The second meeting of the Ad-Hoc commiittee of Ugandan and Rwandan officials set up to implement the Luanda Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is aimed at resolving ongoing disputes between the two countries will take place in Kampala on Friday. This follows Rwanda’s dispatching of a team of the country’s officials to Kampala after two postponements of the meeting at Kigali’s request. “Uganda and Rwanda will tomorrow hold a follow-up meeting….to the one held in Kigali in September to concretize in the MOU signed in Luanda, Angola in August 2019,” Uganda Government Spokesperson Ofwono Opondo on Thursday tweeted of the meeting to take place at Speke Resort Munyonyo. In February this year, Rwanda closed its main border with Uganda at Katuna and blocked cargo from crossing into its territory causing a customs crisis. Since then, there have been accusations and counter accusations between Kampala and Kigali mostly relating to security. In the  Luanda MoU, the two Heads of State of Uganda and Rwanda undertook to respect the sovereignty of each other and of the neighboring countries. They also undertook to refrain from actions conducive to destabilization or subversion in the territory of the other party and neighboring countries thereby “eliminating all factors that may create such perception as well as that of acts such as the financing, training and infiltration of destabilizing forces.” The two Principals also agreed to protect and respect the rights and freedoms of the nationals of the other party residing or transiting in their national territories...

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 movement of workers from lower to higher productivity employment is essential for growth in low income countries. However, even with this movement economic structures have changed very little and this has been a concern for economists and policy analysts. Historically, manufacturing drove economic transformation in many developed nations but today new technologies have spawned a growing number of services and agro-industries including agriculture. They are tradable, have high value added per worker and can absorb large number of moderately skilled workers. Like manufacturing they benefit from technological change, productivity growth. One of the changes emerging in Africa is Manufacturing led transformation of East Asia, ICT-based services, and tourism and transport are outpacing the growth of manufacturing in many African countries. Between 1998-2015, services exports grew more than six times faster than merchandise exports. Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa have vibrant ICT based services. Tourism is Rwanda’s largest single export activity accounting for about 30 percent of total exports, in 2014, 9.5 million tourists visited South Africa contributing three percent to its GDP. Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal all actively participate in global horticulture value addition chain. Ethiopia has achieved extraordinary success in flowers exports, so much so that the country is now a global player in the sector. Kenya has achieved extraordinary success in Tea exports and the country is a global player in the sector. It's possible to develop a strategy for structural transformation based on three factors that have largely shaped the global distribution of manufacturing,...

Busia traders have supported a proposal by Governor Sospeter Ojaamong to allow them to import essential Ugandan goods without paying taxes. They say the hard economic times in Kenya and heavy taxation have frustrated businesses as few people can afford critical consumer products. The traders told the Star on Sunday that the flow of vital goods such as food products should not be restricted. The only responsibility of border authorities should be to ensure the products meet the minimum health quality requirements, they said. “It could have been better if there was free movement of goods in both countries where Kenyan goods go to the Ugandan side of the border tax-free and vice versa,” Edith Mamai who runs a retail shop in Malaba town said. If not, Ugandan goods will dominate the Busia market making the products from Kenya to lose the local market because imported products would be cheaper, Mamai said. The tax-free importation proposal was made by Ojaamong on November 19, when he hosted a USAID Washington and Trade Mark East Africa delegation at his office in Busia. The county chief said that there was a need for East African Community member states to allow business people at the border to enjoy tax exemptions. Oliver Epale, a businessman dealing in construction material said the governor’s proposal was welcome because Kenya’s tax regime was unfriendly to local traders. “The cost of Kenyan goods is high because of the rising taxes. This has forced people at the border to resort...

