Towards the end of last month, East African Community partner states adopted the Regional Electronic Cargo and Drivers Tracking System that will be hosted at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. This came after a consultative meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame on May 12 this year, brought together four East African Community (EAC) leaders and discussed regional efforts to tackle the COVID-19 that has ravaged the world. At the time, the leaders directed concerned regional ministers to "finalise and adopt an EAC digital surveillance and tracking system for drivers and crew on COVID-19 for immediate use by partner states." "Today (Monday) we are doing piloting and next week all goes live," Eng. Daniel Murenzi, the Principal Information Technology Officer at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, said. "The system delayed to be implemented immediately after the Ministers had approved the system to be used; this was because we had to first do direct integration to the national laboratories." According to Murenzi, last week, a technical test was "done successfully." "And now we are starting piloting this week since we have agreed with transporters. Also, we have finished purchasing equipment through support of Trademark EastAfrica that will be used for screening: these are tablets that will be having an application on." Murenzi noted that each country has assigned a national focal person and "we are closely working together." The new system is considered to be another valuable tool to help mitigate the disruption of domestic, regional and global supply chain...

Commencement of trade under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has been pushed to a tentative date in January next year. The African Union Commission’s original date of July 1 is considered untenable due to the Covid-19 pandemic. AfCFTA’s Secretary General Wamkele Mene said African governments are currently focusing on the fight against the pandemic, saving lives and livelihoods. Mr Mene said the market at the moment is not conducive for the launch considering more than 42 countries out of 55 countries in the continent are in lockdown and the containment measures are complicating intra-trade as observed in borders where trucks queuing for more than 50 km waiting to deliver essential goods. WIDE CONSULTATION Addressing private sector players in a webinar organised by Africa CEO’s Forum on Thursday, Mr Mene said the decision to push the date forward was made after wide consultation. “Suspension of the implementation of AfCFTA from July 1 was not my decision but that of African Union Heads of States. I advised the assembly on the reality, facts, science and data on the ground on the situation of Covid-19. The decision of the new date, which also depends on how quick the pandemic is contained, was widely consulted and involved the private sector,” said Mr Mene. The secretary general, appointed by the AU in March to oversee the implementation of the agreement also said the postponement was as the result of the pending negotiations which were halted by the pandemic.   “The Covid-19 crisis was...

The UK government announced on Tuesday it was merging its Foreign Office and development aid offices, in a new strategy it says will help strengthen London’s influence abroad. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons the UK was now facing an increasingly “competitive world” and needed to make changes in government structure to suit the times. It means the Department of Foreign and International Development, which pumps about £100 million (about Ksh13.3 billion) a year into Kenya, will be dissolved in September. “We have a responsibility to ask whether our current arrangements, dating back to 1997, still maximise British influence,” PM Johnson said. Created in 1997, the Department of Foreign and International Development (DFID) had been a separate organ of the UK government charged with managing foreign aid abroad. In Kenya, it spent £98 million last year on hunger safety net programme, regional economic development for trade and investment, as well as other programmes on security, governance and humanitarian work.   Mr Johnson said the department, while successful, having been formed after the Cold War era, was now facing competition as other countries manage aid as a foreign policy issue. The UK foreign policy has traditionally been managed under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which was created in 1968 after the merger of Foreign and Commonwealth departments. “This is exactly the moment when we must mobilise every one of our national assets, including our aid budget and expertise, to safeguard British interests and values overseas,” Mr Johnson said...

