Someone once asked me what I know about Angola, and I excitedly started to list all the things I had seen, read and watched on television about this country. When I was done, she asked me if I had been to Angola and if I know these things to be true. I said I hadn't. She then remarked that it was a pity we Africans only know about each other from what we are told. I grasped the gravity of the issue at hand: That what we hear and see about our trading partners are things that may be far from reality when we visit and trade together. The visit a fortnight ago by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a year after that of his predecessor, shows the increasing realisation by African leaders of the need for intra-Africa trade and investment. While Kenya is a member of the East African Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Tripartite Free Trade Area, Nigeria is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Both the Tripartite and Ecowas regional trading blocs constitute a market opportunity of about 950 million people out of Africa's population of 1.1 billion. Source: All Africa

ARUSHA, TANZANIA - Lead consultants on stronger East African integration, TradeMark Africa (TMA), are keen on continuing their support during the 2016-2022 period. “We are very keen on continuing supporting the Integration Agenda,” Frank Matsaert (pictured right), the TMA CEO told Amb. Richard Sezibera, the East African Community Secretary General in talks last week. He said: “With strong commitment and guidance from the Secretary General and his team, we will be able to carve out key priority activities to carry out in the next phase.” The meeting took place at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha and was attended by Dr. Enos Bukuku, EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, David Stanton, TMA Director General, and ministerial representatives from the five Partner States. Amb. Sezibera said, “I wish to express my gratitude to TMA for supporting the Integration Agenda.” “As we move more towards monetary and fiscal integration, we need to strengthen institutional capacities, nurture vibrant trade and enhance financial markets within the region,” he said. With funding from bilateral donors, especially from the European Union, TMA has been helping the EAC improve the quality of life of East Africans through competitiveness, value added production, trade and investments. TMA support, has improved the infrastructure at Mombasa Port; constructed road network between Ntungamo to Mirama Hill in Uganda and Port Reitz to Kipevu West in Kenya; improved on the customs clearance time along the borders and carried out several sensitization campaigns to small cross border traders on the opportunities...

Africa is set to become the second fastest growing continent by 2025, with GDP set to touch US$4.5 trillion Rapid urbanisation could lead to several Africans living and working in large cities. (Image source: PaulSaad/Flickr) A Frost and Sullivan report, in the form of a video titled Mega Trends in Africa, states that urbanisation, mobility, infrastructure, natural resources, telecom and inter-regional trade could make Africa the last growth frontier. According to the analysts at Frost & Sullivan, Africa is the only continent poised to achieve double-digit economic growth within the next decade and close to half the population will live in large cities. The report also said that 58 per cent of the working population will thrive in 2025 and will be mostly within the ages of 15-64. If this trend spills over into the next two decades, Africa could have a working population higher than India and China combined.Frost & Sullivan Africa operations director Hendrik Malan said, “The growth rates promised by Africa are second to that of Southeast Asia at the moment. The big advantage that Africa does have is the lack of infrastructure and the lack of legacy systems because our ability to leapfrog technologies and get access to that growth much sooner than Southeast Asia.” The analysis has also singled out certain sectors that are poised to register maximum growth and are already showing potential to ring in big numbers. Firms operating in the digital currency space, for one, are among the big gainers. By the...

Although there have challenges since the re-establishment of the EAC, there is no doubt that partner states have made considerable progress in their efforts to integrate. Integration has played a key role in growing East Africa (EA) as a region even more rapidly after the re-establishment of the East African Community (EAC). Such development in the region has been made possible through support from Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) which has particularly helped EAC reduce the transport transfer time of containers from Dar es Salaam-Mombasa port to Bujumbura, Kigali by 12%. To further discuss the way forward between the two organizations, EAC Secretary General, Amb Richard Sezibera, held discussions with TMA CEO, Mr Frank Matsaert to plan for TMA’s support for the next phase, 2016-2022. Noting the role played by TMA in developing the region, Dr Sezibera said in appreciation: “I wish to express my gratitude to TMA for supporting the Integration Agenda.” He added: “As we move more towards monetary and fiscal integration, we need to strengthen institutional capacities, nurture vibrant trade and enhance financial markets within the region.” With the aim of improving the quality of life of East Africans through competitiveness, value added production, trade and investments, the EAC, through TMA support, has improved the infrastructure at Mombasa Port; constructed road network between Ntungamo to Mirama Hill in Uganda and Port Reitz to Kipevu West in Kenya; improved on the customs clearance time along the borders and carried out several sensitization campaigns to small cross border traders...

Last December, amid two days of fanfare, a new long-haul 787 passenger route was launched from Durban, South Africa. The four-times-per-week service was hailed by local provincial officials as a triumph for the region and would begin “opening up new markets for our goods around the world,” as well as delivering tourists and tourist money, to the continent. And which carrier is now facilitating this foreign trade boom? Qatar Airways, based not in Africa, but in the Middle Eastern city of Doha. It says much about the state of the African airfreight industry that a new Doha-Durban route, with ample bellyfreight capacity, is owned by a foreign carrier – especially one from the Middle East. Qatar now has 21 flights a week to South Africa from its Doha hub. Nowthat’s an open market. For most of the last decade, the surge in cargo traffic that has made Africa one of the world’s fastest-growing airfreight markets has been dominated by carriers based in the Gulf Region, China and Europe. One of the few exceptions is Ethiopian Airlines, a rare African carrier that has a substantial cargo division modeled on the global airfreight networks of its foreign rivals. “Foreign carriers account for 85 percent of the traffic moved to and from the continent and have far significant advantages compared to African carriers,” said Sanjeev Gadhia, CEO of Kenyan all-cargo carrier Astral Aviation. The reason, Gadhia said, is a lack of liberalization in the aviation policies of most African nations. While foreign-operated international...

