The World Bank has projected a weaker economic growth in sub Saharan African in 2020, pinning hopes on investor confidence to turnaround fortunes of the region’s economies. According to the Bank’s 2020 Global Economic Prospects, growth is expected to pick up to 2.9 per cent this year, assuming investor confidence improves in some large economies, energy bottlenecks ease and robust growth continues in agricultural commodity exporters. The forecast is weaker than previously expected, reflecting softer demand from key trading partners, lower commodity prices and adverse domestic developments in several countries. But for East African Community, the problem is further compounded by low intra-trade, meaning much needed foreign exchange is spent on imports from outside the region, leading to slowdown in manufacturing and reduced job opportunities. This is the reason increasing intra-East African Community trade is top on the agenda of the regional private sector-led umbrella body—the East African Business Council (EABC). This was the major resolution arrived at in Arusha last November during the two-day high-level East African Business and Investment Summit. Even though the EAC is one of Africa’s fastest growing regional blocs, registering economic growth of 5.7 per cent in 2018, more intra-trade won’t be easy. While the Summit took stock of EAC achievements for the past 20 years, it is increasingly becoming clear that the more resolutions are made to increase intra-trade, the more the challenges the region faces. “Mechanisms for resolving Non tariff barriers were put in place, for instance, the national monitoring committees and regional...

Over three million people in Tanzania and Kenya will benefit from a €345 million financing package for road construction support, approved by the African Development Bank’s (https://www.AfDB.org/) board in Abidjan on Thursday. The Bank’s support for the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga/Horohoro and Tanga-Pangani-Bagamoyo roads Phase I, is in the form of African Development Bank and African Development Fund loans and represents 78.5% of the total €399.7 million project cost. The European Union contributed a grant of €30 million, 7.7% of the total project cost, to the government of Kenya. The road is a key component of the East African transport corridors network, connecting Kenya and Tanzania. Producers, manufacturers and traders will be able to move goods more quickly and cheaply. In addition, farmers and fishermen will benefit from improved access to local and regional markets and amenities, including better schools and health centres. “The project will have spillover benefits for hinterland countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan that depend on Mombasa as gateway to global markets,” said Hussein Iman, the Bank’s Regional Sector Manager for infrastructure, private sector, and industrialization. The Bank’s support will also provide roadside trading facilitates for sellers, half of them women who currently operate in disorganized and unsafe conditions. The road crosses regions with high rates of youth unemployment. In light of this, the project includes a vocational training component for 500 unemployed youth (half of them women) to acquire marketable skill and improve their economic prospects. The Bank...

Giving a speech to mark the 56th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi said Tanzania and Kenya are like brothers and will continue to cooperate to see economic diplomacy is strengthened at all times. “We – Tanzania and Kenya are blood brothers hence we wish you well in bringing development to Kenya. But you must also know that Kenya’s development means Tanzania’s development,” Prof Kabudi said, noting that developments recorded in the two countries will also benefit neighbouring Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, the broader East African Community (EAC). In return, High Commissioner Dan Kazungu commended Tanzanian authorities for the unity and solidarity it has shown to Kenya which has been a stimulus for the development of the two countries. He said: “I would like to say that the unity and solidarity has spurred development among the two countries. We must remember that unity is strength and our goal is to cooperate between us and with all the nations in the world.” Kazungu stated that Tanzania will continue to be special to Kenya due to the solidarity it has been showing to Kenya socially, politically and economically. “It is remembered that in April this year when the two Heads of State met in Arusha we succeeded to remove 25 trade obstacles out of 37, and this proves how Tanzania and Kenya are brotherly nations who are bent on strengthening trade between them,” he elaborated. Kenya accounted for 15 of the non-tariff...

