It is about 15 months to the eagerly awaited commissioning of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line between Mombasa and Nairobi. This is a massive infrastructural project whose total construction cost has been put at Sh327 billion. Tens of contractors and thousands of hardworking Kenyans in different sections of the 472 km line from Mombasa to Nairobi are currently replacing huge mounds of earth with tonnes of metal that will create the first ever high capacity railway line in the region. The East African region is a perfect example of how land transport infrastructure like a railway line can revolutionize an economy. For more than a century, the East African Railway gave birth to centres, towns and cities along the corridor and across the region. The coming of the SGR will thus be a game-changer in transport; it will for instance take a traveller just four and a half hours from Mombasa to Nairobi by rail, reducing time spent on travelling, with cargo train speed of up to 80kms/hr and passenger trains at 120km/hr. As we move closer to the completion of the first phase of the SGR, it is noble to note that the new network will be vital for business, supply chains and investment in the region. Once completed, the modern, high capacity Standard Gauge Railway will carry on each train a trailing load of 4,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to 216 TEU containers per trip. This is expected to raise Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product, or total economic...

Most missed out the big story in the recent visit to Rwanda by Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli.  Media outlets highlighted the event where the visiting president and his host President Paul Kagame opened the Rusumo one-stop border post. It was mentioned that the one stop border would ease trade and business operations as the two East African community members are governed by a single customs territory.  During the two days visit, President Magufuli also joined Rwandans in the commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi. He accompanied his host to light the flame of hope that will keep burning for the next 100days; the duration of the Genocide period. In as much as the two events highlighted by the media were very significant in gauging the relationship between the two neighboring countries, I beg to differ.  The big story was not in the two events mentioned above, but rather in the essence and significance of the Africa culture where president Kagame gave five cows to his visitor. The event was either mentioned in passing or totally ignored. It came to my realization that  schools of journalism have taught us  to tell stories from the Western point of view thereby influencing the African journalist to be  alienated from his native culture, hence the failure to tell the African story ‘brewed in an African pot’. When Kagame hosted Magufuli at his private home, they had time to talk about a number of issues concerning their countries and their personal and family...

Gowling WLG's infrastructure team, led by partner Jonathan Brufal and senior associate Tom Gray, have been working with TradeMark Africa and the government of Rwanda to improve transport infrastructure to and from Rwanda. Here they discuss the flagship Kigali Logistics Programme, a game-changing new internal port that will have wide-reaching benefits for trade and Rwanda when it comes online in mid-2017, and the future of trade and infrastructure in the region. Freight costs in East Africa can be as much as 50% higher than those in Europe or America. Journeys across borders and through roadblocks take days when they could take hours. A lack of suitable infrastructure, technology and expertise affects everything from road maintenance to customs and excise, storage to onward transportation. But does the construction of new transport networks, such as the standard gauge railway which will eventually link Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, various toll roads planned or already developed, or the recently signed Kigali Logistics Platform (KLP) concession, herald a new era for trade and logistics in East Africa and beyond? With a growing regional economy and innovative infrastructure transactions such as the KLP concession, the potential exists for significant change. Rwanda's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM), with Gowling WLG advising in conjunction with Deloitte and TradeMark Africa, recently completed a concession agreement with DP World for the development and operation of the KLP - an inland port for the collation and onward distribution of goods. DP World has been awarded a 25-year concession to construct...

According to the 2015 African Economic Outlook, East African countries will record the fastest economic growth in the continent in 2015 and 2016. In Kenyaalone, increased fiscal spending on infrastructure projects and robust private sector consumption mean that GDP growth is projected at 6% for 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Beyond 2016, East Africa is forecast to become the continent’s fastest growing region economically. Infrastructure in East Africa has historically been among the world’s least developed. But the region has now caught the eye of international construction firms looking to enter the African market: economic growth and infrastructure development are interdependent and mutually supportive. In our 36 years of operation in the region, Spencon has witnessed first-hand the surge of interest from foreign firms looking to leverage opportunities in the region, and we have partnered with many international companies and development agencies to deliver projects locally. Booming populations, rapid urbanisation and a growing middle class has spurred many African governments to prioritise national and regional infrastructure. Experts estimate that the region needs around US$100bn investment per year over the next decade to close the infrastructure gap and catch up with the rest of the world on basic requirements. But the funding is there. Since 2007, foreign direct investment projects in East Africa have grown at 19.9% a year, the strongest in Africa. A recent KPMG Global Construction Survey found that over 50% of senior leaders in the construction and engineering industry see the continent as one of the...

It will be easier and cheaper to use your data bundles on different telecommunication platforms within four East African countries from July 1, following the adoption of a price cap per megabyte on mobile data roaming scheme. Across all the networks, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan have agreed on a proposal of a maximum retail tariff of $0.11 per MB inclusive of taxes, billed on a per-kilobyte basis. A maximum inter-operator tariff of $0.07 per MB has also been adopted. The implementation of these tariffs will however be reviewed periodically. The development follows an earlier directive by the EAC heads of state to the four countries that telecommunications companies in the region remove tariff charges for short message services (SMS) and data in order to fully implement the One Network Area initiative they adopted in 2014. The drop in roaming charges is expected to stimulate growth in the telecommunications sector and promote cross-border trade. High data costs while roaming have seen most mobile users shift from the use of data tariffs and adopt over-the-top services such as WhatsApp, Viber and Hangout. In Uganda, for example, an operator using fibre optic cable charges Safaricom subscribers $0.4 per MB while those using satellite charge $0.7 per MB. Airtel charges a standard rate of $0.5 per MB for data roaming in Uganda and Rwanda. Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan last year adopted the harmonised money transfer guidelines and uniform rates developed by their central banks and communications commissions with the aim of boosting trade...

