Representatives from the eight-member East Africa bloc are set to meet in the Kenyan capital Nairobi next week to assess the development for the regional infrastructure master plan due in December, the bloc said on Sunday. The two-day meeting organized by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) economic cooperation and social development division will seek to educate and inform stakeholders of way projects will be designed in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner with the necessary mitigation measures. The meeting will be attended by over 50 participants drawn from environmental and social issues connected NGOs and non-state actors from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Analysts say infrastructure development initiatives need to adhere to the right codes of environmental and social developmental requirements, espousing the motto of sustainable development. The regional infrastructure master plan is aimed at enhancing regional economic integration through trade, free movement of goods and persons and poverty reduction amongst IGAD Member States. The master plan is covering the regional sub-sectors of transport, ICT, energy and trans-boundary water resources. Read original article

Last month, Mastercard announced a partnership with Samsung, Airtel Africa and Asante Financial Services Group to launch a Pay-on-Demand payments platform and drive the digital economy across Africa. By enabling digital access to everyday products and services for under-served consumers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the continent could experience positive economic growth covering even the poorest which has been elusive for decades. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) notes that the launch and growth of digital financial services has led to an unprecedented increase in the number of people enjoying access to formal financial services. Today, Africa has more digital financial services deployments than any other region in the world, with almost half of the nearly 700 million individual users worldwide. Mobile money solutions and agent banking remain the most preferred since they now offer affordable, instant, and reliable transactions, savings, credit, and even insurance opportunities in rural villages and urban neighbourhoods even without bank branches. This, quite literally, banking at your fingertips – is for everyone and it has revolutionised how transactions are carried out. The impact of this convenience is that it extends beyond the individual since the impact can be felt across society. “Ten years after the breakthrough of digital financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa, we are seeing evidence of this. Field studies show that access to mobile money services has increased daily per capita consumption levels of households, lifting them out of extreme poverty,” notes Reeta Roy who is the President and CEO of Mastercard...

James Duddridge's visit shows how Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office brings together development and diplomacy to act as a force for good in the world. The UK Minister for Africa, James Duddridge, travelled to Malawi and Zambia this week (5 to 9 October) where he built on UK partnerships across Southern Africa to promote, support and reinforce our shared national interests – with a focus on boosting regional trade links and tackling the health and economic impacts of COVID-19. He visited businesses in the 2 countries – including Zazu, a British-backed financial services start-up in Lusaka and 14Trees, a CDC investment in Lilongwe producing environmentally sustainable bricks. In Zambia, the Minister announced UK funding to help small-and-medium-sized (SME) firms to access investment, innovate and improve productivity. This support will help create 50,000 jobs and facilitate over £100m of private sector investment into high-potential Zambian businesses. James Duddridge meeting His Excellency Lazarus Chakwera, President of Malawi. In Malawi, a major focus of discussions with the President, Vice President and Finance Minister was how to drive growth through improving the investment climate and reforming state-owned enterprises, building on the foundations of the UK-Africa Investment Summit in January. He also met with the Zambian Minister for Finance and trade bodies to discuss a new UK-backed partnership between the Government of Zambia and Trademark East Africa (TMA). The support will help improve trade flows at one of Southern Africa’s busiest borders – the Nakonde border post between Zambia and Tanzania, through which 135,000 trucks...

The scope of the training focuses on operations at the OSBP with close contact to travelers and their luggage. s the Partner States in the East African Community (EAC) region ease measures that were established to prevent and respond to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the EAC Secretariat has commenced a training of trainers’ course for staff at 12 One Stop Border Posts between the Partner States. This training aims at strengthening the prevention of and response to COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. The training programme kicked off last week at the Isebania-Sirari border post between Kenya and Tanzania and is being conducted by AMREF Flying Doctors in close cooperation with the EAC Secretariat. Between 16 and 32 staff members are trained as trainers in a 2-days course. They come from customs, immigration, port health and animal health, bureau of standards, security, cargo and baggage handlers. Clearing agents are also included targeted in the training. “The participants in this training will in turn train their colleagues on the skills they have acquired to further cascade the message and ensure that the busy border posts can effectively prevent the spread of COVID 19 and detect and respond to infected passengers”, explains Anthony Kihara of AMREF Flying Doctors. “The scope of the training focuses on operations at the OSBP with close contact to travelers and their luggage.” The Principal Customs Officer for Capacity Building at the EAC Secretariat, Stephen Analo, who is coordinating the training is convinced that “all the EAC Partner States...

