In recent history virtually every continent and economic block has been trying to establish common trade area agreements as well as political unions. Africa is no different –SADC, ECA, COMESA, ECOWAS and SACU are just some of the examples of African countries trying to collaborate to drive the many aspects of social and economic development. It is a system and an idea that promises to accelerate inclusion and promote regional prosperity among neighbours and the AfCFTA (The African Continental Free Trade Area) is rapidly becoming the embodiment of that reality – 28 African countries operating as a free trade area. As expected from an agreement of this magnitude, few people fully understand its complexity and intricacies. FurtherAfrica spoke to one of AfCFTA’s strongest advocates. Mark-Anthony Johnson, CEO of JIC Holdings – an investment, trading and acquisition entity focused in Africa and emerging economies with roots back to 1985. Mark’s JIC operations are at the heart of what is poised to become the world’s largest free trade area. Fabio Scala: Mark, it’s always great to see you and very exciting to have the opportunity to discuss AfCFTA with you, so thank you very much for your time. Let me begin by asking you to give us a brief description of what AfCFTA is and its practical impacts in the participating economies. Mark-Anthony Johnson: Thank you, Fabio. Always happy to talk about Africa. But first, congratulations are due to you and FurtherAfrica on your excellent and informative platform. I am delighted to have the opportunity to...

The African logistics sector is on an upward trajectory as startups in the sector secure growing amounts of funding as the potential for the space to power a commerce revolution on the continent becomes clearer and clearer. According to the latest edition of the African Tech Startups Funding Report released each year by Disrupt Africa, logistics startups had a record-breaking 2019. Twenty-three logistics startups secured investment, up 91.7 per cent on 2018 numbers, which in turn were an increase of 140 per cent on the year before. Total funding increased by 264.6 per cent to US$69,627,000, with logistics startups securing the biggest share of investment by any sector bar fintech. Total annual funding in this sector has been growing at hugely impressive rates, jumping an astonishing 6,746 per cent since 2016. Though much of the logistics sector’s growth funding-wise over the last few years has been driven by two companies, with more than 80 per cent of the space’s investment total in 2019 raised by Nigeria’s Kobo360 and Kenya’s Lori Systems, we are seeing a trickle-down effect, and startups raising at all levels. Powered by opportunity The development of the sector and its increased attractiveness to investors can be attributed to the size of the opportunity. The ability of e-logistics solutions to power the growth of African commerce – and e-commerce – as that undergoes a revolution of sorts is key. Tonye Membere-Otaji is founder of Nigerian company MVXchange, a tech-driven maritime platform that matches vessel charter requests with available Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs), helping users...

COMESA will start conducting national launches of a digital platform known as the 50 Million African Women Speak (50MAWSP) Project specifically designed to address the information needs of women in business in the region. According to statement from COMESA, the trade bloc will roll out the Platform in 14 Member States between August and November 2020 largely through virtual means owing to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The launches are tentatively scheduled to kick off in Zimbabwe followed by Seychelles on 25 August. The platform which Is accessible at www.womenconnect.org primarily seeks to economically empower women by providing a one-stop shop for a wide range of financial and non-financial services that women need to start and grow successful businesses. It is jointly implemented by COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and is funded by the African Development Bank. Continentally unveiled during the Global Gender Summit in November 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda, the platform enables women in Member/partner States of COMESA, EAC and ECOWAS and other African countries to find information on how to run businesses, where to access financial services, how to create business opportunities online and where to access training resources. Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe has described the initiative as a very practical way of speaking to the general agenda of empowering women with its business resources and custom-built social networking features already attracting thousands of women and connecting them to do business with each other  and share experiences in ways...