The African Union’s Commissioner for Trade and Industry Fatima Acyl has called for structural transformation to create jobs that will improve the wellbeing of the African people. Ms Acyl, who was speaking at a meeting in Addis last week, before the African Union summit, said the backbone of the AU’s industrial transformation plan is the African Mining Vision, and the creation of a Continental Free Trade Area. The mining vision, adopted by the Heads of State Summit in 2009, aims to make the mining sector more responsive to African economic and social development needs. “If you don’t transform, there will be a lot of importing of products that you have,’’ Ms Acyl said. She gave the example of her own country, Chad, which imports juices yet is a top grower of mangoes. The goal is to set up a free trade area by 2017. The AU has already approved the creation of an African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) to provide strategic operational and co-ordination support to member states. The goal of the AMDC is to address price volatility, and to ensure stable incomes to African producers. Ms Acyl noted that many of the AU’s 54 member countries have populations lower than 20 million and economies of less than $10 million. The national markets of such economies are therefore too small to justify heavy investments. The establishment of a continental Free Trade Area will create a single market for goods and services in Africa with a total population of over a...

The regional business community has criticised the EAC Elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade Bill 2015, saying it needs extensive changes in order to be effective. The East African Business Council (EABC) has pointed out that elimination of NTBs is strictly dependent on the political will of the concerned parties, with no consequence for non-elimination and no restitution for aggrieved parties. To address this, EABC trade economist Adrian Njau proposes that the NTBs Act be taken back to the East African Legislative Assembly for amendment. Mr Njau argues that the Bill should provide for an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, arbitration by the trade remedies committee and the ability to petition the East African Court of Justice. The Bill insists merely restates the existing mechanisms to resolve disputes on non-tariff barriers in the region such as mutual agreement of the concerned partner states; implementation of the EAC time bound programme for elimination of identified NTBs; and regulations, directives, decisions or recommendations of the council as provided for under Article 9 on elimination of NTBs despite its failure to resolve disputes for several years now. However, the extension in 2015 of the jurisdiction of the EACJ, to cover issues related to trade and commerce, provides another opportunity for arbitration of NTBs in the region. “The EAC NTBs Bill, 2015, should be taken back to EALA for amendments,” EABC acting executive director, Lilian Awinja told The EastAfrican. Tanzania is said to have already assented to the Bill, meaning that it has formally committed itself to a binding legislation to eliminate NTBs...

Considerable economic success in Rwanda and the larger bloc of the East African Community (EAC) is attractive for American investors and the US government is focused on supporting stronger partnerships between US investors and members of the private sector in Rwanda and the rest of the EAC. The message was delivered in Kigali, yesterday, by US Secretary for Commerce Penny Pritzker during a business roundtable at Village Urugwiro that brought together business leaders from the US business and East Africa. Pritzker, who led a delegation of 13 members of the US President's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa and African CEOs, spoke highly of the economic achievements in Rwanda and EAC."Rwanda and the East African Community have a lot to offer US investors. East Africa is the most integrated and fastest-growing regional economic community in Africa," she said. She hailed Rwanda's efforts and success in facilitating businesses as well as the country's stable economic growth since 2000 - at an average of 8 per cent - and called for stronger ties between the country's traders and those from the US. "We are focused on steps the US government can take to support the establishment of stronger and lasting commercial partnerships between the US and the African private sectors, especially regions and countries where there have been considerable economic success and Rwanda is a prime example of this. From a commercial perspective, Rwanda's climb in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business is notable," she said. Under its Doing Business...

East African Community (EAC) member States will benefit from a Sh41 billion funding to fast-track three key areas critical to regional integration. The inter-governmental agreement concluded in Arusha between the German government and the regional bloc will support economic integration, regional health and water resource management over the next three years. The funding is as a result of realization that integration is still faced with key hurdles that need to be overcome despite available opportunities. Key challenges include inadequate and poor regional infrastructure network, water scarcity and difficulty in managing shared water resources, weak institutions and human capacity, insecurity and political instability. Other challenges are diversity across the economies and divergent country attitudes towards regional integration. Part of the funds (10 million euros) will be invested in the establishment of a regional network of reference laboratories for communicable diseases. Another 10 million euros will be used for integrated water resource management of Lake Victoria, aimed at improving water provision and management of water resources. Source: Media Max

LAST June, 26 African countries signed the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) agreement that, when implemented, will constitute about half of Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), half its population and cover a combined land mass of 17-million square kilometres — about the size of Russia. The countries, with a combined GDP of about $1.3-trillion and a population of 565-million, will merge into a common market and eliminate tariff lines and trade barriers. They will benefit from liberalised intraregional trade, which is expected to boost the flow of goods and services. Today, however, only three of Africa’s eight regional economic communities are participating in the TFTA. Nonparticipating economic blocs include the Arab Maghreb Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Economic Community of Central African States and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States. The Abuja Treaty of 1995, signed by 51 African countries, mandates all regional economic communities to join the group by 2017 in anticipation of an African Economic Community by 2028. "The conditions (to form the TFTA) have never been better," says Sindiso Ndema Ngwenya, the secretary-general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). "We have improved governance, and the very fact that we withstood the global financial crisis of 2008 attests to sound macroeconomic policies. This is what is giving us resilience." The benefits of the free trade area are numerous. "It has the potential to increase economies of scale through integration, will increase demand for the region’s goods...