Summary The visit seeks to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera arrived in Tanzania on Wednesday morning for a three-day state visit to boost bilateral ties between the two neighbouring countries. Mr Chakwera was received by Tanzania President John Magufuli in the commercial hub Dar es Salaam and was accorded a state reception. "The visit seeks to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries," Tanzanian Minister for Foreign Affairs and East Africa Cooperation Prof Palamagamba Kabudi said in a statement. The two leaders are expected to lay the foundation stone at the Mbezi Luis Bus Terminal on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. The $22 million (Tsh51 billion) bus terminal, which is under construction, will accommodate upcountry and cross-border-bound buses including those to and from Malawi and will have a capacity of handling about 3,430 buses daily. Prof Kabudi said the visit by President Chakwera follows an invite by Dr Magufuli extended to Malawi after his two-day State visit in April last year when Peter Mutharika was president. Mr Chakwera was sworn-in as president in June this year after winning the re-run of a hotly disputed election. Mr Mutharika’s victory in the May 2019 election was overturned in February by the Constitutional Court over fraud allegations. Projects President Chakwera has since made one-day working visits to Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Tanzania becomes the fourth SADC country the Malawi leader is visiting, where he is expected to...

THE East African Community (EAC) and the European Union (EU) are partnering to realize a fully-fledged EAC Custom Union as they launch a regional economic integration programme. The EU Ambassador to Tanzania and the EAC, Mr Manfredo Fanti and the Secretary General of the EAC, Ambassador Libérat Mfumukeko launched a new Euro 16,400,000 joint programme that will strengthen regional economic integration, through advancing implementation of the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols. The Common Objectives in Regional Economic Integration (CORE) programme will be instrumental in moving towards a fully-fledged Customs Union, by supporting more robust Information Communication and Technology (ICT) based on data exchange protocols for the clearing of goods. The EAC Customs Union was established under the EAC Treaty. The EAC Customs Union Protocol was signed on March 2nd 2004 and became operational on 1st January 2005 with the passing of the EAC Customs Management Act. The overall objective of the Customs Union is the formation of a single customs territory. The aim of creating one single customs territory is to enable Partner States to enjoy economies of scale, with a view to supporting the process of economic development. A needed critical change is to upgrade IT and leverage it to implement the SCT, particularly as concerns three functions: exchange of data between Partner States and with the EAC Secretariat for customs operational purposes, extraction of data from national customs systems for a systematic monitoring, and support functions with a regional component in risk management and valuation. A well-developed...

In Summary Currently, ordinary citizens entering into Kenya from Tanzania are allowed to proceed once they produce a Covid-19 certificate. Truck drivers however are subjected to both production of the certificate from Tanzania and also another testing at the border point and allowed in only after the results are out. The East African Business Council (EABC) is seeking equal treatment of all those entering Kenya from Tanzania, irrespective of whether they are truck drivers or ordinary citizens. Currently, ordinary citizens from Tanzania are allowed to proceed once they produce a Covid-19 certificate. Truck drivers are however subjected however have to produce the certificate from Tanzania and still undergo another testing at the border point and are only allowed in after the results are out, EABC complained yesterday. The process according to Tanzania immigration officials and truck drivers takes more than a week delaying delivery of goods. EABC chief executive Peter Mathuki has also called for the strengthening of public-private partnerships between Kenya and Tanzania to boost bilateral trade. He was speaking during a mission led by Kenya's East African Community and Regional Development Principal Secretary Kevit Desai, to the Namanga border. The team sought to establish the capacity of aflatoxin surveillance while also witnessing the testing and issuance of Covid-19 certificates. Mathuki urged EAC governments to fast track the economic stimulus packages to support businesses. Covid-19 is estimated to cost East Africa partner states between $37 billion (about Sh4 trillion )to $79 billion (Sh 8.56 trillion) in output losses. In...

