What is the role of National Logistics Platform? The National Logistics Platform (NLP) under the Private Sector Foundation Uganda has been implementing a project with UKAID support through Trade Mark East Africa since 2016. NLP’s role is to develop a competitive logistics industry through advocacy, promoting collaboration among stakeholders, promoting public-private partnership and carrying out research to build knowledge base according to international best practices. Describe the logistics landscape in Uganda. The East African Community presents Ugandan logistics providers with a large potential market but also increases competition for the provision of domestic logistics services. A World Bank funded report by Matt Mac Donald, 2016 states that, currently imports of transport and logistics services make up 55 per cent of Uganda’s total service imports while Uganda’s transport and logistics exports are only 3.7 per cent of Uganda’s total services exports. Improving logistics services will create employment opportunities. About 208,000 people are currently employed in the logistics sector in Uganda, a number that could rise to 522,000 by 2030. What is the relationship between the transport and logistics fields?  While transportation focuses on the movement of goods from one place to the other, the logistics industry implies a broader spectrum and refers to the whole ‘flow’ management. This includes not only the transportation and delivery of goods but also storage, handling, inventory, packaging and various other aspects. Who are the key stakeholders in this industry?  Uganda’s freight logistics industry comprises of: trade and transport infrastructure (roads, railways, inland and marine port...

President Paul Kagame has told a World Bank Financing Forum in Rwanda that Africa is on the right track to attain its investment targets, despite remaining with some distance to move Addressing the World Bank’s annual Development Finance Forum in Kigali on September 11, Kagame said that in Africa, there’s a chronic deficit of large scale economic funding but such forums by development partners signal there are a positive way to development. The World Bank’s forum brings together public and private sector leaders to explore initiatives towards increasing private sector investments in East Africa’s priority sectors. This year’s two-day forum taking place at Marriott Hotel Kigali has picked Agribusiness, Tourism and Housing as key priorities for funding in East Africa. “The three priority areas have been chosen with consideration. Housing finance, tourism and agribusiness are all expanding rapidly in our region. These industries can energize the economy as a whole particularly the service sector,” Kagame told delegates at the forum. He, however, reminded that the region and the continent as whole still lack the capacity to produce high quality products. “But despite the strong prospects we are far from tapping the full potential or even meeting existing demand for affordable high-quality products,” he said. But President Kagame added: “It is gratifying to see such strong participation from around East Africa and even beyond joining the very substantial delegation from the World Bank Group. The focus this year is investment opportunities in the East African Community.” “The heart of the Bank’s...

The Government of Uganda is shaking the foundations of Tanzania with enticing incentives to the traders. The Parliament of Uganda is increasing its competitive level in the East African region and is already gaining grounds after convincing import traders to import Chinese goods via the country. Dar es Salaam port is on the verge of missing out on many businesses should President Magufuli fail to make the necessary adjustments to maintain stability in the business environment. Already some Tanzania traders have shifted their focus to Uganda than importing their commodities via Dar Port. Several importers have lamented of the tax conundrum affecting their businesses and threatening the business environment of the country. They have argued that it is cheaper to import goods via their neighbouring state than the maritime commercial facility available at their disposal. In a bid to lure more foreign investments, increase its business competitiveness and build a stable economic empire, Uganda under the governance of Head of State Yoweri Museveni has identified changes to be made to achieve the country’s objectives. The business environment needs to be more accommodative to make the ease of doing business in the nation favourable. High taxes have discouraged business leaders from venturing into bigger markets. Many charges on the port have made traders opt for alternatives to ship their consignments at minimal cost. The hefty taxes imposed on imported goods end up sky-rocketing their prices in the market. The ripple effect turns off the consumer purchasing power leading to a surplus...

