A new fund targeting women-led businesses in Africa will invest up to $500 million over the next decade to increase their participation in investment. The African Women’s Leadership Fund is a brainchild of the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (Uneca), UN Women, the African Union Commission and the African Women Leadership Network. Uneca executive secretary Vera Songwe said that the Fund’s sponsors hope to address a significant gender imbalance in finance and investment. “Women are less represented in many organisations and very few are leaders. This in turn makes them less represented in key decision-making for the continent,” said Ms Songwe. In Africa, only five per cent of chief executives are women; 18 per cent of businesses lack women in senior roles; only 29 per cent are senior managers while 44 per cent of women hold line roles, a 2016 report by Mackinsey & Company notes. The fund’s strategy is to ensure that at least 65 per cent of its investment capital reaches women entrepreneurs and women-led companies. The rest — 35 per cent — will go to technical assistance in the form of capacity building, leadership training, mentorship and business development. The fund hopes to find emerging women managers who will eventually serve as examples of the potential that they and their peers could have if given the support they need. The fund covers each of the continent’s five regions — North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa — and will evolve over time...

All consolidated cargo will be subjected to mandatory inspection in the country of supply starting tomorrow in a move aimed at weeding out substandard goods, the taxman and the bureau of standards has announced. In a statement Thursday, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) warned cargo consolidators and the general public that all cargo arriving into the country without a certificate of inspection shall not be allowed into the country. Consolidated cargo refers to a wide range of products or general merchandise imported in small quantities or parcels belonging to several traders who have pooled or assembled together with their parcels to form one consignment. “We wish to inform cargo consolidators and the general public that all consolidated cargo shall be subjected to mandatory in the country of supply starting June 1. “All cargo consolidators who applied for registration and fulfilled the requirements for registration are advised to contact Kebs for their provisional registration certificate by May 31, to facilitate inspection of their cargo under route D of Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) programme,” said the notice. Last month notice Kebs issued a notice last month to all importers of consolidated cargo for both air and sea to register with the agency to have their goods inspected under a new procedure created in 2005 by the standards agency and KRA. The new procedure, which has seen 20 firms approved to import as consolidators, targets cargo containing a wide range of products. It also targets...

Arusha — The East African Community (EAC) has denied it is negotiating with China on a free trade agreement (FTA) proposed by the Asian economic giant. "Currently, there is no EAC-China FTA and no negotiations have begun, in this regard," an EAC official told The Citizen on condition of anonymity since she was not authorised to speak to the media on policy matters. She said recent reports on purported discussions on free trade between the EAC and China were due to "miscommunication". The official nevertheless confirmed that China had proposed to negotiate with EAC partner states a comprehensive FTA in order to boost trade volumes between the two sides. China, currently the world's second biggest economy, had also requested for a joint feasibility study with the community on the proposed trade arrangement. "This matter was considered by the EAC Council of Ministers in early 2016," the official said. She noted, however, that in view of similar requests received from other countries such as Turkey and Singapore, the EAC secretariat decided to undertake a study on implications of such negotiations. The study will inform the Council of Ministers, which is the policy organ of the EAC, on the way forward and subsequent response to requests by China and other foreign countries. "In this regard, the secretariat communicated with the concerned parties that the EAC was to undertaking internal consultations on their proposals and would revert after consultations are finalised," the official said. In June, last year, the EAC secretariat approved a...

The Government of Korea and the African Development Bank have issued a Joint Declaration following the conclusion of the Ministerial Roundtable of the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Conference taking place during the African Development Bank’s 53rd Annual Meetings in which Korea announced a $5-billion bilateral financial assistance package for Africa. The Ministerial Roundtable is the signature event of the biennial KOAFEC Conference, gathering a peer group of African Ministers of Finance who also serve as the African Development Bank Board of Governors to discuss topical issues and a pan-African approach to engagement with Korea. Taking place under the theme “Africa and the 4th Industrial Revolution: Opportunities for leapfrogging?”, the Ministerial Conference highlighted the need for long-term planning for industrial development and execution of projects, as well as a focus on value addition in sectors where Africa has comparative advantage for example in agriculture and natural resources. There was also a need to further leverage technology such as the mobile phone for more inclusive growth, in favour of the youth. The $5-billion financial assistance package will be delivered over two years through partnerships with various development agencies, including but not limited to the African Development Bank Group. The package leverages resources from various Korean bilateral agencies and platforms, including the Knowledge Sharing Program, the Economic Development Cooperation Fund, Korea Import-Export Bank, among others. Specifically, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina and the Deputy Prime Minister of Korea, Dong Yeon Kim, signed three cooperation agreements for the implementation of certain components of...

The S.Sudan government is to use the Elegu/Nimule one stop border post to fight corruption that is constraining the business community using the border to cross into Juba. Corruption, according to officials from the ministry of trade industry and East African community affairs, is one of the most common challenges facing transporters using that route. This was revealed by the undersecretary in the Ministry of Trade Industry and East African Community Affairs of S. Sudan, Agak Achuil Lual Manok last week, during the site hand over of Nimule border point to the contractor, to start construction work so as to have a complete one stop border post. The first phase of the border post at Nimule will be constructed with funding worth $4m from Trademark East Africa, and this involves construction of the parking yard, access roads, and examination shade and drainage system. Already, the Ugandan side at Elegu has been completed, but may not fully be utilized because Nimule side isn’t complete. “The border post will bring all relevant authorities under one roof that means a trader will not move from place to place to clear their goods, which can be an avenue for corruption. Besides most of the clearing processes in OSBPs are online which again will reduce paper work, reducing human interaction hence eliminating corruption at the border post,” said Manok. He also added that post will reduce accidents of trucks being experienced on their side due to flooding in parking lot, which also has a poor...