Look around your room. Chances are that everything inside has been in a container, on a plane, or inside a truck at some point. The miracle of international trade is a complex beast, a series of arteries feeding goods to each corner of the globe. And for the average consumer, we know almost nothing about it. It’s our lack of knowledge that’s given rise to an exploding market for counterfeit goods. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the EU Intellectual Property Office, counterfeit and pirated goods make up 3.3% of all global trade — over half a trillion dollars annually. It’s here, in dealing with inauthentic goods, that we run into a bit of a blindspot. We know that we bought a jacket. We know where we purchased it (Amazon), how it got to us (DHL), and its country of origin (China). But it’s what we don’t know that’s far more interesting. Have you ever given thought to where the buttons originated? What about the dyes? The thread? Consider the number of miles, collectively, each material traveled, the number of borders crossed before a manufacturing facility turned it into a jacket, and shipped it to your door. The global supply chain is an impossible tangle of logistical hurdles somehow made possible. With complexity comes opportunity, and unscrupulous actors are taking these opportunities to sneak illicit goods into a legitimate supply. What Can We Do About It? In such a complex network, you’d assume paper would...

Summary Kigali caught up in a row between Kampala and Dar es Salaam over road user fees charged on truckers transversing through Tanzania. Kampala threatens to retaliate against “unfair” charges imposed on its transporters that are higher than those applicable to Rwandan shippers. Escalation of the dispute could hit over $171 million worth of trade between the two neighbours, and inflict damage on the regional integration process. Uganda and Tanzania are locked in a dispute over road user fees for trucks headed to the Dar es Salaam port, with Kampala threatening to retaliate against “unfair” charges imposed on its transporters that are higher than those applicable to Rwandan shippers. Kampala has filed a complaint with the EAC Council of Ministers, accusing Tanzania of breaching the Common Market Protocol by imposing different road user charges to partner states in the same trading bloc. Escalation of the dispute could hit over $171 million worth of trade between the two East African neighbours, and inflict more damage on the fragile regional integration process. At the centre of the dispute is a $500 fee that the Tanzanian government charges Ugandan trucks traversing its territory, compared with $152 charged on Rwandan trucks. The fee is collected to repair and maintain Tanzania's road infrastructure, which keeps the landlocked neighbours connected to the Indian Ocean sea ports. Uganda argues that this fee is unfairly high, creates an uneven playing field, and goes against the efforts of promoting EAC as a single investment destination. "It doesn't create a...

The African Union has amplified action to tackle non-tariff barriers and increase small businesses’ use of the tradebarriers.africa tool through its new online platform The African continent is about to become the world’s largest free trade area. If not addressed, non-tariff barriers (NTBs) may slow down this effort. Although the negative impact of NTBs on intra-regional trade is recognized, so far there has been limited success in addressing them. “The success of the AfCFTA depends in part on how well governments can track and remove non-tariff barriers,” said Ambassador Albert Muchanga the African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry. A new campaign to spotlight and remove non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in intra-continental trade launches this week. The #TradeEasier campaign aims to promote the uptake and use of the African Union’s tradebarriers.africa, a non-tariff barriers reporting mechanism tool. The tool, developed by the African Union in partnership with UNCTAD, supports efforts to make continental trade easier and less costly by helping African businesses report such barriers and supporting their elimination with the help of governments. NTBs slow down the movement of goods and costs importers and exporters billions of dollars annually. They also stand in the way of the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). “If we want the AfCFTA to thrive, we have to ensure operational barriers are dropped and businesses and traders, especially small ones; don’t suffer from undue limitations placed on them as they try do the basic thing that makes economies work – trade.” Every...