The demand for air cargo on African airlines have dropped further in June compared to previous month, a new report by a global airlines trade association has shown. The demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres, for the African airlines contracted by 13.8 percent in June. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) data for global air freight markets shows that this was a weaker performance than the 7.3 percent fall in demand in May. IATA said the decline was attributed to the risk of increased spread of the coronavirus on the continent especially in the month of June, causing economic shocks to the lower and middle incomes countries. Analysts worry of a rampant spread of the virus due to weak health systems and adoption of prevention measures including social distancing in the continent’s overcrowded cities and slums. More than a third of Africa's population is said to lack access to adequate water supplies and nearly 60 percent of urban dwellers live in overcrowded slums - conditions where the virus could thrive. “African airlines reported a 13.8 percent year–on-year decline in international cargo volumes in June, up from a 7.3 percent fall in May,” IATA stated. “The Asia-Africa trade lane continues to grow swiftly (from 3.0 percent yoy in May to 20.1 percent in June), but the pandemic became more severe in Africa during June.” Some of the African airlines in cargo freight operations include Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways (KQ), South African Airlines and RwandAir. And while the aviation industry was among the...

The demand for air cargo on African airlines have dropped further in June compared to previous month, a new report by a global airlines trade association has shown. The demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres, for the African airlines contracted by 13.8 percent in June. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) data for global air freight markets shows that this was a weaker performance than the 7.3 percent fall in demand in May. IATA said the decline was attributed to the risk of increased spread of the coronavirus on the continent especially in the month of June, causing economic shocks to the lower and middle incomes countries. Analysts worry of a rampant spread of the virus due to weak health systems and adoption of prevention measures including social distancing in the continent’s overcrowded cities and slums. More than a third of Africa's population is said to lack access to adequate water supplies and nearly 60 percent of urban dwellers live in overcrowded slums - conditions where the virus could thrive. “African airlines reported a 13.8 percent year–on-year decline in international cargo volumes in June, up from a 7.3 percent fall in May,” IATA stated. “The Asia-Africa trade lane continues to grow swiftly (from 3.0 percent yoy in May to 20.1 percent in June), but the pandemic became more severe in Africa during June.” Some of the African airlines in cargo freight operations include Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways (KQ), South African Airlines and RwandAir. And while the aviation industry was among the...

The World Bank has agreed to a no cost extension for the Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project (GLTFP) to December 2021. The five million US dollars project was launched in 2016 for a five-year period. COMESA’s Assistant Secretary General for Programmes Ambassador Kipyego Cheluget said the Project has been crucial in facilitating trade for small scale cross border traders by promoting the Simplified Trade Regime and providing necessary information needed to conduct business across the three project countries of Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. He added that though most traders have been affected by COVID-19 and the restrictions that have been imposed by countries, the GLTFP has ensured that Trade Information Officers are available at border posts to attend to those who are trading. COVID-19 also halted most of the project’s field-based activities such as regular visits to project countries and borders in order to hold consultations with relevant stakeholders.  The Project Team has adapted to using online communication platforms provided by COMESA Secretariat and have continued implementing the project. “The use of online meetings has had its positive effect in terms of saving resources which can be used during the no-cost extension of the project that now ends in December 2021,” said Amb. Cheluget, who is also the PSC Chairperson. Another major activity that the project is focusing on is the continued provision of technical support and coordination of activities aimed at rolling out effective implementation of the COMESA Simplified Trade Regime (STR). The STR seeks to help in...

Transnet CEO Portia Derby has said the state-owned rail and port operator is eyeing regional trade as an increasingly important part of its business strategy, as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to depress global economic activity. Derby was speaking during an online webinar at the Southern Africa Transport Conference on Wednesday morning. “The linkages in SADC are crucial for South Africa. For South Africa to grow, our region also needs to grow. The north-south corridor is an important priority for us, and we will continue to push on that front, ” said Derby. In a frank assessment of what is expected in the coming year, Derby said she was not sure that the optimism around overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic by 2021 was warranted. She said she would personally expect a return to normality when the world successfully develops and distributes a vaccine. While the global slump in demand at the start of the pandemic affected Transnet’s operations, Derby said that entity proactively sought out advice from other countries to formulate its response plan. “When we started to see the flu spreading, we spoke to Singapore. It gave us a bit of a head start. We set up a command centre led by some amazing South Africans. Whenever a new regulation came out, we addressed it quickly insofar as its impact on our operation.” This yielded benefits, said Derby, as Transnet only had to completely close for three days during the lockdown. In April Transnet Port Terminals said its port utilities were only...