Ugandan exporters will resume using the Single Customs Territory in July, according to Mr James Kisaale, the Uganda Revenue Authority assistant commissioner for trade. In an interview at the weekend, Mr Kisaale said exporters would resume using the system in July 5 following a brief suspension of the Single Customs Territory, a key stage in the attainment of the EAC Customs Union. Uganda had rolled out the system in March starting with coffee exports pending addition of other commodities such as tea, fish and hides and skins, among others. ““We don’t tax exports. [Through the system] exports will go out with ease [thus] increasing volumes [which] will boost domestic taxes. Ideally all exports would be ready to go by July 5,” he said, noting that the system was working normally for imports. Efficient movement of goods Mr Joseph, the Nkandu National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises chairman, in an interview earlier, told Daily Monitor that as farmers, clearing exports through the Single Customs offers efficient movement of goods, noting that the old system was more tedious, costly and time wasting. The Single Customs Territory seeks to minimise internal border controls on goods moving between partner states with an ultimate realisation of free movement of goods. The system, which is operated in a highly electronic and computerised environment, will allow exporters to reduce the time spent to clear goods to two from seven days that it initially would take. Source: Daily Monitor

The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) seeks to integrate African economies and pull together a market with a consumer spending power of $1.4 trillion by 2020, and increase intra-African trade by $35 billion by 2022. While some countries may have issues with the AfCTA, most governments are behind it and momentum will continue to build to make it a reality. AfCTA is viewed as a game- changer that will allow the free movement of goods and services across the continent, allowing African businesses to tap deeper into the sizeable and growing markets. However, there are a few risks that ought to be managed going forward. The first has to do with the financing of infrastructure that will interconnect the continent. Africa has an annual infrastructure financing deficit of about $93 billion. An obvious next step will be the business of raising funds to build the infrastructure Africa needs because without it, AfCTA will remain a good idea with no lived benefits on the ground. Given concerns with rising debt levels of African countries, coupled with queries on the management of public funds, there is a risk that AfCTA can facilitate a debt binge to finance infrastructure in a context of poor institutional controls and capacity to ensure projects are efficiently financed and developed. African governments have to manage this by ensuring infrastructure plans are financed responsibly, that money reaches the projects and that they are completed in a timely manner. Without these controls, the sheer scale of financing that...

The East African Community is pushing for an amendment to the Customs Management Act to allow Customs officials to get advance information regarding goods being moved across national borders ahead of their arrival on carrier vessel. This would enable Customs officials to detect high-risk consignments and take appropriate action, and expedite clearance of legitimate cargo. Section 24(1)(a) of the East African Community Customs Management Act requires shipping lines to submit their vessel manifest at least 24 hours before their arrival at a port. Approval The Council of Ministers has approved the amendment for submission to the East African Legislative Assembly. It will then be forwarded to heads of state for approval and enforced by the Customs Directorate. It is expected that the law will curtail trade in illegal goods across partner states as authorities will have to co-operate and share information on money laundering, drug, arms and human trafficking, dealings in counterfeits and infringement of intellectual property rights. This will be the third time the Act is being amended since 2004, when East African Community Customs Management came into force. Source: The East African

Uganda’s economy is expected to grow at 5.5 per cent in the current financial year, against an earlier forecast of 3.9 per cent. Director of Budget Kenneth Mugambe attributes the growth to improved food supply and recovery of the agriculture sector. A growing economy means that Uganda, under pressure to raise more funds for its infrastructure, can borrow without reaching the East African Community’s debt ceiling of 50 per cent debt to GDP ratio. However, there are fears that tax revenue will not follow the same path. According to a World Bank report, Uganda’s tax-to-GDP ratio, already below the average for EAC partner states, is expected to decline further, from the 13.8 per cent registered in 2016/17 to 12.9 per cent. This reduction also places hurdles on Uganda’s path to the EAC monetary union. The country needs a tax to GDP ratio of 25 per cent by 2021 to join the EAC Monetary Union in 2024. Tax exemptions Moses Kajubi, senior public sector specialist in charge of domestic revenue mobilisation at the World Bank, said that Uganda’s gross tax revenue could be below what was recorded last year since the taxman has registered higher than expected shortfalls over the past 10 months. “Overall revenues collected by the end of the year could fail to reach that of last year,” he said. To solve the problem of failing to grow tax revenue at the same pace as GDP, the World Bank has recommended that Uganda scraps a raft of special tax...

In 2017, 37 per cent of Kenya’s exports went to an African country, down from  40 per cent the previous year. This caused a near flat growth in export earnings, particularly from East Africa which accounts for more than half of Africa’s total trade with Kenya. These declining trade levels have spurred interest in the establishment of policies and structures that can boost intra-Africa trade. Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) has been working with East African Community member states on trade facilitation, with the goal of establishing borderless commerce. Business Daily’s Laban Cliff Onserio talked to TMA’s chief executive, Frank Matsaert, on the future of regional trade and what can be done to expand it. Your organisation has been supporting trade and investment in East Africa for more than 10 years and is about to go into Strategy II. What do you have to show for your efforts in phase 1 and what should we expect from this latest initiative?  Our big aim is to encourage job creation through increased trade. I would like to go for a target of about one million jobs. We want to increase trade in the region by reducing the cost of trade. What is different about this latest phase is that we are going to do some pilots to bring in anchor investment aimed at diversifying exports. The potential for Kenya to attract investment in labour-intensive manufacturing is strong so we want to help that process as part of the President’s Big Four Agenda initiatives....