Busia, Uganda | PSCU | Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has said integration of the East African region will be achieved with the development of shared infrastructure and political commitment of regional leaders. He said the region must integrate to be a truly bigger market, and economically attractive to compete with other economic giants. “We want to compete with the economic giants of the world. If we have to compete with giants we have to be giants ourselves,” said President Kenyatta. President Kenyatta and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni were in Busia town Saturday to commission a one-stop border post to ease the movement of goods and people across the shared border. They addressed a public barasa on the Ugandan side of Busia town. Museveni spoke to Uganda’s commitment to integration, but, in reference to fishing disputes by Kenyan small-scale traders, called for radar and tech surveillance to grow fish stocks as well as tackle disputes. The customs facility, straddling the border comprises offices and space for immigration processes and verification; warehousing and cold rooms for the goods traded across the border; and facilities for expediting trade. The one-stop border facility is part of measures Kenyatta and his counterparts from other EAC countries have spearheaded to ease the movement of goods and people within the region. The One-stop border post concept combines two national border controls into one thereby reducing the time it takes to clear goods and people across the shared borders. This reduces costs and overall time it takes to...

The official commissioning of Busia OSBP paves way for speedy clearance of goods moving in the main trade corridor between Uganda and Kenya. The Busia OSBP is part of the East African Community (EAC) regional initiative, implemented jointly with Kenya and Uganda, supported by development partners through Trademark East Africa, to the tune of Sh1 billion. Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is the implementing authority of the OSBP project in Kenya, while Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) implements in Uganda. The two have observed that the OSBP has brought about increased efficiency, interagency cooperation and improved coordination of all the border regulatory agencies. The OSBP project has further smoothened partnerships with private sector through Joint Border Committees (JBCs) and the National Trade Facilitation Committees. The streamlining of activities has led to a reduction of the average border crossing time from over 72 hours to less than six hours. At the OSBP, Kenyan and Ugandan officers share a roof, as they handle transit documents concurrently to save time. Other government agencies like the Bureau of Standards, Port Health, environment authorities, Immigration and Security are also present at the OSBPs quickening the clearance process. Based on estimates of the value of time for trucking enterprises and for traders, the savings generated by the improvement of border crossing in East Africa represent approximately USD70 million per year. The Busia OSBP, for instance, collected approximately KSh1.4 billion for Kenya in the 2016/17 financial year, recording a growth of 47 per cent since its inception. Further, the...

President Uhuru Kenyatta Saturday said integration of the East African region will be achieved with the development of shared infrastructure and political commitment of regional leaders. He said the region must integrate to be a truly bigger market, and economically attractive to compete with other economic giants. “We want to compete with the economic giants of the world. If we have to compete with giants we have to be giants ourselves,” said President Kenyatta. President Kenyatta and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni were in Busia town to commission a one-stop border post to ease the movement of goods and people across the shared border. They addressed a public barasa on the Ugandan side of Busia town. President Museveni spoke to Uganda’s commitment to integration, but, in reference to fishing disputes by Kenyan small-scale traders, called for radar and tech surveillance to grow fish stocks as well as tackle disputes. The customs facility, straddling the border comprises offices and space for immigration processes and verification; warehousing and cold rooms for the goods traded across the border; and facilities for expediting trade. The one-stop border facility is part of measures President Kenyatta and his counterparts from other EAC countries have spearheaded to ease the movement of goods and people within the region. The One-stop border post concept combines two national border controls into one thereby reducing the time it takes to clear goods and people across the shared borders. This reduces costs and overall time it takes to transport goods from one point...