Transnet is embedding the “new normal” of the Covid-19 environment for the staff of its freight and transport operations and is dismantling a command centre it set up during the earlier lockdown to make it part of regular operations. CAPE TOWN – Transnet is embedding the “new normal” of the Covid-19 environment for the staff of its freight and transport operations and is dismantling a command centre it set up during the earlier lockdown to make it part of regular operations. This was according to Transnet chief executive Portia Derby, who spoke about the impact of the pandemic on the freight and logistics environment at an SA Transport Conference and International Road Federation-hosted webinar yesterday. Derby said the pandemic had a big impact on trade flows. Some vessels had been delayed at Cape Town harbour due to infections among port workers. Sometimes, vessels would by-pass Cape Town on their return route, and vessels calling at South African ports faced problems in meeting their European port schedules. At one stage, workers had to be brought in from Durban to help boost Cape Town’s port operations, she said. She said the transport and logistics sectors still faced some tough months. She questioned the view among many economists that gross domestic product (GDP) growth would suddenly recover to 3.1 percent in 2021, from the GDP decline of up to -9.3 percent that was expected this year. She said virtually every country in Africa with which Transnet dealt had a large budget deficit and high debt,...

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 15 – The Africa Union is betting on top digital solutions among them PanaBios – a bio-surveillance and bio-screening suite -, to ensure continuity of business in the region, in the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. The technology maps COVID-19 hotspots throughout the continent and builds risk models that create a base for standardized protocols to prevent transmission of the disease. Using similar risk models tied to testing across the continent, PanaBIOS makes it possible to verify the health status of international travelers across borders, at a time when air travel has resumed. The technology will see travelers use test results from one country to satisfy port clearance requirements in another country through their personal PanaBios app, which is already available on the PanaBIOS website. The technology will thus simultaneously help ease port congestion (by obviating the need for testing on arrival) and prevent importation of new Covid-19 cases at ports of entry. Furthermore, it provides the means to track vaccine administration and also adverse reactions, in a bid for transparency and confidence rebuilding in the wake of growing paranoia about vaccines. This will however only be important when vaccines for Covid-19 are widely available. Of more immediate use is the potential of the platform’s machine learning algorithms to serve as rapid screening measures to help with school reopening, workplace safety and cross-border travel through the meshing of testing-related data and geolocation intelligence. The move comes as African countries are getting ready to reopen their borders and...

The African Union announced that the first commercial deal under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is expected to take place on January 1, 2021 as outstanding discussions will take place online. In April, the Secretary General of the AfCFTA Wamkele Mene said implementation of the free trade agreement will not be able to commence on July 1 as planned due to the disruptions occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. The AU maintains that the AfCFTA will offer Africa an opportunity to reconfigure its supply chains, reduce reliance on others and speed up the establishment of regional value chains which will boost intra-Africa trade. A report by the World Bank said the successful implementation of AfCFTA would mitigate negative COVID-19 effects on economic growth by boosting regional trade and reducing trade costs. It added that most of the AfCFTA’s income gains are likely to come by cutting red tape and simplifying customs procedures. Furthermore, it said, the AfCFTA could also help increase resiliency to future economic shocks by replacing regional agreements, streamlining border procedures and prioritizing trade reforms. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the AfCFTA is, by the number of participating countries, the largest trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. Its implementation will form a $3.4 trillion economic bloc with 1.3 billion people across the continent. Read the original article Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of TradeMark Africa.