Efforts to eliminate non-tariff barriers have saved transporters and logistics stakeholders along the Mombasa-Kigali route nearly $7 million (about Rwf5 billion) since 2011. The estimates are drawn from a recently conducted evaluation by Trade Mark East Africa of the impact of non-tariff barriers (NTB) to trade programmes in East Africa. The survey’s findings indicate that removal of key NTBs have contributed to a 14 per cent reduction in time taken to import goods from each East African country and further contributed to a 20 per cent reduction in time taken to export goods from each EAC country from 33 days to 26 days. Rwanda’s trade has been among the top beneficiaries from the efforts to remove the barriers hindering trade in the region. The survey found that transit time as well as cost has significantly gone down consequently reducing the cost of business. “NTBs reduction has contributed to the reduction in cost of transporting a 40 foot container from Mombasa to Kigali, from $6,500 in 2011 to $4,800. Evaluators estimate this generated a saving (at constant volumes) of about $7 million (about Rwf5.4 billion) on the Mombasa-Kigali route alone. Similarly, inland transportation times from Dar es Salaam to Kigali have dropped considerably, now to 3.5 days,” the report reads in part. The development is largely credited to an EAC programme on elimination of identified NTBs supported by Trade Mark East Africa. The programme has so far identified 112 barriers and resolved 87 of them. The survey also established that a...

KAMPALA Uganda (Xinhua) -- Ministers from the East African Community (EAC) are meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala to discuss key projects that will fast track regional development and mutual security. The ministers, who are meeting in their 13th Northern Corridor Integration Projects summit that opened on Friday, will discuss and review progress made in the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway, mutual defense, peace and security, and airspace management. They will also discuss information communications technology, oil refinery development, power generation, transmission and interconnectivity and political federation. Sam Kutesa, Uganda’s foreign minister told the meeting that progress has been made in the areas of infrastructure development, data management, cyber security and human resources development. "We require attention in land acquisition and concerted efforts to speed up the reintegration projects," Kutesa said. The ministers after their meeting will send their report to the regional leaders meeting that will open on Saturday. The Northern Corridor summits started in 2013 with the aim of speeding up development in the region. The Northern Corridor is the transport corridor that links the EAC landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan with the Kenyan seaport of Mombasa. The corridor also serves northern Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. Source: Coast Week

Burundi has said it is ready for East African Community-mediated dialogue in efforts to end the current political crisis that has rocked the country for a year now. Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni remains the EAC-appointed mediator for the inter-Burundi dialogue, but early this year, the EAC Heads of State Summit appointed a team under the leadership of former president of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa to facilitate the mediation. “Former president Mkapa’s visit enabled him to assess the situation on the ground and we are ready to restart the dialogue under his mediation,” Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Nyamitwe told The EastAfrican. However, the government said it would not hold talks with opposition leaders or civil society organisations that played a role in violent protests and the failed coup last year. US special envoy for the Great Lakes Region Thomas Perriello blamed the government for the current crisis, during his seventh visit to the country since the crisis began last year. “Mr Perriello is not the facilitator and it is not up to him to say who should join and who shouldn’t… we believe things are improving and we are waiting for the facilitator to restart the talks,” said Mr Nyamitwe in response to the accusations. Currently, there is relative calm in the country since the crisis began, but the government said 46 people have been killed since January in ongoing targeted assignations and grenade attacks, which it accused the opposition of instigating. According to Bujumbura at least 698 people have been arrested...

East African countries have drafted a policy framework to harmonise their retirement benefits schemes that will see workers in the region receive part of their life savings on a regular basis before they retire from formal employment. Under the proposed plan, EAC citizens will also benefit from annuitized pension from companies they had worked for outside their countries but within the EAC regional bloc. According to Kenya’s Ministry of EAC Affairs, the draft EAC retirement benefits policy will be reviewed by the Council of Ministers during the Sectoral Council on Finance and Economic Affairs meeting in Dar es Salaam next month. The policy considers a number of pertinent issues necessary for the development and growth of the pensions sector in the region with a view to facilitating free movement of persons, services, goods and capital. It also seeks to promote prudent investment of retirement funds to promote prosperity and improve the welfare of the people of the EAC region. Among key issues under consideration by the regional bloc through the Capital Markets Insurance and Pension Committee are harmonisation of pension tax regimes to facilitate portability of accrued pension benefits across the EAC region and development of an annuity market in the region. Others are mutual recognition agreement on pension service providers that will allow them to set up offices across borders, increased pension coverage for both formal and the informal sector in the region, liberalisation of the pension sector to attract more players and synchronisation of investment principles and standards...

The recently conducted independent evaluation of the non-tariff barriers (NTBs) indicates that most barriers have been eliminated to ensure traders across the region reap the benefits of the trading bloc. Non-tariff barriers refer to restrictive measures such levies, quotas, embargoes and sanctions used by countries when trading with each other. According to TMA, of the 112 NTBs that were identified, 87 have been resolved through the East African Community Time Bound Programme on elimination of barriers. This was as a result of intervention by the National Monitoring Committee and the EAC Secretariat, with the support of TMA, which led to the enactment of EAC elimination of NTBs Act. As a result, the time taken to import goods from one East African country to another has dropped by 14 per cent to 31 days. Initially, it used to take an average of 36 days. Burundi has benefited most, with a 28 per cent reduction in import time from 43 days to 30. Time taken The time taken to export goods to any East African country has been cut to an average of 26 days. This is a 20 per cent reduction from the initial 33 days. It now takes 30 days to export goods from Uganda as compared to 35 days in 2011. Similarly, inland transportation times from Dar es Salaam to Kigali have dropped to about 3.5 days. The time spent to get an electronic certificate to clear goods has also reduced. Tanzania has witnessed the highest drop. It now...