All transit cargo destined for Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan will be transported either on Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) for clearance at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Naivasha or Metre Gauge Railway to Tororo/Kampala from 1st June 2020. In a statement Friday, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development James Macharia says all transit cargo railed to ICD Naivasha will then be collected by trucks to the partner states via Busia or Malaba. He further, said the fuel products will be transported by pipeline to Kisumu and thereafter by lake Victoria to Port Bell or Jinja. he CS also directed that all the transit cargo/containers transported on SGR will be armed only at ICD at Naivasha to be tracked through the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System; and all exports (both full and empty exports) not railed on metre gauge railway will be delivered to ICD for railage to the Port of Mombasa. “The Heads of State, Their Excellencies President Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda; President Uhuru Kenyatta of the Republic of Kenya; President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of the Republic of Uganda and President Salvar Maryardit Kiir of the Republic of South Sudan during their Consultative Meeting of the East African Community held by Video Conference on 12th May 2020 considered the current status of the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the region and directed the Ministers responsible for Health, Transport, and EAC Affairs to adopt a Digital Surveillance and Tracking System for drivers and...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, global trade is predicted to fall by a record 27 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. In this episode of Doing Business in Rwanda, we take a look at the impact COVID-19 has had on trade and the establishment of cross border cargo transit logistics platform to curb the spread of the virus and facilitate smooth trade between neighbouring countries…. Watch video here: Source: CNBC Africa[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Many African countries are all too familiar with the social and economic upheaval posed by outbreaks of infectious diseases. Recent experiences with Ebola are fresh in peoples’ minds across West and Central Africa, as are those with TB and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. As a result, African countries understand the need for regional coordination in overcoming public health challenges. The World Bank Group has responded swiftly to each of these health emergencies – often through a regional response designed to counter immediate threats while also strengthening countries’ capacity to be proactive in detecting and responding to outbreaks. There are important lessons to draw from these experiences as we combat the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). First, leverage existing regional networks and operations to catalyze an immediate, large-scale response. Helping countries strengthen cross-border collaboration for detection and response to outbreaks is a long-standing priority of the Bank Group’s regional integration efforts in Africa. Large-scale investments, strong networks, and a joint vision among stakeholder countries are already in place. They are now being activated and scaled up quickly in response to COVID-19. The Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement Program (REDISSE) – a $670 million operation across 16 countries of West and Central Africa – has quickly mobilized over $193 million to help 13 countries with entry-point surveillance, reinforced laboratory testing capacity, infection prevention and control, access to essential medical equipment and materials, and risk communication. Having responded to Ebola in the last few years, REDISSE has provided countries with early and immediate access to financing so...

COVID-19 and the African trade dynamics Just like other countries in the world, African states were not prepared for the spread of the novel coronavirus. Interestingly and as expected, two powerful African states, Egypt and Nigeria, recorded the first cases of the virus in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Of 54 countries in Africa, 53 countries have recorded cases of the virus and only Lesotho is yet to record any. This record in Lesotho has perhaps been linked to a lack of testing materials and not that the country is indeed free from the virus. Source: Wikipedia Trade in Africa has primarily been a case of a producer exporting raw materials to foreign countries for production and the original producer importing the finished products. This situation has seen Africa contribute so much to global trade than it is given credit for. Indeed, Africans have a penchant for foreign goods, without necessarily producing the same goods. Producers who have made what can be referred to as “Made in Africa” products have not reaped much profit as much as their foreign counterparts because the African market is saturated with foreign products. For instance, 75% of the world’s cocoa is sourced from Africa yet Africa imports most of its chocolates. The oil-producing states in Africa contribute significantly to global crude but almost all petroleum products in Africa are imported. Source: World Bank The Economic Development in Africa Report 2019 suggests that the total trade record from Africa to the rest of the world was about US$760 billion between 2015 and 2017 and contributed between 80-90%...

