While the movement of Rwandans into Uganda is still restricted at the Mirama Hills/ Kagitumba Uganda-Rwanda border, the inflow of trucks has generally increased following the closure of Katuna and Cyanika border posts. Several trucks are parked in Ntungamo town 37 kilometres away from the border due to the long queue on Kagitumba border awaiting clearance to transport goods to Rwanda. However, only a few trucks are coming from the side of Rwanda to Uganda. "We have been clearing on average 40 trucks a day, but now we clear more than 250 daily since the other posts are closed. The government invested too much in constructing this one-stop border post and clearing only 40 meant that it was not performing as expected. I think this is a blessing in disguise for this border and people living around it," Mr Ali Kakande, the clearing agent at Kagitumba border, said on Monday. Residents of villages around this border say the border is busier than it has ever been in the past 20 years, but there is no business going on apart from clearance. "When you allow trucks to move and the people's movement is limited then how do we make business? Rwandans are not allowed to enter Uganda, while us are allowed to enter without interruption there is mutual suspicion that we can avoid too, we can't take there anything for sale and they can't cross to get anything, the border has been deployed with soldiers including on illegal routes, there is...

Uganda is denying charges from neighboring Rwanda that, among other things, it has arrested and tortured dozens of Rwandan citizens, in the latest round of a diplomatic feud between the two nations that’s led to tensions at the border. The Ugandan foreign minister also denied Kigali’s allegations that his country harbors armed groups fighting against Rwanda, while Rwanda’s ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday denied reports that Rwanda was building up troops along the border with Uganda. “It is false that Uganda hosts any elements fighting Rwanda,” said foreign minister Sam Kutesa in his statement. “Rwanda knows this very well as it has been a matter of confidential communication at the highest level of the two countries.” For his part, Rwandan foreign minister Richard Sezibera denied Uganda’s accusations of intentional border closures in violation of their East African Communitycommitments. Uganda also denied that it ever closes its borders to Rwandans, although there is currently a crossing at Gatuna on the Rwanda side that’s closed through May because of construction upgrades. Yet Sezibera restated Rwanda’s belief that its citizens are arrested, tortured and held without contact by Ugandan authorities. That claim was refuted by Kutesa, who said law-abiding Rwandans are always welcome to visit his country but Uganda will always enforce its laws within its own right to do so. “It is not true that Uganda arrests, tortures and harasses Rwandans,” said Kutesa, noting the country’s open door policy. “It is not by mistake that Uganda continues to be the largest refugee...

Coffee processors want to stop selling their coffee through auction markets such as Mombasa, saying they want to start dealing directly with buyers. Uganda sells a number of its cash crops such as tea and coffee, among others, through Mombasa. However, industry players yesterday argued they want to directly deal with buyers instead of middlemen. Speaking to officials from Trade Mark East Africa at Uganda Coffee Development Authority offices in Lugogo yesterday, Mr John Nuwagaba, the Ankole Producers Cooperative Union general manager, said dealing directly with the market is far better than selling through the auction market. “We have to sell in Europe directly so that we can earn a premium price,” Mr Nuwagaba told officials from Trade Mark East Africa who were visiting UCDA to understand how the coffee sub sector is benefiting from the Uganda Electronic Single Window whose objective is to hasten exports as well as imports. Mr Joseph Nkandu, the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises (Nucafe) executive director, said on the sideline of the meeting that selling through the auction market does not guarantee better prices for farmers. “It is the companies that tend to benefit from such arrangement and not farmers. Dealing directly with buyers guarantees between 30 and 50 per cent more profit than you would get through auctioning,” he said. According to the Central Bank, Uganda exported 4.1 million (60kg) bags of coffee for the year ended 2018, fetching more than $436m (Shs1.5 trillion). However, this was a reduction from...