The trend of declining foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa is set to exacerbate significantly in 2020 amid the dual shock of the coronavirus pandemic and low prices of commodities, especially oil. FDI flows to the continent are forecast to contract between 25% and 40% based on gross domestic product (GDP) growth projections as well as a range of investment specific factors, according to UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2020. “Although all industries are set to be affected, several services industries including aviation, hospitality, tourism and leisure are hit hard, a trend likely to persist for some time in the future,” said UNCTAD’s director of investment and enterprise, James Zhan. Manufacturing industries intensive in global value chains are also strongly affected, a sign of concern for efforts to promote economic diversification and industrialization in Africa. Overall, there is a strong downward trend in the first quarter of 2020 for announced greenfield investment projects, although the value of projects (-58%) has dropped more severely than their number (-23%). Similarly, as of April 2020, the number of cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) projects targeting Africa had declined 72% from the monthly average of 2019. Hope for recovery However, two distinct factors offer hope for the recovery of investment flows to the continent in the medium to long run. The first is the higher value being assigned to ties to the continent by major global economies, promoting investment in infrastructure, resources, but also industrial development. Investments from these countries, which have varying degrees of political...

Reports that Kenya has suspended a recent order that all transit cargo be transported using the Standard Gauge Railway to the Naivasha Inland Container Depot has offered temporary relief to investors in the logistics sector. On Tuesday last week, Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia held a virtual meeting with Northern Corridor stakeholders where the directive was communicated after a heated discussion. The meeting came hot on the heels of a letter from the Uganda government opposing the move to transfer the transit cargo to the new facility. At the port of Mombasa, we confirmed that only long-stay transit containers were being railed to the Naivasha ICD. It was, however, not immediately possible to establish the number of such containers. “Yes, transit railings is now optional,” confirmed Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) head of corporate services Bernard Osero. Local and foreign clearing and forwarding firms, container freight stations and transport firms have warned that they risk collapsing if the State presses ahead with its decision to evacuate all cargo to the hinterland. Alternatively, they will be forced to relocate to Nairobi, Naivasha or further up along the busy corridor. This, however, has done little to allay their fear that the economies of the coastal region and towns along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway will be destroyed. Macharia had earlier stated that one of the reasons for using the railway was to protect truck drivers from contracting the coronavirus disease. On average, 1,500 trucks laden with cargo leave Mombasa every day and there have been fears that...

It is hard to see how African economies will bounce back to the vibrant fast growing hubs that they were over the past two decades, the pre-corona era. Countries like Rwanda that led East Africa (and most of the World) with annual economic growth averaging 9.4 percent now looks at annual growth rates of a mere 2 percent.  When the tourism and hospitality industries reopen their doors, will tourists and holiday maker flock in triple and quadruple their previous numbers and will they do so long enough for the industries to stabilize and resume growth? Will air travel shake off the blow it has taken, will it be willing to pocket less profit to attract business or will it hike prices to capitalize the anticipated initial high demand post the pandemic?  How individual industries will raise from the ashes of the pandemic is anyone’s guess but should recovery of global economies, especially of vulnerable third world countries like those in Africa be left to the invisible hands of commerce or should concerted regional and continental strategies be tabled?  Dare I say, it seems that the continent has again been stooped into the ill fated philosophy of individualism; it has again been divided and is again on the verge of been conquered. Just like they took individual course of action when the pandemic befell the continent, countries are destined to make individual response strategies, prioritizing self over whole.  Already this autonomy approach to the pandemic has rendered regional blocs asunder. Hard...

As Covid-19 caseload surpassed 225,105 on Saturday across the African continent, 43 African countries are now under full border closure due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The death toll from the pandemic has reached 6,040, while some 102,846 people have recovered, according to the latest data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The Africa CDC said that the northern African region is the most affected area across the continent both in terms of positive Covid-19 cases and the number of deaths. HIGHLY AFFECTED The highly affected African countries include South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Djibouti, Nigeria, and Algeria, said the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) Commission. Some countries on Saturday reported new records for their daily increases in Covid-19 infections. Egypt registered 1,677 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest daily surge so far, raising the national count to 42,980, the Egyptian health ministry said. The country has also reported a record single-day increase of 62 in Covid-19 deaths, taking the death toll to 1,484, said Khaled Megahed, the health ministry's spokesman. Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with a population of about 107 million, reported 268 new cases on Saturday, the highest daily increase so far, taking the country's tally to 3,166, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said. WORST HIT South Africa, the worst-hit country on the continent, has registered a total of 65,736 cases and 1,423 deaths so far, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally....

