Central Bank Governors of the East African Community (EAC) have noted that there have been delays in realising targets set out in the East African Monetary Union (EAMU) road map and that there are several challenges that could further impede the full implementation of EAMU protocol. The Governors, who met in Kampala at the 22nd ordinary meeting of the EAC Monetary Affairs Committee (MAC) chaired by Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, Governor Bank of Uganda, pledged to collaborate with stakeholders in the EAC integration process to fast-track pending activities of the EAMU road map. The meeting was attended by Central Bank Governors of the 6 EAC member states (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda) and the Secretary General of the EAC Secretariat. The Governors noted that significant progress has already been made towards the operationalization of the EAMU Protocol. “Partner States’ Central Banks have made strides on harmonization of: monetary policy frameworks, exchange rate policies, rules and practices governing bank supervision, financial accounting principles, as well as payment systems. “A number of national laws are also being harmonised. In April 2018, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) enacted the bill establishing the East African Monetary Institute (EAMI). The EAMI bill now awaits assent by the EAC Heads of State,” noted a Communiqué that was issued after the meeting. It said that “Notwithstanding the above, Governors noted that there have been delays in realising targets set out in the EAMU road map and that there are several challenges that could further...

The East African Community had given itself a deadline of 2019 to start phasing out importation of second-hand clothes from the US. Commonly known as mitumba, the presidents of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi had agreed in 2016 to stop further importation from 2019, saying it would protect their nascent textile and leather industries. Then things started to fall apart. First, the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (Smart), a US lobby, argued the ban would amount to a trade barrier, violating the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa). The Act, created during the George W Bush years, allows African countries like the EAC members to export goods to the US through tariffs. WARNINGS Then the US government itself started giving warnings to each of the EAC countries: If any ban was imposed, they would lose the privilege of selling goods to the US and the attendant jobs that come with it. Last year, Kenya acted first, pulling out of the EAC deal to ban mitumba. Then Trade Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed told journalists that Nairobi was letting market forces determine what Kenyans want to buy between mitumba and new clothes produced locally. "Our policy is, of course, that it is our desire to develop and promote our textile industry in our country to create more jobs for people in our country," he argued. "And through the transition of market forces we would like mitumba clothes to compete with clothes that are produced within East Africa, within Kenya, and if...

Arusha. The East African Business Council (EABC) is seeking the support of regional legislators to expeditiously tackle business challenges within the bloc. “The private sector has continued to face numerous challenges which the assembly is best placed to address,” said Mr Mwine Kabeho, the vice chairman of the body. He made the remarks during consultations when a high-powered delegation of the council visited the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) in Arusha earlier this week. Mr Kabeho, who is the director of the Uganda-based Madhvani Group Limited, said hurdles such as trade barriers within the East African Community (EAC) hampered fast tracking of integration programmes. These, according to him, include the unresolved issue of non-trade barriers (NTBs) and failure to harmonise domestic taxes. Others are the high cost of air travel and telecommunications in the region despite repeated calls that they be lowered to reduce the cost of doing business. Two months ago, EABC expressed its concern over falling intra-regional trade in the community and called for concerted efforts to reverse the trend. Statistics indicate that intra-EAC trade declined by 10.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014 and by a further 14.6 per cent between 2015 and 2016, largely due to persistent NTBs and restrictions on exports of certain products. EABC ambassador and former Eala member from Kenya Peter Mathuki noted during the discussions that it was time the two institutions worked closely together when seeking solutions to the problems. “We have to resolve many issues for a stronger integration and...