Under-utilisation of the transport system on Lake Victoria is causing the countries sharing the water resource revenue worth $60b (about Shs222 trillion) annually. Currently, the four member states sharing the lake Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda are only earning revenue worth $6b (about Shs14.8 trillion) from the resource. Speaking at a Joint ministerial meeting on Strategy for Lake Victoria integrated transport programme held in Kampala recently , Uganda’s Transport and Works minister Ms Monica Azuba said: “Over the years little achievement around the inland water transport especially on Lake Victoria which has great potential for enabling safe and cost effective transport within the region.” Although there have been significant milestones that have been achieved in other transport systems like road transport in the region, significant steps in railway and air transport over the past decades, it’s not been the case with water transport. In Uganda for instance, Ms Azuba said the water transport sector has suffered great deterioration over the last 35 years as a result of flooding and neglect of infrastructure. “The industry has dilapidated landing sites, ferries, boats and canoes, lack of Aids to Navigation, lack of nautical charts and Life Saving Appliances-Life jackets,” She noted. Kenya’s cabinet secretary for transport and infrastructure, Mr James Macharia remarked the importance of developing other infrastructure networks like roads and railways saying they are linkage to water transport. Source: Daily Monitor

Government of Kenya has given Uganda 20 hectares of land to build an inland container port at Naivasha. "The distance from Mombasa port to Nairobi is 700 kilometres and Nairobi to Naivasha is 120km, making it 820km from Naivasha to Mombasa, which is too long. So a port being at Naivasha will shorten the distance," Mr Kiema Kilonzo, the Kenyan High Commissioner to Uganda, said yesterday while addressing the media ahead of Kenya's Independence Day on Thursday next week. He said the port will be managed solely by government of Uganda as Ugandan traders will not have to travel the long distance up to Mombasa but rather clear their containers at Naivasha. He noted that building of the inland port will bring Mombasa port closer to Uganda as Kenya's standard gauge railway will be used to bring the containers from Mombasa port to Naivasha where they will be cleared from by Ugandan traders. He said Uganda Revenue Authority will now have to move their Mombasa office to Naivasha to make it easy for traders to clear their containers in time. The High Commissioner noted that Uganda is Kenya's biggest trading partner in East African Community. When Daily Monitor contacted the Ministry of Works and Transport public relations officer, Ms Suzan Kataika, about the progress on the Naivasha port project, she promised to get back to us but did not and neither did she answer our repeated calls to her cellular line. The ministry's Chief Engineer, Mr Samson Bagonza, could not...

The European Union and COMESA have signed 8.8 million Euros Contribution Agreement to increase private sector participation in sustainable regional and global value chains through improved investment/business climate and enhanced competitiveness in the COMESA region. The funds will be used to implement the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Program (RECAMP), focusing on agro-processing, horticulture and leather products. RECAMP will also support pre-selected value chains based on the potential to generate value addition, job creation and attraction of investments to the region. The EU Ambassador to Zambia and Permanent Representative to COMESA, HE Jacek Jankowski and Secretary-General to COMESA Chileshe Kapwepwe signed the Agreement. RECAMP will address critical issues, such as the provision of business information, facilitating market linkages, harmonizing regional industrial policies and creating a conducive business environment to attract investments. It will strive to ensure collaboration with activities of national trade support institutions and business development and service organizations in the Member States as they provide services to value chains as part of their mandate. These include product development; facilitate technology transfer, provision of business intelligence and connection to buyers. The program will identify champions or lead firms within the selected value chains that have both backward and forward linkages with SMEs and other intermediary firms in order to enhance effect coordination reduce coordination failures and improve competitiveness. In her remarks, Ms Kapwepwe said the program will make efforts to enhance the capacities and skills of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to make them capable players in...

Twenty years down the integration road, there is still so much more to accomplish despite notable progress registered by EAC members’ countries over over economic integration. Issues of Non-Tariff Barriers remains a matter of concern and it’s seem it is not about to go away just yet. Ismail Musa Ladu, attended the 2019 East African Business Summit in Arusha Tanzania and now reports. Source: NTV

On July 7, 2019 African Heads of State and Government held their summit in Niger and signed up the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The signing was a continuation of a long process. It includes the summit where 44 Heads of States and Governments met in Rwanda in March 2018 to deliberate on the matter. The free trade area is among the key issues of discussion in the continent and beyond. New as it is, there are many unknowns in this potentially very important initiative to boost trade in Africa. This piece contributes in making the AfCFTA more known. AfCFTA The AfCFTA is a free trade area outlined in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 of the 55 African Union nations. Source: The Citizen