President Museveni spoke East Africa to a lot of common sense in his written speech circulated ahead of the opening in Kampala on Thursday of the ‘EAC Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure and Health Financing and Development’. Very early on in the speech, the President puts things in perspective by declaring that “we owe it to ourselves and the future generations to ensure that this region has efficient, interlinked and interoperable infrastructure to enable our people to increase their prosperity through the exchange of goods and services”. Good stuff. But, as things tend to unfold, implementation gets in the way. I have never worked in the public sector and therefore have no close-up experience of how ideas get turned into actual projects that affect our lives. From the outside, I am always confused when the government announces a project only for basic issues (e.g. clean tendering, compensation/resettlement) to crop up to delay or fail the project altogether. I would expect that by the time the President, for example, announces that a road will be built in place X, all the groundwork has been done. In other words, the announcement would be more about when the project will actually start, how long it will take, how much it will cost, why it is needed, and possibly who the contractor is. When the government says it is expanding the Northern Bypass in Kampala over the next two years, one assumes that at that point all the funding has been got, compensation...

For a long time, there has been a desire to build a strong, integrated community in eastern Africa. Yet to fully integrate, political goodwill is essential, but has been lacking. Fear and mistrust of each other’s intentions have informed foreign policy in the region, thus hindering efforts that could lead to a strong regional bloc with the capacity to compete with other economic blocs like the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Fear revolves around the risk of local populations in east African countries losing their jobs to foreigners, either because they would provide cheaper labour or they would be better qualified. In South Africa, for instance, a paucity of jobs, and the few available being taken up by expatriate workers, has led to xenophobic attacks. The idea of an regional community is not a new concept, having been embraced by the founding fathers of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 1967. They believed more could be achieved by pulling together as a united people, but although the community took off to a good start, it broke up in 1977 because of mistrust. Kenya has demonstrated willingness to get the East African Community revived. On his inauguration day on November 28, 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta lay our borders open to citizens of the east African region. Sadly, diplomatic relations with Tanzania have not been at their best in the last few months. At some point, Tanzania banned Kenyan imports, impounded cattle that had...

Arusha — THE Republic of Somalia is in the line-up for becoming the 7th member of the East African Community (EAC). The prospect will be on the agenda for discussions as the regional bloc's Heads of State assemble in Kampala, Uganda, from tomorrow. The Ugandan Minister of State for EAC Affairs, Mr Julius Wandera Maganda, who currently chairs the Council of Ministers, revealed in a statement here that the six heads of state from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and South-Sudan will review progress of the verification exercise for the admission of the Republic of Somalia into the EAC. The inclusion of Mogadishu will make the East African Community to now own 'The Horn of Africa,' and boast the longest coastline of the Indian Ocean on the continent. The joint population of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, South-Sudan and (if admitted) Somalia, will be close to 190 million in total, which is essentially the same number of people as Nigeria. Apart from discussing the horn of Africa factor, other agenda items in the EAC Heads of State retreat's table include the modalities for promotion of motor vehicle assembly in the community, although already Kenya is ahead on this, by hosting assembly lines for Nissan, Volkswagen and China's Foton. Included, too, will be a review of the textile and leather sector, in which Tanzania tops the bill by having a large number of textile factories if the defunct ones were to be revived, and working on the Report of the Chair...

NAIROBI, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will fly to Uganda on Thursday for a three-day official visit to attend a regional summit on financing infrastructure and health, his office said Wednesday. During the summit of the East African Community (EAC) member states, State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu said in a statement that Kenyatta will showcase the progress Kenya has made in investments in infrastructure over the last five years. Esipisu said the Kenyan leader will also unveil plans for further investment in the infrastructure and emphasize his commitment to a more integrated approach in infrastructure development for the region. "Affordable health for all is one of President Kenyatta's Big Four commitments in his second term, alongside affordable housing, enhanced manufacturing and value addition as well as food security and nutrition," Esipisu said. During the presidential retreat on financing infrastructure and health and a summit of the EAC member states Kampala, Kenyatta will also make the point that it was no longer viable for East Africa to build infrastructure with a silo mentality. According to Esipisu, Kenyatta will urge greater speed in implementing projects, with a sharp focus on continuing the agenda of promoting the free movement of people across EAC and the wider African continent. "The president sees enhanced people-to-people contact as key to improving trade, growing regional economies and lifting the lives of citizens," he said. Esipisu said the president will also speak on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) arrangements between the EAC and the European Union...