Arusha. The East African Community (EAC) will embark on another bid to woo investors during the forthcoming regional business conference following a sharp drop in foreign direct investments (FDIs) to the bloc in the last two years. Statistics released here last week indicate that FDI inflows to the six-nation bloc went down to $6.6 billion last year from $8.8 billion in 2016, a 25.3 per cent drop. The situation is equally not rosy for intra-EAC investments during the same period. They plunged by 22.3 per cent from $254.1 million in 2016 to $197 million last year. Existing business opportunities in the region aimed to counter the declining trend will be key during the third East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition slated for Kampala, Uganda end of next month. “The conference will showcase investment opportunities in the region,” said Lilian Awinja, the chief executive officer of the East African Business Council (EABC), which is organising the event. Statistics issued by EABC and seen by The Citizen showed another worrying scenario – decline of combined exports from the region to the outside world by 9 per cent from $16.2 billion in 2016 to $14.3 billion last year. No reasons were given by the Arusha-based business body on the reasons for the sharp fall of investments from abroad to the bloc. Efforts to reach officials at the EAC Secretariat to comment on the same were not successful although one of them downplayed the statistics, saying the region was still attractive to...

China will this week host a forum where development projects for the next three years will be discussed. African leaders are going to Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) Summit, hoping to get financing for their mega infrastructure projects. The summit themed "China and Africa: Towards an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation," is meant to link the Belt and Road Initiative with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the AU’s Agenda 2063 and individual countries' development plans. But it comes at a time when some African countries are grappling with an external debt burden and a trade balance favouring Beijing. Credit rating firms and global financial institutions have been advising against taking out further loans, instead recommending fiscal consolidation to arrest the ballooning debt. Kenya, for instance, had taken over $5 billion from China as at the end of March 2018 while Uganda owed China $1.6 billion. Kenya’s National Treasury has recently been under pressure to slow down the growth of public debt, with the International Monetary Fund raising its concerns. Related Content If Beijing sneezes, East Africa will catch a bad cold Comesa defends deals with China Why Asian giants have eyes on resource rich EA China can deliver African continent’s growth miracle Even then, East African Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda — who is also the African Union chairman — Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya are expected to attend the summit and seek financing for their...

By Owen Wagabaza Uganda’s freight and logistics industry started with the building of the Uganda Railway. At the time, the major purpose of the railway was to transport copper at Kilembe mines. Coming all the way from Mombasa, the railway made things possible, especially for those along the railway line. The first railway into Uganda was extended in the mid- 1920s from Nakuru to Soroti through Tororo in 1929, before coming down to Jinja through Namasagali. The railway finally reached Kampala in 1931, before being extended to Kasese in western Uganda, where it reached in 1956 and the northern line reaching Pakwach en route to Arua in 1964. No borders In the 1960s, the three East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania decided to form the East African Community (EAC). The EAC was more of a country with no borders between the three countries. “There was one airline under the name East African Airlines, all the ports belonged to the community under the East African railways and harbours and most importantly, there was one currency, the East African shilling. One would move from one country to another without any identification. Passenger trains would travel all the way from Kasese to Mombasa without any hindrance,” Charles Kareeba, the chairperson of Uganda Shippers Council, says. In 1977, however, the EAC collapsed, and this led to a change in many things. The three partner states, including Zambia, had bought ships under the East African National Shipping Line. “With our own ships, we carried...

President Yoweri Museveni has called for meaningful cooperation between Africa, China and the larger BRICS bloc which ensures that there is a win – win balance in trade as opposed to the imperialism that has for the last centuries put Africa at a losing end. Museveni who is the Chairman of the East African Community (EAC) made the comments while speaking at the just concluded China – Africa Cooperation Forum held in Beijing. The forum was hosted by President Xi Jinping of China and attended by several African Heads of State. During the forum, President Museveni made a case for East Africa and the rest of the continent, particularly the investment opportunities that exist and the incentives such as low electricity and a large market that make doing business cheaper. We are about to add 600MW and 183MW to the electricity we already had from the Jinja and Bujagali dams and scores of other smaller hydro-power houses,” Museveni said, also noting the development of the road and railway infrastructure. All this, therefore, offers good investment opportunities. Chinese companies have, indeed, already worked with us on both the elements of infrastructure and the production of industrial goods,” he said. Currently, the rate of return on investment in East Africa is 11%, which will be further increased to 15% by the improved supply of electricity and lower transport costs, he said. While he credited China for its non-intrusive policy towards Africa and supporting its development without making demands, Museveni said that this...

