After decades of unabated downturn, rail transport is steadily bouncing back, thanks to technological innovation, a shift in management approaches and the effects of climate change, which have seen increased sensitisation on environmental issues. This renaissance has encountered some bottlenecks, owing to inadequate government commitment in some countries. The African Development Bank, in its 2015 report Rail Infrastructure in Africa: Financing Policy Options, says Africa is experiencing an unprecedented economic recovery, with strong growth projections over the next three to four decades. According to the report, the growth is driven by a fast-growing demographic and large-scale urbanisation. The operation of new mines, gas and oil fields, as well as the increase in intra-regional and international trade, are additional growth factors. Notably, the transport sector can accelerate and intensify trade in Africa. Rail transport, in particular, as a result of its energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower cost per tonne kilometre, is expected to play an increasingly important role in the conveyance of freight over long distances. But even as Africa becomes more and more attractive as a destination for infrastructure financing in many sectors such as energy, telecoms and transportation, investment in railways is still small compared to other sectors. This calls for more institutional reforms and mature financial markets to up-scale the implementation of new approaches to infrastructure finance commonly found in developed countries such as project bonds. In Kenya, the standard gauge railway, a flagship project of Vision 2030, financed by the China Exim Bank, has already...

You are in the tech industry. What opportunities can East Africa leverage from the sector? I firmly believe the time is now for East Africa to really leapfrog and catch up with other parts of the developing world, and the way to do that is with digitisation. Digitisation, especially if it is done properly, the one benefit you get out of all that is trust. When you have trust in the data that you are collecting, that you are storing, that you are analysing and you are using to make decisions then you have a much better chance of ensuring a more favourable outcome. One of the biggest problems of businesses, whether they are East African or international, is the lack of trust about doing business in Africa. They [investors] cannot trust that the money that they are putting into these countries is going to be used properly, effectively, and that they are going to get returns they expect. Therefore, it is so much easier to move your money to a different part of the world and, as I said, we can raise our trust levels once we start using technology to capture everything digitally. Do you have specific examples of how this can happen?  One technology, I think, is going to take us to the next era of digitisation is blockchain. Blockchain is a technology that allows you to store data about a transaction in multiple places simultaneously in a ledger so multiple people can have information simultaneously about...

Kisumu International Airport, has recorded much-improved traffic of over 32 flights per day with reduced affordable air tickets that have made customers enjoy an enhanced competition by airlines. This is an indication of increased activity and passenger traffic between Kisumu and Nairobi and Mombasa. While Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport are ‘international’ in their true sense, meaning serving regional and international destinations, Kisumu has not yet been elevated to this status. Early this month, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said it also has plans to shift the miraa transportation and cargo from JKIA to Isiolo International Airport, which will be serving the Somalia market. The implementation of the international status can greatly enhance the logistics, trade and tourism of Kisumu. As it is, Kisumu serves the whole Western Kenya and South Rift Region. The recent major milestone was in regards to a direct flight from Kisumu to Mombasa. With an increased investment in road network and infrastructure in the region, especially the Sirare-Ahero Road among others, transportation, logistics and warehousing opportunities have great potential. In recent times, the hospitality industry has expanded with increased openings and investment in infrastructure. Investment in hotels and transport has been on an upward trend and visitors no longer lack better accommodation. In addition, the county governments along the lake have increasingly mapped out the tourist sites, national parks and game reserves. As of the six months to June 2018, imports from Uganda, already stood at Sh30.2 billion. Kenya’s exports...

Arusha. The six member countries of the East African Community (EAC) are considering changes to their respective immigration rules. This development comes almost eight years after a deal that was meant to recognise post-training certificates issued by the member countries failed to boost cross-border movement of professionals as originally intended. Established as an economic bloc that aimed at leading to, and result in, regional economic integration and, finally, a fully-fledged East African Federation, the community is currently made up of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. In the event, the six countries are contemplating functional regulatory and other frameworks that would not only allow, but also enable, professionals who are nationals of the EAC member countries to freely move across the common borders to engage in employment, research and related activities in countries of their choice. Noting that several measures had already been taken to achieve the common objective of facilitating cross-border exchange of labour and services, officials at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha said that the measures had nonetheless largely failed in that objective. These include the Common Market Protocol, put in place in 2010 to allow the free movement of Labour/Workers, Persons, Services, Goods and Capital, as well as the Rights of Establishment and Residence. “We are working on a regulatory framework that recognises temporary movement of labour so as to enable professionals who (for example) want to relocate for just a few days to complete their projects,” said the EAC principal education officer, Dr James...

Business experts have challenged the African youth, the continent’s biggest market, to consume products made in Africa if the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) Agreement is to be successfully implemented. According to some leading African entrepreneurs, trade and business experts, the profile of African products will be enhanced once Africans place them on top of their preferential list. The push for “Made in Africa First” came to the fore during a panel discussion on CFTA at the ongoing Youth Connekt Africa Summit in Kigali. The conversation sought to explore the benefits of the historic CFTA deal that was signed by African Heads of State and Government in Kigali early this year. “Right now, CFTA is at the signing phase and then ratification phase will follow. But after that, the actual challenge is about implementing,” said Issam Chleuh, Managing Director of Suguba Ltd. The Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) has similar trading arrangements, he said, yet it is still difficult to move goods between the member states because the existing laws are not enforceable. “We need to have a consumer mindset shift. If today Africans decided that we are going to consume Made-in-Africa before anything thing else, it would be one big way to push African products to a desired level,” Chleuh added. Chleuh’s assertion resonated with what was said by Rwanda’s Prime Minister. About 70 per cent of Africa’s population is under the age of 30, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said, suggesting that with Africa’s population projected to double by...