EAST African Community (EAC) has embarked on concrete steps to control and prevent Aflatoxin amid the official launch of nine sets of policy briefs on the poisonous substance. During the launch in Nairobi, Kenya it was declared that the EAC Secretariat has prioritised Aflatoxin prevention and control as one of its flagship projects. The Principal Secretary (PS) in Kenya’s State Department of Agriculture Research, Ministry of Agriculture, Professor Hamadi Boga officiated the launch on behalf of Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation. A communiqué availed here by the EAC Secretariat Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department, Mr Owora Othieno quoted Professor Boga as saying that Africa loses up to 670 million US dollars annually in lost exports due to Aflatoxin contamination, with about 40 per cent of foods in the domestic markets exceeding allowable levels of Aflatoxin in foods. The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes Aflatoxin as poisonous substances produced by certain kinds of fungi found naturally and posing a serious health risk to humans and livestock. They also pose significant economic burden, leading to destruction of over 25 per cent of the world’s food crops, annually. Most human exposure comes from nuts and grains. The PS said that the nine sets of policy briefs on Aflatoxin contain key recommendations on strategic policy actions and interventions required to mitigate the impacts and effects of Aflatoxin. Existing efforts to mitigate Aflatoxin at national level have remained fragmented and not adequately supported, technically and financially....

NAIROBI, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The prolonged conflict in South Sudan has seen Kenyan banks scale down operations in the country, and look for opportunities outside the East African Community (EAC). The banks have halved their branches in South Sudan, initially one of the promising markets, since the war started in 2016. However, as the South Sudan market shrinks, the commercial banks in the East African nation's biggest economy have sought new business or scaled up operations in other countries that include Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo DRC, Malawi, Burundi and Botswana. Some nine banks have subsidiaries outside Kenya, with the institutions increasing the number of the branches to 306 in 2017, up from 297 in 2016, the latest sector report from the Central Bank showed Wednesday. From about 40 branches in South Sudan, Kenyan banks now have only 20 branches, with a majority having closed them down. "Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group continued to scale down its operations in South Sudan following the deteriorating security condition that started in 2016. The bank cut its branch network to 11 from 17 in 2016," said the report. Cooperative Bank has four branches while Equity Bank has five, with the number of branches by the two remaining flat. The banks have, however, spread to Malawi, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi, markets that initially looked distant when South Sudan was promising. "Equity Bank scaled up its operations in Congo DRC in 2007 from 31 to 39 branches. The bank has 79...

Early at the beginning of the year, members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) conducted on-the-spot inspections of East African Community (EAC) projects, organs and facilities along the two trade corridors; Northern and Central. The aim of the tour was to identify bottlenecks to the effective implementation of the EAC Customs Union Protocol. Among the facilities put in place was the East Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project (EATTFP) set up to reduce transit cargo time by eliminating Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and enhance safety. While many unnecessary weigh bridges were removed along the Central Corridor and resting areas for long distance truck drivers set up - at least after every 12 hours on the road - the safety issue still lags behind. When EALA members arrived at the Rusumo One-Stop Border Post along the Tanzania-Rwanda border, they pointed at the lack of adequate safety and emergency measures. Seeing the number of trucks hurdled together, with some carrying inflammable liquids and gases, it was as if they were waiting for disaster to strike … and it did this week. A fuel tanker on the Tanzanian side lost control and rammed into other parked trucks sparking an enormous explosion. The nearest fire engine was in Rwamagana, a two-hour drive on the Rwandan side. Rwanda National Police also sent another fire engine from Kigali. Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) had the quickest option; it immediately swung into action and dispatched its fire-fighting helicopter into action. It was not the first time RDF choppers had...

Maize moving from Uganda to Kenya has dipped in August to as low as 4.5 tonnes per day, down from highs of 500 tonnes per day in June-July. An analysis by The EastAfrican of raw data from Ratin, a daily tracker of trade across the borders, shows that this month, 1,324 tonnes of maize came into Kenya from Uganda compared with 11,828 tonnes in July and 8,545 tonnes in June. From June to mid-August, a total of 21,697 tonnes of maize moved from Uganda to Kenya and another 6,562 tonnes moved from Uganda to Rwanda. Uganda has the lowest retail price for a tonne of maize in the region at $102 in upcountry towns and $122 in Kampala. Burundi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, in that order, have the highest prices for the grain which retails at $397, $380 and $307 per tonne respectively in the country capitals. The largest bulk of maize from Uganda to Kenya came through the Busia border and a few tonnes came in through Malaba and Lwakhakha towns. Tanzania also exports maize to Kenya but no Kenyan maize has been sold to Tanzania. A total of 3,900 tonnes of maize came from Tanzania to Kenya through the Isebania border in June and July. Tanzania last year lifted a ban on maize exports in an effort to curb practices that jeopardised food security such as pre-harvest sale of produce and to encourage value addition and promote the export of flour instead. Data also shows that from March to...