THE German development agency - GIZ is supporting the East African Community (EAC) in two new programmes on regional economic and social integration. EAC Secretariat and the EAC GIZ programme signed an implementation agreement worth 16 million U S dollars for continuing support for EAC regional integration through their support to East African Market Driven and People Centred Integration East Africa (SEAMPEC) and Pandemic Preparedness programs. GIZ Country Director for Tanzania and EAC, Dr Mike Falke, said that through the targeted work in sectors including agro-processing, pharmaceuticals as well as services sectors such as tourism and ICT, SEAMPEC aims to facilitate the improvement of framework conditions to help create more competitive industries and cross border opportunities. “GIZ and the Secretariat have been developing and managing key projects working with partners across the EAC region with a focus on making the Common Market, Customs Union and integration a reality." The programs are managed through the EAC-GIZ partnership to continue grow regional economic and social integration that already has a significant impact in the region. The SEAMPEC program, through its multiple cross-cutting initiatives, takes a holistic approach to regional integration that encompasses civil society as well as the public and private sectors. “Through the SEAMPEC program many businesses and civil society organizations have all benefited from collaborating on the ground and high-level networking and coalition activities. We are proud to continue implement programs that are showing real results and bringing tangible benefits to the citizens of the EAC,” said Dr Falke. Another...

Rwanda and Tanzania individually signed two mega-infrastructure deals in the last week in moves that will undoubtedly reshape the East African region politically and economically. Kenya stands to lose most. Tanzania signed an agreement to link its new railway line to Burundi and the DRC, while a similar deal with Rwanda is said to be in its final stages. The transport ministers of the three countries signed the deal in Kigoma, Tanzania, on 3 December. Three-way funding The first phase of the joint deal will start in Kigoma and end in Gitega, the capital of Burundi, 240km away. It will then be extended into eastern DRC. Each country will have to get funding for its own section, Tanzania’s transport minister, Isack Kamwelwe, said at the signing ceremony. The first phase of Tanzania’s Standard Gauge Railway (SRG), covering 202km from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro, is almost complete. The second phase will connect Morogoro to the administrative capital of Dodoma, even as the East African country also revamps its old metre-gauge railway to enhance connectivity. When complete, the new railway line will cover 1,457km, connecting Dar and the Lake Victoria port city of Mwanza. In May 2018, Rwanda and Tanzania agreed to redesign their joint railway plan, which will start at the Isaka dry port and end in Kigali, to use electric powered trains. In late November, Tanzania’s President John Magufuli said that the two countries are in the final phases of negotiating a deal to build the railway line. The Isaka-Kigali line...

The Horn of Africa coast is strategically important because it is on the Bab al Mandab Strait and Indian Ocean coast where nearly 20 percent of the world trade and maritime shipping pass through. Thanks to their sea port developments, it is set to be the gateway and the link that connects the sub-Saharan Africa to this international trade route, Suez Canal and the Arabian Peninsula on the opposite side of the Red Sea. The mercantile shipping vessels plying along the Bab el Mandeb can now drop their transit consignments at any of the Red Sea or Horn of Africa ports. Similarly, export goods from sub-Saharan Africa and their imports from the rest of the world can easily be picked or delivered from these ports and hauled across to central and West Coast of Africa by existing railways or roads. Recently, the significance of the Horn of Africa and its sea ports was boosted by the discoveries of oil, gas and other extractive minerals in the sub-Saharan Africa countries. Huge exploitations of the same are now in progress in Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, DR Congo and Kenya; among others. Additionally, the coastal Horn of Africa countries are experiencing a relative peace renaissance that has enabled development of their Ports and Roads developments not realised in the last 50 years. Hitherto, these countries were ravaged by civil and territorial wars, military rules and instabilities that hindered their endeavour to address their national development challenges. This peace...

THE East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers has been tasked to furnish the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) with comprehensive reports on regular basis about implementation of pillars of integration. Specifically, the ministers are supposed to inform the august House on each partner state’s status in relation to progress in execution of the Customs Union Protocol and the Common Market Protocol. The resolution was moved by Dr Abdullah Hasnuu Makame (Tanzania Constituency) and adopted by the House. It further wants the Council of Ministers to direct all partner states to fully implement the Customs U nion Protocol by June 2020 and the Common Market Protocol, a year later. The House further urges the Secretary General, (Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko) to furnish the House with comprehensive reports on the implementation of the Food Security Action Plan, the Climate Change Policy and the Industrialisation Policy and Strategy. The Council of Ministers is also encouraged to develop Comprehensive Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting frameworks that would track implementation of major actions to be taken and adopted by the Summit of EAC Heads of State and other organs. According to Dr Makame, it is only the Customs Union Protocol that has a stipulated Treaty Timeframe under Article 75(7 ), with the Treaty documenting a period of four years in which to conclude it. He informed the House that, Article 7 7 of the Treaty forecast on the establishment of a Common Market through a Protocol that would be concluded without prescribing a timeframe to achieve...