Fourteen years since the East African Community's Customs Union became operational, the Community has postponed the thrice the date of its full implementation. The region was expected to achieve full implementation of the Customs Union in 2010, but has postponed the deadline indefinitely as issues such as the harmonisation of internal and joint collection of taxes are yet to be thrashed out. Subash Patel, chairman of the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries, says that even though the Common External Tariff had been fully achieved, partner states are now choosing to go it alone because of slow implementation at the regional level. He cites the case of Uganda and Kenya, which have gone ahead and implemented the 35 per cent external tariff on steel products to protect their industries. Tanzania, on the other hand, has failed to do so, something that Mr Patel says is hampering the growth of its steel industry, as substandard and cheaper steel products from Asia flood the market. In its current form, experts say, the EAC Customs Union is benefiting a handful of people in the region and a larger number in India and China. This is out of sync with the premise that EAC integration is pro-East Africans. Currently Customs Union implementation benefits politically connected traders importing goods into the EAC. Nicholas Nesbit, chairman the East African Business Council, says the increase in imports and policies whose net effect is keeping East Africans in poverty can be blamed on partner states ignoring the voices of manufacturers...

East African Community member states will be racing against time to operationalise a single currency regime to eliminate exchange rate risks, boost trade and investment in the region and read from the same page of financial and economic policies. The establishment of a common currency regime constitutes the third pillar of the EAC integration, after the Customs Union and the Common Market, with political federation concluding the integration. The protocol for the establishment of the East African Monetary Union (EAMU) was signed in November, 2013 by the EAC member states, setting up a roadmap for a Monetary Union within 10 years, implying that a Single Currency regime should be up and running by the year 2024. EAC member country therefore has six years to implement a single currency regime and three years to comply with key macro-economic convergence criteria on inflation, fiscal deficits, forex reserves and public debt. The EastAfrican has however learnt that while the partner states have made some significant progress in laying the ground work for the Single Currency regime, there is still more work to be done. Community technical teams need to burn the midnight oils to realise the dream of a Monetary Union which also provides for the establishment of a single Central Bank for the region. It has emerged that while member countries are struggling to meet the macro-economic convergence criteria, the critical pieces of legislations required to set up Monetary Union institutions are yet to be put in place. The EastAfrican has learnt...

Nearly two decades after the region’s leaders signed on to the revival of the East African Community, progress on integration remains a case of one step forward, two steps back. The past 10 years or so have been particularly significant, having witnessed the geographical expansion of the Community from the initial three members to six, with a combined market of some 150 million people. Although it has been the cause of unease that threatened several initiatives, a Common External Tariff has for years brought predictability to the region’s external trade and given key sectors a level of protection across national borders. But that is as far as the good news goes. While the Common Market Protocol promised much, delivery has been staggered as the partner states employ different tactics to circumvent the more uncomfortable of its provisions. The result has been a disjointed Community where five of the member states have harmonised their financial year while one still holds out. Citizens can enjoy harmonised calling rates while roaming through four of the states, while they bleed money just to receive calls while transiting through the other two. Firms cannot deploy staff to Tanzania for short-term technical work, since Dar insists on a work permit. Citizens from elsewhere in the region cannot register businesses in Kenya and Tanzania without entering into partnerships with locals. Ugandan traders are for instance required to pay for a visa before they can engage in any business in Tanzania. Citizens from other member states have to...

A photo on the East African Community’s (EAC) website is worth a thousand words: It shows two beaming faces; one of the EAC Secretary General and the other of a senior official in the German Ministry of Foreign affairs. Germany had just pledged funding worth 61.5 million Euros to commemorate 20 years since its cooperation with the EAC. The cooperation is nothing more than the annual financial aid without which the EAC would not function. That is a state of affairs the community had not been ashamed to live with all that time. In fact, the German official alluded to it when he suggested that the EAC strengthen its own financial resources. It was like reminding them that they were tired of supporting someone who was unwilling to stand on their own. Every now and then, we hear about EAC members falling behind with their financial contributions. Some have arrears that go back years as if they are members by name only but have no real commitment. When we have members that have not fully implemented the Common Market Protocol, when Non-Tariff Barriers are still in place and have not yet adopted the Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) to ease the movement of professionals in the region, one wonders whether the monetary union – leave alone political federation – will ever see the light of day. The image of the EAC SG gratefully shaking hands with the German godfather is really disturbing and we should be ashamed of moving around with...

Arusha. The German government’s committment of 61.5 million euros (Sh162 billion) to the East African Community (EAC) is set to boost the private sector development in the region. Also to benefit are entrepreneurship projects for the youth as well as technical and vocational training. “We, at the EAC, fully embrace the priority areas embedded in our cooperation with Germany,” said EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko here on Friday. He spoke to a high powered delegation from the economic power house in Europe which visited Arusha with a pledge of 61.5 million euros as economic support to the region. The event coincided with the 20th anniversary of the joint partnership between Germany and the EAC economic bloc which was in its infancy stage. Mr Mfumukeko hailed the German support to the Community in the last two decades, saying it has enabled the bloc to record significant achievements in diverse sectors. Sectors which benefited include monetary harmonisation, trade and customs, institutional capacity strengthening, health and pharmaceuticals,gender and education and the Partnership Fund. Economic diversification, mobilisation of the private capital, value addition and investment in entrepreneurship are among other priority areas in the German-EAC development cooperation, he explained. Mr Niels Breyer, the head of the Division East Africa at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Germany, elaborated his country’s support to the EAC is based in the Marshal Plan for Africa. The plan aims aims to support the six partner countries in the region in implementing the development visions...