BEIJING/CAIRO -- China is seeking to further expand trade with Africa as a way to reduce risk from the U.S. trade dispute, a strategy made clear at a two-day summit ended Tuesday in Beijing. "Expanding imports from Africa helps spread the risk presented by the U.S.-China trade war," an employee of a Chinese state-owned oil major told Nikkei. At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the two sides adopted a joint statement and a three-year action plan, laying out plans to deepen cooperation in various fields. The leaders from both sides have "reached significant common ground and spoken with one voice on all major issues," Chinese President Xi Jinping told reporters at the closing of the event. Priority areas of cooperation include boosting trade, nurturing African industry and strengthening security. During Tuesday's session, Xi also stressed the importance of opposing protectionism and supporting free trade, an implicit reference to the go-it-alone attitude of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Xi called on African leaders to work together for both sides to develop and prosper together. For China, Africa's biggest trading partner, the value of trade with the continent for the January-July period grew 20% year-on-year, with imports jumping 30% to $56.8 billion and exports to Africa climbing 10% to $59.3 billion. China imported more crude oil from Angola and other countries in an apparent effort to compensate for declining imports of natural gas from the U.S. amid the two powers' mutual hiking of tariffs, as well as Washington's move to impose sanctions on Iranian crude oil. In 2017, about 40% of China's crude oil imports came from...

Around the same time last week, Germany’s Angela Merkel and the UK’s Theresa May visited countries in Africa. But the timing of the visits from leaders of two of Europe’s leading economies was conspicuous as, starting today (Sept. 3), nearly all African leaders will attend the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing where China is expected to, once again, dole out large loan packages. For their part, Merkel and May had their own goals too. While they came bearing gifts, in the long run, they will be hoping for reciprocal benefits. Merkel’s talks at each of her three stops in Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria focused on stemming the flow of migrants heading to Europe in search of a better life. The German chancellor, with nearly a dozenGerman CEOs in tow, pressed for increased investment to create jobs which will offer locals viable livelihoods and disincentivize migration. And she had some success: German car giant Volkswagen announced plans to expand operations in both Ghana and Nigeria promising more investment and jobs in two of West Africa’s largest economies. But there’s a political upside for Merkel too. Having come under pressure for her handling of the growing migrant influx in Germany, reversing the trend will be crucial for her party during the next federal elections. British prime minister Theresa May was more unabashed about the purpose of her first ever Africa tour with stops in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. As Brexit looms, May is looking to “deepen and strengthen” the UK’s “global partnerships,” even if it requires busting out awkward dance moves. May signed trade deals,...

African countries have shown a healthy appetite for Chinese loans but some experts now worry that the continent is gorging on debt, and could soon choke. The Entebbe-Kampala Expressway is still something of a tourist attraction for Ugandans, nearly three months after it opened. The 51km (31 mile), four-lane highway that connects the country's capital to the Entebbe International Airport was built by a Chinese company using a $476m (£366m) loan from the China Exim Bank. It has cut what was a torturous two-hour journey through some of Africa's worst traffic into a scenic 45-minute drive into the East Africa nation's capital. Uganda has taken $3bn of Chinese loans as part of a wider trend that Kampala-based economist Ramathan Ggoobi calls its "unrivalled willingness to avail unconditional capital to Africa". "This debt acquired from China comes with huge business for Chinese companies, particularly construction companies that have turned the whole of Africa into a construction site for rails, roads, electricity dams, stadia, commercial buildings and so on," the Makerere University Business School lecturer told the BBC. The Chinese loans come as many African countries are once again in danger of defaulting on their debts more than a decade after many had their outstanding borrowing written off. At least 40% of low-income countries in the region are either in debt distress or at high risk, the International Monetary Fund warned in April. Chad, Eritrea, Mozambique, Congo Republic, South Sudan and Zimbabwe were considered to be in debt distress at the end...