Arusha. The private sector should now contemplate financing development projects in the East African Community (EAC) bloc as a measure to cut down donor dependency. EAC Secretary-General Dr Richard Sezibera said in Kampala on Friday that the growing portifolio of the projects under the Community also called for diversifying the organisation’s resource base. “There is a need for the Community to tap into the potential funding from the private sector through the establishment of an EAC Private Sector Fund,” he said when he addressed CEOs from the private sector in Uganda. The initiative has been made by the Uganda business community and to start with some $20million would be raised to set up the fund expected to boost the participation of the private sector in on-going integration process. “The idea behind the fund is to see how we can ensure that the private sector plays a bigger role in the integration of the EAC. The fund will be used to address various challenges facing the private sector within the EAC,” the Community boss stated. Hosted by the East African Business Council (EABC) in collaboration with the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), EAC Secretariat and Trade Mark East Africa, the Forum brought together over 150 key business leaders. Also in attendance were owners and CEOs of private businesses in Uganda who met to dialogue on issues impacting doing business in Uganda and the region as a whole and strategise on the way forward. Uganda’s minister of State for EAC Affairs, Shem...

According to The East African, Tanzania has started working on a $596 million facelift of its main sea port in Dar es Salaam that is expected to help double the cargo volume handled at the port by 2020. The project is funded by the World Bank ($400 million), the UK’s Department for International Development ($136 million) and TradeMark Africa ($60 million). According to government stats, the Dar es Salaam port handled 14.6 million tons of cargo in 2014. The facelift project is expected to double this to over 28 million tons by 2020. The Dar es Salaam port serves seven neighboring countries — DRC, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Tanzania and its northern neighbor Kenya are caught in a head-to-head race to become the preferred regional transport hub amid massive expansion projects in sea ports, connecting railway and road networks. Source: AFK Insider

Kwale has a lot of natural resources that remain untapped because of poor leadership, outgoing UDF chairman Kassim Tandaza has said. Tandaza said Kwale leaders are focused on their own selfish interests instead of those of the residents. He told the Star on Saturday he will be vying for the Kwale senator seat in the 2017 election on the soon-to-be-formed Amani National Congress party ticket. Tandaza was the UDF chairman before its rebranding. "I have the necessary contacts and friends who I can negotiate with so they can help bring investors to Kwale," he said on the phone. Tandaza was speaking from Kakamega, where he is attending a series of UDF meetings to finalise the party's rebranding. He unsuccessfully vied for the Matuga parliamentary seat in 2013. Tandaza said Kwale has the capacity to host a third port as it has a natural deep berth in Vanga. "A port in Vanga can serve the northern parts of Tanzania faster than the Port of Dar es Salaam as it is closer to Arusha, Morogoro and other towns," he said. He said a port at Vanga will host large vessels without going through the dredging process. Source: The Star

By 2013, the U.S. had a trade deficit with Africa, importing more from Africa ($51 billion worth) than it was exporting to Africa ($35 billion worth), according to a report in East Africa BusinessWeek by John Sambo. Trade between the U.S. and Africa has grown 7 percent per year over the last decade, with U.S. companies investing $10 billion in African countries, second only to $11 billion from the U.K. More than 400 companies generate more than $1 billion in revenue in Africa, and many are American companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, General Motors, Proctor and Gamble and Ford, BusinessWeek reports. Walmart plans to open 63 new stores in five African countries by December 2016. Ten economies account for 80 percent of economic growth. These include six in Sub-Saharan Africa: Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa; and four in North Africa: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Libya. But the U.S. share in Africa’s trade has declined from 13 percent in 2001 to 7 percent in 2013, bypassed by China, which grew its share from 3 percent in 2001 to more than 14 percent over the same period. U.S. President Barack Obama’s President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa came out with its first report on how the U.S. can strengthen commercial ties with Africa following the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit of August, 2014. The council made eight recommendations that it says could hold the key to improving U.S. trade with Africa. These include: Improving perception of doing...

Private equity firm Brookwoods Capital has expressed interest in investing Tsh53 trillion ($27 billion) in the construction the Mwambani Port and Railway Corridor (Mwaporc) in Tanga, Tanzania, one of the largest development corridors in the region. The project includes a deep sea port, a free port and a heavy-haul standard gauge railway that will link Tanzania with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A free port is an export processing zone (EPZ) in a port, where imported goods can be held or processed duty-free before being re-exported. The East African Community Secretariat has supported the project, which will now be integrated into the region’s infrastructure master plan. Mwaporc co-director Cuthbert Tenga said that they are in negotiations with the Ministry of Transport to sign the project agreement for works to start. “We have received support from East and Central African countries and once the government of Tanzania signs the agreement, it will be used as a module by the other countries,” he said. He said that the negotiations with the ministry started last year and they are hopeful that they will seal the deal soon. The construction of the deep-sea port is expected to allow direct shipping from international ports, which is ultimately expected to cut the cost of logistics for exporters and importers. According to Mr Tenga, the free port will be constructed adjacent to the new deep-sea port, and is expected to host manufacturing, logistics and other service industries. Steel manufacturing Key anchor activities will include an...