Most sad to say, Tanzania has lost to the Grim Reaper one of its most illustrious pillars in entrepreneurship and the private sector in general, Ali Mufuruki, who died yesterday in Johannesburg. The holder of a BSc degree (1986) in mechanical design engineering from Reutlingen University in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Mufuruki was a prosperous businessman, founder and board member-cum-chairman-cum-trustee of several flourishing entities in and outside Tanzania. Mufuruki was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the Infotech Investment Group family business; the founding chairman of CEO Roundtable of Tanzania (CEOrt), Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI East Africa), and Nairobi-based Msingi East Africa Ltd. He also served as board chairman of Vodacom Tanzania; Wananchi Group Holdings; a trustee of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS-SA); TradeMark Africa (Nairobi); Chai Bora Ltd; a trustee of Trustee ATMS Foundation and AMSCO (The Netherlands) and Legacy Capital Partners Ltd. Mufuruki also served at one time or another as council member-cum-chairman of the Grants Committee of the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences; chairman of the Tanzania Public Safety Trust Fund; Partner of East Africa Capital Partners (Kenya); Member of the Tanzania National Business Council, and of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Advisory Group on sub-Saharan Africa (AGSA). In early 2016, Mufuruki was appointed co-chairman of the UK Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the impact of UK Aid for Africa Free Trade Initiative (AFTI). Also, he co-authored a 2017 book with Rahim Mawji, Gilman Kasiga and Moremi Marwa titled Tanzania’s Industrialisation Journey, 2016-2056:...

Africa’s future growth depends on policies that allow free movement and enable young people to look for opportunities beyond national borders. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) secretary-general Mukhisa Kituyi said at the ongoing Kusi Ideas Festival at Intare Arena in Kigali that the continent currently has a generation of young people who were more interested in collaborations than competition. Dr Kituyi spoke on the panel discussion themed, ‘Borderless Africa and why it is a winner’, that also featured Linus Gitahi, a board member of Msingi East Africa, and Rwanda Development Board chief executive Clare Akamanzi. “These young people look for opportunities beyond national frontiers. They overlook analogue boundaries and all the physical boundaries as they chase their dreams. This is the future and governments now need to create policies for them to ease travel, access and movement across the continent,” Dr Kituyi said. The panellists challenged Africa’s leaders to open up their borders to migrants and allow them to thrive within the continent as opposed to being self-centred and closed up, putting restrictive travel and migration policies. “We need to understand that almost 53 percent of migrant movements is intra-African and for Africa, we should take advantage of this. “Migrants are good both for the country they move to in terms of new and fresh human resource and also the countries they come from, through remittances. We need to encourage that,” Dr Kituyi said. “The millennials want to trade the way they go about their activities in...

THE East African Community (EAC) has formally started the process of screening the membership application by a giant state –the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Initiating the process, The EAC Council of Ministers has referred the application to the 21st Summit of the EAC Heads of State for consideration. The 21st Summit of the Heads of State that was expected to take place here this year was postponed to early next year, after a request by one of the members. Senior Public Relations Officer in the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department of the EAC Secretariat, Mr Simon Owaka, explained that the Chairman of the EAC Council of Ministers, Dr Vincent Biruta, has written to the EAC Secretariat on the request of the DRC to join the Community. Dr Biruta, who is also Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, made the move and referred the issue to the Summit. The Council noted that Article 3 of the Treaty specifies matters to be taken into account by partner states in considering the application by a country to become a member of the Community. DRC, which has a population of more than 81 million, seeks to join the EAC that celebrated its 20th anniversary last Saturday with the bloc prioritizing removal of trade barriers, increasing intra-trade as well as focusing on a political confederation towards political federation. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi wrote to EAC Chairman, Rwanda President Paul Kagame in June this year, seeking to join the Community, months after there had been speculations...