committee agreed to seek funds to improve roads especially in South Sudan, where less than one per cent of roads are in a good state according to the Northern Corridor Transit Transport Co-ordination Authority 2019 report. By ANTHONY KITIMO The 10-year-old Northern Corridor trade agreement will be updated by March to address emerging trade opportunities, meet current needs and boost regional trade. This was the main resolution of the 48th executive meeting of the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Co-ordination Authority member states — meeting in Mombasa, Kenya recently. The member states are Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. “The revised draft of Agreement and protocols has been received and is awaiting a validation workshop in March this year before its submission to the Council of Ministers,” said executive secretary Omae Nyarandi. The revised trade agreement will include the use of Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway, which was not there in 2007 when the agreements were being drawn up; joint funding of infrastructure such as roads, one-stop-border posts, motion weighbridges; and speed up implementation of the Customs Union Protocol by adopting a single window system for regional custom data transfer to end cross-border delays. Trade Mark East Africa has committed budgetary support of $393,000 for the recruitment of system developers to enhance the current...

Building Cities in Africa – FBW Group Development News UK and Africa businesses urged to “seize the moment” A leading East African architecture and engineering firm is urging businesses in the UK and Africa to “seize the moment” following a major summit looking to deliver more investment and jobs. FBW Group, which is helping deliver large-scale development projects across the region, has also welcomed UK International Development Secretary Alok Sharma’s pledge of new aid to help build green cities across Africa with quality infrastructure. Malawi Creator Centre, Medical Training building: The new UK Centre for Cities and Infrastructure that he has announced aims to “turbo-charge investment” in fast growing cities across the developing world. It will provide British expertise to African governments and city authorities to improve the way cities are planned, built and run, including making them more environmentally-friendly. The focus will be on improvements to infrastructure, including water and energy networks. Mr Sharma’s announcement came on the eve of the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020 which took place in London earlier this month (January). In the post-Brexit world the British government is looking to increase exports and encourage UK companies to be more active globally – and specifically turn their attention to markets like Africa. The aim of the London summit was to create new lasting partnerships to deliver more investment, jobs and growth, benefiting both Africa and the UK. It brought together UK and African business representatives, African leaders, international institutions and young entrepreneurs. FBW has operations in...

The African Union-led agreement is designed to establish the world’s biggest free-trade zone by area, encompassing a combined economy of $2.5-trillion A truck and trailer drives into a Beitbridge customs and immigration control point on the SA border with Zimbabwe. Picture: REUTERS Nyoni Nsukuzimbi drives his 40-tonne Freightliner for just more than half a day from Johannesburg to the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe. At the frontier town — little more than a petrol station and a KFC — he sits in a line for two to three days, in temperatures reaching 40°C, waiting for his documents to be processed. That’s only the start of a journey Nsukuzimbi makes maybe twice a month. Driving 885km farther north gets him to the Chirundu border post on the Zambian frontier. There, starting at a bridge across the Zambezi River, trucks snake back miles into the bush. “There’s no water, there’s no toilets, there are lions,” says the Zimbabwean. He leans out of the Freightliner’s cab over the hot asphalt, wearing a white T-shirt and a weary expression. “It’s terrible.” By the time he gets his load of tiny plastic beads — the kind used in many manufacturing processes — to a factory on the outskirts of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, he’s been on the road for as many as 10 days to traverse just 1,600km. Nsukuzimbi’s trials are typical of truck drivers across Africa, where border bureaucracy, corrupt officials seeking bribes, and  myriad regulations that vary from country to country have stymied attempts...

Conference is being hosted jointly by Pakistan and Kenya and will also be attended by dignitaries from other African States. Conference will provide an important opportunity for Pakistani and African businesses to interface, identify the areas for enhanced engagement, and develop proposals for customized economic collaboration. During the visit, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will hold meetings with the Kenyan leadership including Cabinet Secretaries for Foreign Affairs & International Trade, African Community and Northern Corridor Development. Source: IPPMEDIA

There has been much hype about a major Africa investment summit being hosted by the UK. Attended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and an array of royals, a great deal of hopeful win-win-win rhetoric abounded linked to forging new partnerships for a post-Brexit future.At the summit, Ghana, it seems, is being given top treatment as a favoured destination, while Zimbabwe appears to have been snubbed despite being “open for business”.UK aid policy these days is focused on promoting UK trade interests abroad, with the government adopting a global business promotion approach for UK firms. The linking of aid and trade, of course, has a history in Britain.In 1994 the Pergau dam scandal – in which aid was used as a sweetener for an arms deal – led to the commitment to untie aid. It also led to the establishment of a separate development department and an Act of Parliament specifying how aid must be spent. This consensus on aid since the mid-1990s, however, is now under threat. Trade and investment can, of course, help reduce poverty, promote women’s empowerment and be good for children’s rights.But the opposite may be true too. There are many different business models – and so labour, environmental and rights regimes – with very different outcomes. We’ve been looking at some of these issues over the last few years across several projects.All were funded by the UK’s Department for International Development. The project compared three broad types of commercial agricultural investment: estates and plantations; medium-scale commercial farms;...