As India marks its 71st Independence day ties between Africa and India increasingly strengthening as both parties seek mutually beneficial partnership largely through trade. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said that the current India-Africa partnership includes implementation of 180 lines of credit worth USD11bn in over 40 Africa countries and USD600 million in grant assistance. Today India’s trade with Africa is over $62 billion with plans to increase this volume further. The Indian government says that they have taken a long-term view of its engagement with African countries by participating in existing institutions in order to support the continent’s drive to build itself from within. One such example is the Government of India’s recent decision to invest USD10 million in the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI). The shareholding positions India as the first non-African government to become a member of the pan-African and multilateral investment and credit insurer with the expected result of boosting India’s trade with Africa. The Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC) will represent the government’s shareholding in ATI. ECGC’s most recent results show the company has $99 billion in exposures and it insures 32 per cent of India’s exports. ECGC has operated in Africa since the 1960s with plans to deepen its engagement in Africa. “India’s membership in ATI is a landmark development for a symbiotic relationship between the two fastest growing regions in the world. It is indeed a proud moment to be the first non-African state shareholder of ATI. This partnership will...

NAIROBI, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community member (EAC) states plans to develop a policy framework to address the human and animal health threat of aflatoxin contamination and boost food security, the economic bloc said on Wednesday. Christophe Bazivamo, Deputy Secretary General of the EAC, told a regional forum in Nairobi that aflatoxins from fungi are widespread in the region and cause contamination of staple foods such as maize milk and groundnuts in the field and during storage. "The EAC partner states will therefore develop policies to aid in the formulation and implementation of intervention programs to curb the spread of aflatoxins," Bazivamo said. The overall goal of the framework is to said to contribute to food and nutrition security as well as to protect human, animal and plant health. Bazivamo said to eliminate the threat of aflatoxin, the region needs to create awareness and sensitize high level policy makers and other key stakeholders on the necessary policy action and interventions to mitigate impacts of aflatoxin. According to Bazivamo, the control of aflatoxin will enable the EAC to expand intra-regional trade in the agricultural products. He said a comparative analysis of trade-related impacts of aflatoxin indicate that export destinations such as the EU have rejected agricultural commodities from the region leading to huge losses. He urged the member states to focus on preventive measures given that disposal of aflatoxin-contaminated food can be a costly and time consuming affair. Mwangi Kiunjuri, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture,...

NAIROBI, KENYA: Pressure is pilling on Tanzania and Burundi to ratify tax harmonisation agreement signed eight years ago to boost trade among East African Community partner states. East African Business Council noted that slow pace in ratifying the document makes it difficult for Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda to implement the agreement which would make it attractive for businesses to expand operations in East Africa. “We have witnessed a decline in intra-trade among the Partner States as many companies shy away from expanding within the region due to the fear of double taxation, this needs not to be the case as we have a document to address all these,” said Adrian Njau, East African Business Council Trade and Policy Advisor. “The EAC business community eagerly awaits harmonisation of domestic taxes in EAC and hopes to see in harmonization removal of tax distortions that hamper efficient allocation of resources within the Community and come in the way of free movement of goods, services, labor, capital, and investments within the Community,” he added. The East African Business Working Group on domestic taxes identifies several challenges in tax harmonisation among them reluctance of Partner States to move with speed and finalize the legal framework for tax harmonisation, and fear by governments that tax harmonization may deplete revenue base especially in the case of excise. Other challenges are reluctance by stakeholders to provide data that would enable the working group and government stakeholders to quantify the actual impact of tax harmonisation, Strong lobby by some...