With the current fast-changing developments, policy makers need to know what is happening to the economy in real time, but they often must settle for data telling them what happened many weeks ago. And international trade, which links countries through a complex web of supply chains, is an area where timely information is especially valuable from a global perspective. Most trade takes place by sea, and – for navigational safety purposes – virtually all cargo ships report their position, speed, and other information many times a day. A new IMF methodology using these data can help better inform us how international trade is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on machine-learning techniques, we can provide better answers to simple questions such as: How big is the drop in trade activity? Should it be attributed mostly to exports or to imports? A new approach Using over one billion messages from ships over a period of five years, the newly-developed methodology closely replicates official trade statistics for many countries and for the world in aggregate. It is available at a daily frequency in real time, while official statistics are typically delayed by many weeks. At the global level, our indicators built from ships’ radio signals closely approximate monthly official trade statistics (with a correlation of nearly 0.9 in levels, and around 0.4 in quarter-on-quarter growth rates). The top panel of our Chart of the Week shows a dramatic fall in Chinese exports in the wake of initial lockdown measures to contain the spread of the...

The UN Economic Commission for Africa is helping to bring unique African products and their promoters to the platform in a practical COVID-19 response move Imagine using one second to sell three thousand (3000) bags of a coffee produce which lay fallow hitherto in storehouses in Rwanda for months due to freighting stand-stills caused by the COVID-19 global lockdown! This is what happened on 14 May 2020 during a livestream by coordinated by the Alibaba Business Group to position small-scale world brands on the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), a the six-year-old initiative which facilitates business-to-consumer (B2C) sales. The UN Economic Commission for Africa is helping to bring unique African products and their promoters to the platform in a practical COVID-19 response move. The sale was made by the Rwandan brand known as Gorilla's Coffee whose CEO, Mr. David Ngarabe, rejoiced at the feat following months of slack business as the COVID-19 lockdowns ruptured the supply chains especially to cafés and hotels. The cash-in is explained in terms of the wide reach to customers especially in China via the eWTP whose huge demand, in terms of economies of scale, would now lower overall freighting costs for the supplies. Ms. Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General of United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), who addressed participants of the livestream from Addis Ababa, said the Commission was taking action to getting many more small brands from Africa with distinct products to access the platform and make sales during and after the current health crisis....

Joseph Ebalo, the Amuru district Internal Security Officer (ISO) says currently there are over 600 trucks parked inside and outside the designated parking yard. He says the genesis of the truck congestion is from South Sudan because of  inadequate deployment of personnel controlling the customs and immigration offices on their side. Michael Lakony, Amuru district LCV chairperson says some of the petroleum truck drivers have even resorted to siphoning fuel and sell to local dealers which increases the risk of a fire outbreak. According to Lakony, some of the commercial sex workers within the town council have also resorted to renting houses where they take the truck drivers as they wait for clearance from the customs and immigration offices. Lakony observes that this is also increasing the risk of spreading of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in case any of the drivers tests positive. Lakony now wants a police fire fighting truck deployed at the town council in case of any outbreak as well as security increased at the town council so that the girls and drivers are arrested to avert possible spread of the coronavirus and also other sexually transmitted infections. Ezekiel Emitu, the Aswa region police commander says they contacted the director fire department at the police headquarters so that a fire fighter truck is deployed in the area. Richard Omony, a resident and a vendor at Elegu border market says they are living in fear that another fire outbreak could occur given the number of truck drivers transporting fuel....



Global trade is predicted to fall by a record 27% in the second quarter of 2020, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), an organisation that tracks trade flows. This comes after the coronavirus pandemic distorted the supply and demand for products across the world leading to a severe decline in world trade. There has also been a slump in the export of cars, machine parts, and oil, among other global exports. Almost every category of goods is expected to suffer a fall in trade over the coming months, adding to a 3% decline in the first quarter of the year. According to UNCTAD, the report revealed a huge shock to the global economy from the Covid-19 pandemic. China was the first country to report a decline in trade ahead of a lockdown put in place by the authorities in Beijing in February. The country’s economy shrunk by 6.8% percent in the first quarter of this year. However, China also reported that her trade and Africa plummeted by around 14 per cent estimated at $41 billion in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, according to official figures released by China’s General Administration of Customs. The rest of the developed world followed in March when similar lockdowns were announced. Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that a previous forecast for an unprecedented decline in global GDP growth of 3% this year, the worst since the 1930s depression era, was looking optimistic. The...

The acting Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, Dorothy Tembo says the coronavirus pandemic could represent a risk for the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, but African leaders could also turn that into an opportunity for stronger collaboration if specific policies are fast-tracked. She joins CNBC Africa’s Kenneth Igbomor for more insight on this discussion.   Source: CNBC Africa