Rwanda and Uganda have recorded a reduction in trade flows in April and May 2020, according to the latest report from the COMESA Statistics on ‘COVID 19 Impact on Trade’. The report was prepared in the first two months in which COVID-19 spread to the region. Imports into Rwanda declined by 32 % in April compared to March. Rusumo and Airport borders posts recorded declines in imports of 35% and 16% respectively. In Uganda, a drop in imports was recorded at 30% in April compared to March. Malabo, Busia and Entebbe border posts recorded declines in imports of 35%, 28% and 24% respectively. Imports for the month of May were projected to decline by 20%. Exports for Rwanda also declined by 8% in April compared to March 2020 while Uganda recorded a decline in exports by 15% in April compared to March. According to the report, a reduction in customs duties is listed as among the critical challenges faced by the Rwanda Revenue Authority. Customs duty receipts declined by 55% in April compared to March. Rusumo, Kagitumba and the Airport border posts recorded declines in customs duty receipts of 52%, 71% and 41% respectively. For Uganda, a reduction in customs duties was listed among the critical challenges faced by the Uganda Revenue Authority with declines of 42% recorded in April compared to March. Malaba, Busia and Entebbe recorded declined duties of 43%, 36% and 21% respectively. Both countries have however put in place measures to respond to the COVID-19. In...

Current state of play of the AfCFTA The secretary-general of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat, Mr Wemkele Mene made an announcement on 28 April 2020 of the postponement of the 1 July 2020 official implementation start date. Mr Mene cited the adverse effects of Covid-19 currently devastating Africa and the world at large as the primary reason. This postponement came after significant lobbying of African leaders not to move this long-awaited launch date as there are real concerns that Africa could lose momentum towards the implementation of the new trade architecture. He made no announcement of an alternative start date, though speculation is swirling that it may now be set for January 2021. As indicated in my previous article ‘In a post-Covid-19 World, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area could not come soon enough’, which featured in Engineering News, Mining Weekly and How we made it in Africa on 22 May 2020, the pitfalls of open-ended postponements were laid out. Africa needs to move forward at pace to implement the agreement or risk losing momentum, political will and failure to negotiate meaningfully with global trade partners to correct the existing highly skewed trade architecture – especially if Africa appears to the world as being incapable of multi-tasking! Once fully implemented, the AfCFTA aims to reshape the continent’s social, investment and trade arena in a fundamental manner. It lays the foundation for the African Customs Union, a cornerstone of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063. The goal is...

Content type: Graphic Analysis Location: AFRICA Keywords associated with this article: Geographic: Africa, ME/NAF, Central Africa, East Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa Topical: economy, international relations, emergency, fiscal, foreign trade, government, health, immigration, infrastructure, investment, policy, regional, talks ISSN: 2633-304X Lagging regional integration is further complicated by the COVID-19 crisis Impacts COVID-19-related border and trade restrictions will strain various bilateral relationships over the short-to-medium term. Progress on freedom of movement and visa openness could face renewed setbacks. Recent continental efforts on procuring COVID-19-related supplies will intensify efforts to improve medical regional value chains. COVID-19-related border closures will exacerbate ongoing and emerging food security crises. Conclusion The latest Africa Regional Integration Index Report shows states and regional economic communities generally not well integrated, with the EAC overall the most integrated community across five criteria: trade integration; productive integration; macroeconomic integration; infrastructural integration; and the free movement of people. Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth is set to contract by at least 1.6% in 2020, and global growth by at least 3%, with severe impacts for regional heavyweights Nigeria and South Africa. With the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)’s implementation now delayed (potentially until 2021), and COVID-19-related disruptions to global trade and financial markets, enhanced regional integration will become even more pressing to offset expected economic downturns. Source: Emerald