According to a statement, the service expands the ocean carrier’s presence in East Africa, a growing region and key market for Maersk’s customers. The first sailing of the Musafir Express departed from Salalah on December 29, 2018, before arriving in Mogadishu on January 3, 2019. The bi-weekly service connects Somalia to the rest of the world, allowing the country to expand its trading links within Africa and across the Middle East, Europe, and the Far East. Mads Skov-Hansen, Area Managing Director for Maersk in Eastern Africa, commented: “Having listened to our customers, we are truly excited to finally add Mogadishu to our global network. “What is equally exciting is that Maersk and Safmarine, with our experienced Somali partner, can offer a broad selection of inland logistics solutions to our local and international customers.” In 2017, imports into Mogadishu grew by 12%, and container traffic is expected to rise by a further 15% during the period of 2018 to 2019. The economy of Somalia is currently undergoing accelerated growth, strongly supported by increasing import trade through its ports. Skov-Hansen also discussed the improved access to trade corridors throughout Africa: “Aside from offering customers convenience, on-time delivery and safety, the Musafir Express will allow us to add more value to customers’ business. “By connecting our customers to the growing potential and opportunities in Somalia, we help accelerate growth for their business.” Source Porttechnology

Informal cross-border trade in Sub-Saharan Africa offers a great deal of untapped potential to feed, integrate and industrialize the region, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has affirmed. According to TradeMark Africa (TMA), an organisation works closely with East African Community (EAC) institutions to increase trade by unlocking economic potential, Cross Border Trade (CBT) plays an important role in poverty reduction. TMA argues that it provides trading opportunities for a good number of people. TMA notes that in places like Rwanda, women are the most active traders along the country’s borders. In fact, EAC Partner countries recognize that women make a significant contribution towards the process of socio-economic transformation and sustainable growth. The States agree that it is impossible to implement effective programmes for the economic and social development of the Partner States without the full participation of women. A study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2017 found that 70% of informal traders in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region are women. In West and Central Africa, informal cross-border trade among women represents more than 60% and generates about 40 to 60% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the countries concerned. This cross-border trade, which is driven by increasing population, growing urbanisation and agriculture, provides the foundation for a diversified and globally competitive economy. The baseline studies, which were conducted in recent years in Sub-Saharan regional economic communities have demonstrated the positive impact of informal trade at both the macro and micro levels. “Due to...

Be it border hassles, lack of road or air routes linking key cities, or the frustrations of being refused entry to a country because of visas, the end result is to curtail the free movement of people, viewed by the African Development Bank as one of the pillars of regional integration. That freedom of movement is inextricably tied to the Bank’s vision to create the next global market in Africa. As the Africa Economic Conference opens in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, the theme this year: Regional and continental integration for Africa’s development,” also aligns with another major Bank priority – placing infrastructure development at the centre of Africa’s regional integration efforts. Host nation Rwanda has taken bold leadership steps to champion regional integration, announcing at the beginning of this year an entry visa on arrival for travellers from all African countries. The third edition of the Bank’s Visa Openess Index, to be launched on day two of the meeting, will be an important opportunity to measure which countries are making improvements that support free movement of people across Africa. “The Index has helped raise awareness and drive visa policy reforms across the continent to ease movement of people, unlocking opportunities for intra-African tourism, trade and investment. In so doing, the Bank is directly contributing to the objectives of the AU initiative for a Single African passport,” Gabriel Negatu, Bank Director General, East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office said in his remarks during the opening plenary. Speaking on behalf of...

For millions of ordinary travellers, inter-African travel is still too often a nightmare. Be it border hassles, lack of road or air routes linking key cities, or the frustrations of being refused entry to a country because of visas, the end result is to curtail the free movement of people, viewed by the African Development Bank as one of the pillars of regional integration. That freedom of movement is inextricably tied to the Bank’s vision to create the next global market in Africa. As the Africa Economic Conference opens in the Rwandan capital Kigali, the theme this year:  Regional and Continental Integration for Africa’s development,” also aligns with another major Bank priority - placing infrastructure development at the centre of Africa’s regional integration efforts. Host nation Rwanda has taken bold leadership steps to champion regional integration, announcing at the beginning of this year an entry visa on arrival for travelers from all African countries. The third edition of the Bank’s Visa Openess Index, to be launched on day two of the meeting, will be an important opportunity to measure which countries are making improvements that support free movement of people across Africa. “The Index has helped raise awareness and drive visa policy reforms across the continent to ease movement of people, unlocking opportunities for intra-African tourism, trade and investment.  In so doing, the Bank is directly contributing to the objectives of the AU initiative for a Single African passport,” Gabriel Negatu, Bank Director General, East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery...

Energy infrastructure like transportation – the skeleton for the development of any other kind of infrastructure – is the bloodstream that pumps energy into different enterprises for economic development. This premise relies on energy being tradable and interdependable whereby one country can rely on the energy infrastructure of another. Furthermore, the stability and growth of a country’s energy infrastructure and regulatory landscape is the magnet that attracts investments without which countries find themselves limited by stunted socio-economic growth. Investment in electricity is a discreet national economic goal, which is worth prioritising not only for industrialisation aimed at boosting economic development but also as a vital contributor for technological advancement in any country. Unlike other public sector assets, like roads, water supply and clean air that everyone benefits from, energy infrastructure ceases to be a public good when it is being demanded and consumed individually. In this modern smarter world, customers are able to view their usage of electricity through mobile devices, the internet, special remote home sensors and monitors. On the supply side, utilities do the same through meter data management systems. Enhanced through technology applications, the supply of energy becomes a product that is exportable to neighbouring countries. It is when the energy supplied to other countries (as in the case of Uganda with Tanzania and South Sudan) that the revenue generated and accrued from the energy exported becomes indirectly a public good – but only if the state effectively recapitalises it in further investments. The energy sector is...