The Dar es Salaam port is set for a major facelift that is expected to help double the cargo volume it handles by 2020. The $596 million project, jointly funded by the World Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and TradeMark Africa (TMA), involves demolition of parts of the port in order to increase the working space. The reconstruction will involve deepening of berths 1-7, the dredging of the entrance channel and turning basin to allow bigger vessels to dock. The World Bank is contributing $400 million as a loan under the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DMGP) while DfID is giving $136 million in a grant. The remaining $60 million will come from TMA. Once completed, the project will see the Dar Port handle 28 million tonnes by 2020, from the 14.6 million tonnes it handled in 2013/14. Sheds 2 and 3 will be demolished to create an additional 22 square metres of working space. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport Dr Shaaban Mwinjaka recently launched the project. Speaking at the launch, World Bank senior operations officer Monthe Bienvenu Biyoudi said the Bank will approve the $400 loan in December. He said it will also finance additional work on three access roads — Kilwa, Nyerere and Mandela — and the new southern bypass from the port round to the Julius Nyerere International Airport and then to Kibaha suburb on the way to the Tanzania hinterland. According to David Stanton, TMA director-general, the first phase, to...

WASHINGTON, USA - Earlier this month, the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (DBIA) came out with its first report on how the United States can strengthen commercial ties with Africa. DBIA, which is chaired by Dominc Barton who is deputised by Karen Daniel, is a follow-up of President Barack Obama’s hosting of the US-Africa Summit last year. The report holds back no punches. Africa’s growth is about much more than just resources. Three sectors contributed more to growth from 2007 to 2013 than resources, namely wholesale and retail trade (22% of real GDP growth); agriculture (21%); and transportation and telecom (12%). Resources meanwhile contributed just 11% of growth in this period. Twenty-eight of the top 30 economies recorded positive growth from 2000 to 2013, and 11 of the top 30 averaged rates above six percent per annum over that period. For companies focused on a few key countries, the top ten economies account for 80% of economic growth – these include six in Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana; and four in North Africa: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Libya. Over the last decade, trade between the United States and Africa has grown at a healthy rate of seven percent per annum. By 2013, US merchandise trade with Africa totaled $86 billion, with U.S. imports from Africa ($51 billion) outweighing US exports to Africa $35 billion). Over the last decade, US companies have invested $10 billion into African countries, second only to $11 billion...

KIGALI, Rwanda - Rwanda’s Ministry of East African Community held the third MINEAC-Private sector breakfast meeting to review the challenges that business people face when using the Central Corridor to and from Dar es Salaam. Present were leading businessmen and women from different companies and sectors that range from transport, logistics, export-import, mining, manufacturing, freight forwarders and shippers who predominately use the central corridor for business. “The Central Corridor is very important for Rwanda’s trade as it accounts for over 60% of the regional trade and therefore all initiatives aimed at improving the central corridor will have a direct impact on transport costs, and competitiveness thus contribute to the reduction of cost of doing business in Rwanda,” Rwanda’s Minister of East African Community Affairs, Amb. Valentine Rugwabiza said. The Minister was speaking during the meeting that focused mainly on “Accelerating the removal of Non-Tariff Barriers along the central corridor”, held last week in Kigali. “This is why last month our leaders came together in Dar-es-Salaam to focus precisely on those two things, how to improve efficiency on the Central corridor and how to work together (governments and business people) to develop the Central corridor,” Rugwabiza said. The Central Corridor is a trade and transport corridor which covers the United Republic of Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Tanzania. “The largest part of the Central corridor is in the United Republic of Tanzania and therefore this is why Tanzania is needed to do a lot in terms of improving...

Nearly a month after Rwanda and Tanzania held bilateral talks on how to increase efficiency on the central corridor, members of the business community say little is being done by the Tanzanian authorities to improve the situation. The reluctance to eliminate NTBs has continued to cost traders millions of dollars and could soon reach billions if the situation is not treated with a great sense of urgency. For example, importers still have to part with $4,200 and $5,000 to ship a container from Dar es Salaam to Kigali, a distance of only 1,497 kilometres. This, businesspersons say, is too expensive and affects their competitiveness. The traders were speaking during the third breakfast meeting between the private sector and Ministry of East African Community affairs, in Kigali, yesterday. The traders say that up to now, regional customs transit guarantee issued by Rwanda is not activated in Tanzania Revenue Authority system which is a challenge to Rwandan clearing firms. Also Rwanda freight forwarders are not registered on Tanzania TRANCIS limiting handling of EAC transit cargo. John Bosco Rusagara, the chairperson of Rwanda Shippers Council, said this has restricted companies in the country to only handle internal-bound cargo. Rwandan traders most often face discrimination, delays and their right to access to customs premises are often violated, Rusagara said. This could affect Rwanda's competitiveness given the fact that the Central Corridor handles more than 60 per cent of the country's total trade. "We are losing a lot of money through bribery, corruption, bureaucracy, discrimination,...

FINALLY Africa's free trade area comprising of 26 countries with a combined population of over half a billion and a combined US$1.1tri gross domestic product (gdp) will be launched in Egypt next June. The Tripartite FTA will account for half of the membership of African Union, that contributes just over 58 per cent total GDP and 57 per cent of the total population on the continent. Acting Director of Trade, Investment and Productive Sector at East African Cooperation Ministry, Mr Bernard Haule, said the African grand FTA launching will usher in trade in goods at zero tariff among the members who belong to Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). "Leaders from the tripartite blocs who will include President Jakaya Kikwete as current EAC Chairman, will launch it in Egypt at a summit to be held next June," Mr Haule said saying negotiations on the subject among the three regional blocs are almost concluded. Mr Haule said it's only clauses on movement of business persons and settlement of disputes which are not yet concluded as part of Phase I of the negotiations while Phase II which will involve trade in services and intellectual property rights are yet to start. "The heads of state will also give a directive on the beginning of negotiations relating to trade in services and dispute settlement mechanism," he pointed out. Since 1980, African leaders have been mulling the idea of establishing a grandeur FTA...