The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country, is known for being a tough place to do business but also one of unexploited economic potential. Although the country has had a dark cloud looming over it for years, it recently held its first democratic transfer of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960. And like other African countries, the DRC is in pursuit of a stronger and thriving economy. The IMF has the country’s economy‘s growing at a rate of 4.3% in 2019; and nothing suggests that this will not improve in the future. For the DRC, the pursuit for a thriving economy is well within reach given its endowment with vast natural resources that could enable it to be a contributor to Africa’s economic growth and global supply of raw materials such as copper. The DRC’s new government seems to be committed to exploiting these natural resources, as demonstrated through the several sector reforms that have already been implemented. The most impactful, both short and long term, being investment infrastructure development & renewable energy, amendments to mining and oil & gas legislation as well as its participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. In respect of infrastructure and energy, the DRC captured global attention with the world’s largest proposed hydropower scheme known as the Grand Inga project. A project that aimed to generate about 40,000 megawatts of power from water sourced at the mouth of the Congo River. This amount of energy can cater for...

East African Community ( EAC )member states have been urged to should eliminate NTBs and implement agreed EAC directives to boost intra EAC trade to 50 percent. According to the East African Business Council CEO Mr. Peter Mathuki, business community and officials from Trade Facilitation Agencies should embrace the vision of a borderless East Africa for trade. Intra EAC trade is currently at 12 percent. Last week, EABC – and Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) kicked off the second Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) with Trade Facilitation Agencies at Busia One-Stop Border Post to interrogate if EAC agreements and practices ease doing business across EAC borders. The EABC-TMA Public-Private Dialogue was held with Trade Facilitation Agencies at Busia One-Stop Border Post. The PPDs focus is on the extent to which Partner States are translating the EAC Common Market and Customs Union Protocols into policies that support the actualization of free movement of goods and people. In a statement from EABC, Mr. Mathuki urged the business community and officials from Trade Facilitation Agencies to embrace the vision of a borderless East Africa for trade. He also called for open dialogue aimed at coming up with solutions to barriers to the movement of goods and services at the Busia Border. “Let’s talk openly one another to facilitate trade, political goodwill is there, so let’s action, if we don’t get it right at the EAC level it will be more challenging at the AfCFTA level,” said Hon. Mathuki. During the dialogue, Uganda Revenue Authority enlightened small...

The East African Business Council (EABC) and Trade and Markets East Africa (TMA) are calling on East African Community borders to eliminate Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and implement agreed EAC directives to boost intra EAC trade to 50 percent which currently stands at 12 percent. This was said by Hon. Peter Mathuki, EABC CEO on Monday during the the second Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) with Trade Facilitation Agencies at Busia One-Stop Border Post as they interrogated if EAC agreements and practices ease doing business across East African Community borders. The PPDs focus is on the extent to which Partner States are translating the EAC Common Market and Customs Union Protocols into policies that support the actualization of free movement of goods and people. Hon. Mathuki urged the business community and officials from Trade Facilitation Agencies to embrace the vision of a borderless East Africa for trade. He called for open dialogue aimed at coming up with solutions to barriers to the movement of goods and services at the Busia Border. “Let’s talk openly one another to facilitate trade, political goodwill is there, so let’s action, if we don’t get it right at the EAC level it will be more challenging at the AfCFTA level” said Hon. Mathuki. During the dialogue, Uganda Revenue Authority enlightened small-scale trades about the export levy on fish (appx. 0.02% per Kg of fish). Small Scale traders of fish have insufficient knowledge on the levy hence more vulnerable to harassment, corruption, bribes and excessive charges by unscrupulous customs...