Africa’s integration is no longer a matter of choice. Against an international backdrop of changing political and economic priorities, Africa must plot a new course for its industrialisation and economic development, using the momentum of regional integration. For Africa, a vast continent of over 1.2 billion people, integration has considerable potential not only for promoting robust and equitable economic growth through markets, but also for reducing conflict and enhancing trade liberalisation. Development economists, policymakers, African and non-African researchers are meeting in Kigali, Rwanda this week to discuss the shape and future of continental integration at the 13th African Economic Conference (AEC). Convened on the theme, “Regional and Continental Integration for Africa’s Development”, the three-day event will explore proposals for enhancing the broad and inclusive integration of African economies. The build-up to the conference began in March 2018, when 44 African countries committed to the launch of a common market for Africa - the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This followed the launch of an African Common Passport in July 2016. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement seeks to bring Africa into the global trade environment as one continent rather than as individual countries. Recent research by the African Development Bank shows that intra-African trade is the lowest of all global regions at approximately 15%, compared to 54% in the North American Free Trade Area, 70% within the European Union and 60% in Asia. The Organization of African Unity and its successor, the African Union, have championed continental cooperation since...

Rwanda is hosting the African Economic Conference. The three day conference is expected to cover an array of issues aimed at unlocking the bottleneck to full regional integration. Speakers at the conference are drawn from the academia, government, private sector, development partners among others. Denis Karera, Vice Chairperson for the East Africa Business council spoke to CNBC Africa on key lessons the rest of Africa can learn from the East African Community integration process. Source South Africa

TOKYO -- The U.S. is stepping up efforts to counter China's growing role in infrastructure financing in Africa and other emerging markets, according to a new report, highlighting the expanding scope of the rivalry between the world's two largest economies. Chinese development finance institutions and export credit agencies accounted for 53% of the investment flowing into African power projects in the past 10 years, according to a report released by U.S. law firm Baker McKenzie and U.K. financial data provider IJGlobal on Monday. U.S. peers only contributed 3% of the funding, the research found. However, a survey of more than 430 executives in the industry found that respondents were evenly split on whether U.S. or Chinese finance institutions would be the most active lenders for African power projects over the next decade. "The U.S. is not standing on the sidelines watching," the report said. Chinese government-backed lending has surged in recent years, driven by its Belt and Road Initiative. The project has been plugging the massive demand for infrastructure development in Africa and other emerging markets. But in a countermeasure, the U.S. recently consolidated overseas development agencies into a new body, the International Development Finance Corporation, with lending capacity of $60 billion. The move "is further evidence that the U.S. is indeed reviving its interest in bilateral policy lending," the report noted. Nevertheless, the Belt and Road Initiative is still in its early stages and has room to grow. "As development in BRI countries accelerates, industrial parks and new markets for...

The experts from multilateral development institutions observed that with rapid urbanization and a tenfold increase in water needs for energy production, there is an urgent need to mobilize more financial and technical resources for infrastructure projects and plans, to support the continent’s economic development goals. Furthermore, Africa’s population is projected to reach 1.6 billion by 2030, according to the United Nations, that would further put pressure on water resources and food production sectors. According to the African Union Commission, the poor state of infrastructure in Sub-Sahara Africa in respect to electricity, water, roads and ICT, reduces national economic growth by 2 percent and productivity by as much as 40 percent. “Empirical evidence however suggests that PIDA is already moving the development needle. It will provide the backbone for Africa’s regional integration, trade, investment, food security and competitiveness as economic corridors are beginning to develop through newly constructed road networks and one-stop border posts,” Moono Mupotola, The Bank’s Director for Regional Development and Integration, said. Mupotola’s remarks underscored expert reviews of regional infrastructure projects in the transportation (roads, rail, aviation), energy and power sectors, under the first PIDA Priority Action Plan (PIDA- PAP 1:2012 -2020) being showcased and profiled at PIDA Week 2018. Infrastructure transport projects being discussed include the Central Corridor Dar es Salaam to Chalinze Toll Road; the Kinshasa-Brazzaville Road and Railway Bridge; the High-Speed Rail Network (HSRN); the Abidjan-Lagos corridor and Praia-Dakar-Abidjan corridor projects; and the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative. Four regional power projects are...

BERLIN | GENEVA (IDN) – Eight months after the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), the first pan-African agreement of its kind, Germany has donated 1.6 million euros to UNCTAD, to help the UN's trade and development body work with African partners to implement the landmark continental pact on cross-border commerce. "This is a big new step forward in the economic development of Africa," said Ambassador Hans-Peter Jugel, Germany’s deputy envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, adding that the African Union had sought UNCTAD's support to meet the aims of the AfCFTA. "We will observe its effects closely. We trust in UNCTAD’s competences and expertise in making trade facilitation operational," Jugel added. The donation comes two months ahead of Germany beginning its two-year term as  non-permanent member of the 15-nation UN Security Council. "Germany is already a leading supporter of UNCTAD's work. This fresh funding is a clear sign of the country’s commitment not only to making trade work for development, but also to multilateralism. That sends a strong signal in challenging times," UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant said. "The projects that Germany is backing will play a key role in helping Africa meet the new trade objectives that the continent has set itself," she added. UNCTAD provides policy advice and technical cooperation to help poorer countries reap more benefits from the global economy, and regional integration is a key part of that process. The German funding, which runs from November 2018 to December 2020, focuses...