The Ministry of Trade has said it has started implementing the border market programme to help the country harness regional market opportunities by setting up warehouses for locally manufactured goods. Addressing journalists about the upcoming East African Trade Development Forum scheduled for end of this month, Ms Amelia Kyambadde, the Trade minister, said working with Trade Mark East Africa, significant efficiency gains have been achieved at the ports and borders where the warehouses will be constructed. “It is pointless for you to have a warehouse in Kampala where you pick goods to take to the border. When the construction is complete, one should be able to have their goods kept at the border,” she said. The minister explained that after COMESA, the East African region ranked as Uganda’s second largest export market with revenues rising from $642.2m in 2014 to $711.3m in 2017 in the export of coffee, tea, spices, tobacco, iron and steel products. Through such exports, the minister said they realised that it is mainly women and youth who are involved in cross border trade and they have developed strategies to simplify trade processes for them. “The districts of Amuru has given us 247 acres of land at Elegu, Busia 173arces at Masafu, Kabale 238.8 acres at Katuna, Kasese 3acres at Mpondwe, Manafwa 89.3 acres at Lwakhakha and Koboko 78 hectares at Oraba,” she said. Mr Moses Sabiti, the country director of Trade Mark East Africa, said they have been working together with the Trade ministry and development...

The East African Community member states’ appreciation of rail transport has increased, a trend experts think is good for doing business because it reduces on time. This trend, according to the experts, does not only ease doing business in the region but also it is cost effective because of its turnaround. Latest report from the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) published this month shows that containers delivered up-country by rail from the Port of Mombasa recorded 671 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) registering an increase of 233 TEUs compared to the previous week. Port operations performance during the week showed that a total of 11,189 TEUs (full and empty) were discharged from the ships and 10,049 TEUs loaded for export. The total yard population registered 14,644 TEUs out of which 5,753 TEUS were awaiting pick up orders. Uganda, Rwanda, DR Congo and South Sudan import and export their products through the port of Mombasa. Imports population breakdown indicated that there were 3,170 TEUs locally bound (Kenya) and 4,873 TEUs for transit destinations. Uganda bound containers recorded 3,825 TEUs, out of the 4,873 TEUs making it the biggest customer. This was followed by Tanzania bound containers that registered 444 TEUs, South Sudan with 233 TEUs, and Democratic Republic of Congo with 162 TEUs and Rwanda with 157 TEUs. Reaction Mr Daniel Birungi the executive director Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA), says the reason Ugandans are taking up rail transport as an alternative is because it’s cost effective, especially to bulky importers. “A case in...

Uganda is launching a new round of road building that is set to reduce freight costs and add market reach in the next three years. In a bid to stimulate economic growth that over the last two decades has averaged an annual 2.6 per cent, the Ugandan government has embarked on an intensified round of road infrastructure projects. It is now close to completing the 49.5km Entebbe-Kampala expressway, which will link the capital city to Entebbe International Airport, and is set to be open in May this year. Last month, it won $84.5m of loan funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the stretch of Uganda-Kenya highway, from Kapchorwa to the border post of Suam, and on to the upcoming Kitale and Eldoret Town bypasses. The highway is expected to be completed in 2021, and will provide a new and faster link between Uganda and Kenya connecting through the one-stop border post of Suam. Kenya received $129.6m of AfDB loan funding for the road in April last year. The construction of the road will see the average speed in the delivery of goods from Kenya to Uganda increase. The new highway also holds logistics implications ahead, in that it will connect 1.4 million people living around the project area, and reduce traffic congestion in the town of Eldoret on the Northern Corridor. Providing easier and rapid access through road construction can have multiple positive impacts for the surrounding population, according to research by the United Nations. “A global investment...