Collaboration between Trademark East Africa (TMA) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa resulted last week in a dinner roundtable to discuss how to make the African Continental Free Trade Area work for women and youth. Speaking at the event, Andrew Mold, Acting Director praised the collaboration between ECA and TMA, saying that such partnerships between ECA, TMA, the African Union Commission, UNCTAD, and others are going to be fundamental in moving forward the regional integration agenda. The roundtable was held in Nairobi on 18th September 2019 and attracted a wide participation of Government officials, business leaders, representatives of women and youth traders of East Africa as well as representatives of international organizations. In his keynote address, Adan Mohamed, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for East African Community and Regional Development, stressed the need to ensure that the wealth created as part of the AFCFTA agreement is inclusive and sustainable: "For the African Continental Free Trade Area to be successful, it is absolutely essential to create an enabling environment for women and youth businesses to prosper", he said. The UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi called on governments not to drag their feet in the implementation of the AfCFTA. In the face of dramatic changes in the global economy, he appealed to African countries to abandon outdated forms of economic nationalism and embrace a regional perspective. Mukhisa also encouraged African leaders and youth to grasp the rapidly growing opportunity of electronic commerce - e-commerce - worth $29 trillion globally or risk quickly falling behind....

The tectonic plates of the global political economy are shifting, and with an accelerating pace: “Trade wars”; “Brexit”; “fake news” and election manipulation; “populism”; the appointment of a “geopolitical commission” in Brussels; unprecedented protests in Hong Kong; South China sea military confrontations; an increasingly assertive Chinese Communist Party—the list goes on. Facing these dramatic changes, smaller, relatively fragile, states, particularly those in Africa, need to build new reference points to anchor their future development or risk being swallowed in the emerging crevasses. Rather than focus on current events Africans need to discern their underlying drivers and how they frame opportunities, as well as responses. The modern world economy is now characterized by a rapidly shifting technological frontier within which several previously distinct realms are now converging. Sub-Saharan Africa could benefit from the increasingly interconnected global economy. At the same time, the United States’ tough response to China’s growing economic heft, as well as increased worldwide backlash to globalization, is incentivizing some economies to look inward. Trade policy and strategy is back in focus with a vengeance, and increasingly contested. How might an Africa caught in the middle of these opposing forces navigate this new global trade environment while maintaining its growth momentum of the last two decades? Trade integration is creating opportunities for growth Under the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” the world of work is transforming, placing ever-higher premiums on skills, curtailing the significance of geographic distance as a main shaper of production patterns, and promoting structural transformation. This new, more...

Africa, despite being a rich continent endowed with vast natural resources, is still lagging behind other regions of the world when it comes to industrialisation. Member countries still export commodities in their raw form and get next to nothing for these commodities and at the same time spend billions in scarce foreign currency to import finished goods for consumption by their people. African countries are failing to trade among themselves due to ineffective manufacturing industry, even in the wake of the coming on board of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) earlier this year. It is against this background that senior journalists, business writers, and experts from across the continent, as well as experts and representatives from partner organisations this week, met in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, to interrogate how the continent can move forward and industrialise. Organised by the Industry Division in the Department of Trade and Industry of the African Union Commission, the meeting sought to build media awareness on the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA)’s framework and related strategies. As we have previously mentioned, Africa continues to part way with its raw minerals and buying them back as finished products for a high fee from international markets. Exports from the continent remain dominated by unprocessed or minimally processed products, mainly from the agricultural and mineral sectors, resulting in very low-value returns. It should be noted that Africa’s Regional Economic Communities namely the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community...