The government will not stop the importation of eggs from Uganda as restrictive trade measures would attract similar action from the largest buyer of Kenyan goods. Kenyan poultry farmers and entrepreneurs have been protesting over the grappling market due to the influx of eggs from Uganda, complaining they are struggling to break even due to the high cost of feed and low returns. Price of a tray of eggs has gone down from Sh270 to Sh150 since last June and price of a single egg has dropped from Sh13 in 2015 to Sh10. Kiptoo said the government will work on the formation of Kenya Trade Agency (KETRA) to protect any form of dumping and maintain sale at market value. “There have been complains from businesses due to eggs and high quantities of milk in the markets from Uganda. We cannot stop the goods when Uganda has opened their borders for our goods as part of the regional integration,” Kiptoo said during the launch of Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s membership services. Uganda is the leading importer of Kenyan goods after buying goods worth Sh61.85 billion in 2018, according to Central Bank data. The market surpasses other export markets including Pakistan that bought Sh59.38 billion and Netherlands Sh46.36 billion worth of Kenyan goods in the year. Uganda’s imports from Kenya include edible oils, cement, steel, paper and medicines, mineral fuels, beverages, soaps and lubricants. Kenyan imports from Uganda are coffee, tea, spices, sugar confessionary, cereals, tobacco, wood charcoal, waste...

Experts at the aviation summit in Kigali said that African governments will need to depoliticise aviation, shelve sovereignty and support airlines financially to build stronger inter-bloc co-operation. Up to 397 African airlines have gone under since 1960, and more could shut down if they don’t evolve fast. Aviation industry captains and regulators have been pushing for open skies and making air transport affordable in Africa, but these have largely remained pipe dreams even as the number of new flyers grows. For most Africans, it takes about three weeks’ salary on average to travel by air on the continent, whereas it takes only a three-day salary to fly the same distances in other parts of the world like Europe and the US. African airlines incur the highest operational costs globally due to prohibitive fuel costs, taxes and other charges, unfriendly Customs regimes and monopolistic environments. Although up to 28 countries have already signed up to the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) treaty, only two have implemented it fully. “It is a form of colonial hangover that many countries still suffer from. It’s just a matter of time and everyone will see the benefits of an open air space and join,” said Ladislaus Matindi, the CEO of Air Tanzania. African airlines were accused of neglecting co-operation with others on the continent in maintenance, training and operational services, opting to work with foreign airlines instead. “Even when requesting additional frequencies or stops, you are blocked in many African countries. There is no...

Trademark East Africa has encouraged more government institutions that are directly dealing with different traders involved in export of products to consider joining the National Electronic Single Window System arrangement so as to cut on the cost of doing business for such traders and increase on the country’s foreign income earning. According to Frank Matsaert, the Chief Executive Officer of Trademark East Africa, this single window system has demonstrably reduced on the turnaround time especially at the border, enabling traders to increase volumes of their exports. “There are already 16 (sixteen) government agencies onto the system but we want that to increase to 30 (thirty) so that there much wider range of goods automated to get onto different markets quicker. It is very important to reduce the paper work in trade”, noted Matsaert. Prior to the introduction of this system, export trade was very cumbersome and as Stephen Magera, the Assistant Commissioner filed services at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) explains, there was a lot of time being wasted. “Somebody had to go to different agencies such as UCDA for coffee exporters to get the quality certificate which they would take to URA and attach to other documents as required to begin the export process”, said Magera adding that “in case of any query, one had to again physically drop the documents back to URA. This was costing a lot of time and money”. The National Electronic Single Window System is an online arrangement that allows traders to electronically submit...

Kenya is targeting to take over the Sh3.2 billion Pakistani tea imports market from India following a dispute between the two Asian countries that has seen tea from Mumbai blocked from accessing the neighbouring state. The East African Tea Traders Association (Eatta) says Pakistanis will have to fill the gap with tea from elsewhere due to the standoff, with Kenya — whose unsold stocks are growing — standing to benefit. Pakistan is the leading buyer of Kenya’s tea importing 40 per cent of the total produce in the country. “This could be of benefit to Kenya because Pakistani is the leading buyer of our tea and the differences India will see them seek more of the commodity from the country in order to bridge the deficit created by the stalemate,” said Eatta managing director Edward Mudibo. His sentiments were echoed by Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) sales and marketing manager John Bett who said Kenya can benefit from the 16 million kilo gap that would be created by lack of Indian tea. However, Mr Bett noted that Kenya might not benefit much though if Pakistan rupee lose value against the dollar. “Tea is sold in dollars and if the Pakistan rupee sheds its value against the greenback, then it means our tea will be expensive there,” said Mr Bett. There has been tension between the two nuclear powers following the killing of Indian soldiers by suspected Pakistan-based militants. In the last financial year, Pakistan imported 184 million kilogrammes of tea...

Uganda has regained its position as the biggest buyer of Kenyan goods after making orders worth KSh61.9 billion (UShs2.3 trillion) from Nairobi last year, fresh official trade data shows. Kampala’s rise to the top export market position is at the expense of Pakistan, whose purchase of KSh59.39 billion (UShs2.1 trillion) worth of Kenyan goods last year was KSh4.67 billion (7.29 percent), less than its 2017 orders. Uganda has been Kenya’s long-standing top export market, but tea exports to Pakistan have seen the Asian country challenge for the position in recent years. The trade data released last week by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) showed that exports to Uganda had recovered from a two-year slide to record a slim 0.07 percent growth over the 2017 figure. Kampala’s imports from Kenya – including edible oils, cement, steel, paper and medicines – have been narrowing over the years as investors set up factories in the land-locked country to manufacture goods previously ordered from Nairobi. Largest market Islamabad in 2017 overtook Uganda, the USA and the Netherlands to become largest export market owing to increased orders for Kenya’s globally-acclaimed black tea of which the world’s six-most populous country remains the biggest buyer. The US remained the third-largest buyer of Kenya’s goods with an order book of KSh47.34 billion (UShs1.75 trillion), largely unchanged from KSh47.27 billion in 2017. Exports to Washington were flat, growing 0.15 percent or KSh70 million (UShs2.5 billion) despite President Donald Trump’s administration making it clear mid-last year that trade was...

The British high commissioner to Uganda Peter West has advised Uganda and Rwanda to resolve the current standoff between the two countries through dialogue. The tension between Uganda and Rwanda has been growing in the recent past and climaxed with the closure of the Gatuna and Chanika borders by the Rwandan authorities last week on Wednesday. At the time of the closure, the Rwanda Revenue Authority said the move was to pave way for the upgrading of the one stop border post at Gatuna. But while debate raged over the sudden decision, Rwanda cautioned its nationals against travelling to Uganda. Rwandan ministers accused Uganda of illegally detaining their nationals, enforcing the deportation of hundreds and denying others entry. Olivier Nduhungirehe Rwanda's state minister in charge of East African Community said that there are more than 40 Rwandan citizens languishing in cells controlled by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). Similarly, Richard Sezibera, the Rwandan minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation also said that Rwandans are strongly advised not to travel to Uganda due to ongoing arrests, harassment and torture and incarceration without consular access. Uganda has however refuted the allegations saying the Rwandans under arrest are criminals just like others, arguing that no Rwandan has been targeted. Today, buses travelling from Kigali reported that they had been stopped from carrying Rwandan nationals from Kigali to Uganda. Those found with Rwandan nationals aboard were fined up to $5,000 (about Shs 18m). Rwanda also doubled the amount of tax levied on Ugandan...

As the border closure between Rwanda and Uganda entered day six on Monday, the Uganda Revenue Authority revealed that it was taken by surprise by Rwanda's action, and that pleas to Kigali to find a quick solution to the crisis went unheeded. A March 2 letter by the Commissioner for Customs at URA Dicksons Kateshumbwa to his Rwandan counterpart revealed the scale of the crisis. "Whereas the rationale and spirit behind the decision is appreciated, it would have been more appropriate to undertake the measure as a joint decision, considering the fact that the affected borders are OSBPs (one-stop border posts) where either side is interdependent on the other," said Kateshumbwa. "Besides, a decision of this nature would ideally give ample time to the stakeholders to enable adjustments to be done so as to comply and in the case of customs to rationalize manpower so that we facilitate trade smoothly. In this particular case, the implementation of the decision was done on the very day of notification." Mr Kateshumbwa said most of the stranded cargo had already been cleared under the Single Customs Territory. "We have a clogged Gatuna border post with 10 Rwanda registered trucks, 49 Uganda registered trucks, 37 Kenya registered trucks and nine Burundi registered trucks all carrying mixed goods," he said, adding that some of the trucks are carrying perishables while 17 of the Kenyan registered trucks are carrying petroleum products. "Therefore, considering the potential risk of these highly flammable products as well as the potential...