A report of the recently concluded high-level conference on trade integration notes that there is a downward trend on the profile of the East African Community (EAC) as an attractive investment destination. The report calls for the EAC Partner States to market EAC jointly, further consolidate free trade by eliminating individual State exemption lists, liberalize and allow free movement of trade and services, eradicate non-tariff barriers (NTBs), fully harmonize the Common External Tariff (CET) and domestic taxes and make business immune from politics. To enhance competitiveness, the reports say EAC needs to reduce the cost of production, and stop relying on duty exemption arrangements like AGOA. Cost of production can be lowered by managing labour, energy, logistics and cost of inputs, like raw material. “Partner states should play complementary roles in ensuring that the region does not continue being the market of finished goods from other regions, but also a producer of goods for export,” it says. However, delegates at the conference noted that there has been remarkable progress made on the EAC regional integration pillars namely the Customs Union, the Common Market, the Monetary Union and the Political Federation. Among them, the Customs Union is regarded as most successful notably with the implementation of common legal instruments and trade facilitation programmes across the region including the Single Customs Territory, One Stop Border Posts, Authorized Economic Operator Programme and the Customs Business systems interconnectivity. The conference that was held in Nairobi, Kenya from September 25-27, 2019 was held to commemorate...

The African Heads of States and Governments pose during African Union (AU) Summit for the agreement to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 21, 2018. The focus now is on how to bring on board all signatories and push for ratification by all. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP With the July 1, 2020 launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) fast approaching, 90 percent of outstanding issues on the rules of origin and tariff guidelines have been resolved. A meeting of director-generals of Customs, revenue authority officials and trade experts from member states, held last week in Kampala Uganda, focused on how to bring on board all signatories and push for ratification by all. The AfCFTA agreement came into force in May 2019 after ratification from 27 countries. Of the 55 African countries, 54 have signed the agreement, with only Eritrea holding out. A gathering of AU heads of state is scheduled to endorse the rollout plan for the AfCFTA agreement following their endorsement in January 2020. While African customs officials say AU officials are working on persuading Eritrea to sign the agreement, chances of realising a breakthrough remain low. Eritrean government officials could not be reached for comment by press time. Source: The East African

Africa is expected to commence trading under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in July 2020. This gives the continent’s top diplomats, technocrats and negotiators less than a year to agree on the modalities that will govern the world’s largest free trade area since the establishment of the World Trade Organisation in 1995. Having attended the Source21 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) High–Level Business Summit held in Nairobi this past July, it was clear that the key issues that African governments need to agree on before trading begins under AfCFTA are duties, levies and Rules of Origin, which will determine the eligibility of goods and services to be traded in the free trade area. According to the Washington-based research group, Brookings Institution, intra-African exports accounted for 18 percent of the continent’s total exports in 2016, compared with 59 percent for intra-Asian exports and 69 percent for intra-European exports. AfCFTA is expected to fundamentally transform the current state of intra-regional trade in Africa by, first, phasing out tariffs on 90 percent of goods traded on the continent by 2022 and, later, helping countries build larger and more sophisticated regional value chains. To achieve these goals, a much broader and inclusive discussion that incorporates the interests and recommendations of key private sector players in Africa is needed. This is because businesses are able to channel investments into sectors where governments lacks the experience or technical expertise to succeed. Source: The East African

NAMANGA, Kenya/Tanzania (Reuters) - The speed limit is 110 km per hour on the new highway that Abadalla Chande uses to haul his truckload of animal feed from Tanzania to Kenya, two nations that share a common market often hailed as a model for the continent. But Chande is parked on the tarmac, caught up in a snarl of red tape. He is in a long line of trucks waiting for cargo to be scanned or for documents to be checked by officials. Kenya and Tanzania are the two largest economies in the East African Community (EAC) common market. It was set up in 2010 to allow people and goods to move freely among members, which also include Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan. One of the most successful of Africa’s many trade blocs, it should be superseded by a continent-wide free trade area that will begin trading in July next year. But businessmen say the delays plaguing the East African union bode ill for the future of the unified market. “Sometimes we get to the border crossing and spend five, six days or even a week,” said Chande, who said he’d been waiting there more than a day. Behind him, police pried apart shouting drivers as hundreds of trucks slowly belched and groaned towards the Kenya-Tanzania border in Namanga town. Kenyan and Tanzanian officials say that even in a free trade area, goods crossing borders must be checked by multiple agencies including the tax authorities, plant health inspectorate, departments...