In the last few decades, the services sector has been a significant driver of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, trouncing the industrial sector in both developed and developing countries In the last few decades, the services sector has been a significant driver of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, trouncing the industrial sector in both developed and developing countries. Today, services account for the largest share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in most countries. This fact also holds true for most members of the EAC. In Uganda, services sector has contributed 54.9 per cent; both Kenya and Rwanda’s GDP’s growth receive about 47.5 per cent while Tanzania is rated at 43.6 per cent and Burundi is at 40.4 per cent. Despite this significance, trade in services currently does not live up to its full potential. This is why partner states are devising means to re-examine the services component of the Common Market which is a critical juncture to ensure that the private sector is able to gain these benefits. Ms Lillian Awinja, the executive director East African Business Council (EABC), shares: “We want to improve trade in services in the East African region through developing tangible positions for each sector and come up with feasible advice for policy-makers to facilitate trade in the region.” Ms Awinja said to take this further; focus will be put on several sectors within the Common Market Protocol mainly looking at business; communication; distribution; education; finance; tourism; and transport services. “We want to make sure that...

For an idea of how wealthy Africans want to think of their countries, flick through the adverts in one of the glossy pan-African magazines given away in the continent’s airport lounges. Banks are promoted with pictures of young glamorous Africans in smart suits strolling through glossy malls. New apartment blocks and golf courses grace the other pages. Africa, in these magazines, is rising. If, however, you want to get a real idea of how Africa’s economies are faring, you should go where few of the wealthy people in the lounges do: the land borders. Earlier this year, I spent a day at the border of Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Whereas Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, buzzes with new investment, at the country’s border, it is hardly noticeable. The start of no-man’s land is marked by a piece of string stretched across the road, and a small office manned by a pair of sleepy soldiers. It is not a busy place; when I was there, a few dozen lorries at most were waiting to cross. When African countries feature in Western politics, it’s invariably a debate over aid versus trade. In September, Barack Obama hosted a forum in New York designed to promote trade between America and Africa. “From Senegal to South Africa, Africans insist they do not just want aid, they want trade,” declared the outgoing President. In October, Britain’s new DFID secretary, Priti Patel, hinted at using Britain’s hefty aid budget to promote post-Brexit trade deals. The idea is that...

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has promised to provide adequate financial support to the East African community. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has promised to provide adequate financial support to the East African community. In a speech read for him by the speaker of the Kenyan senate, Ekwe Ethuro, Kenyatta expressed concern about the poor financial status of the community. Source: NTV Uganda

Cargo owners have up to midnight to furnish the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) with verified gross mass details of a packed container. Among the basic information required are the equipment location, standardisation certificate and business registration certificate. The rule to verify gross mass of a packed container took effect on July 1, and is one of the requirements introduced after amendments were made to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) by International Maritime Organisation (IMO) members. “This information must be provided to the master or the master’s representative sufficiently in advance of loading for proper stowage and safe carriage of the cargo. Any packed container received at the port without the verified gross mass shall not be loaded on to a ship,” KMA’s acting director general Comas Cherop said in a statement. The SOLAS amendments provide that there are two methods shippers may use to determine the container weight once the container packing process has taken place. This requirement is applying globally, and IMO directed that shippers, freight forwarders, vessel operators, and terminal operators must establish policies and procedures to ensure the implementation of this regulatory change. Under the SOLAS amendments, there are two accepted methods for weighing. Method one requires weighing the container after it has been packed. The second one requires weighing all the cargo and contents of the container and adding those weights to the container’s tare weight as indicated on the door of the container. “Weighing of all packages and cargo...

President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) to assist the business community overcome trade barriers in order to actualise free trade across the East African Community (EAC). He said obstacles such as long clearing procedures, road blocks and changes in regulations negatively impacted business expansion. In a speech delivered by Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro on Tuesday, Mr Kenyatta said Eala and the EAC partner states are duty-bound to support the business community address challenges they face. “Our business community has been a keen partner and driver of our integration process. We are, therefore, duty-bound to support them in addressing the challenges they face in conducting and expanding their businesses,” he said. The Eala recently passed a binding legislation to eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTB) to trade among the EAC Partner states. NTBs come in various forms and often limit market access, changing the quantities of goods traded or increasing the prices of the goods. Mr Kenyatta noted the bringing into force of the EAC NTB Act 2015 was laudable and a critical area that requires concerted efforts from all, to bring a long-lasting and sustainable solution to the NTB problem. He said there is a need to do more in ensuring industrialisation flourishes and agriculture is given priority. “While keeping up our focus on infrastructural developments, we need to ensure that the goods that are carried on these roads and on the railway are made in East Africa,” he said. In his address to the Assembly in...

Nairobi — Kenya is set to host a group of investors from Jordan as the two countries seek to strengthen their political, social and economic ties. The 100-strong delegation of investors and business representatives will be in the country in mid December to meet traders in tea, coffee, hides and skins, aviation, food and beverages and the hospitality industry. Other sectors that will be represented include medical, health and the construction industry. Principal Secretary for the State Department of Trade in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Co-operatives, Chris Kiptoo said that the visit is a welcome development following the recent call on the state by King Abdulla of Jordan. "As a regional economic power house and with the number of incentives that we give to any investors the Jordanian delegation will find plenty of opportunities to partner with local investor," said Dr Kiptoo. "Investors in Jordan are taking heed of their Head of State to explore trading opportunities in East Africa and Kenya in particular. Jordan has some of the best specialty hospitals in the world, is renowned globally for their aviation prowess and well developed cosmetics industry. The country is also known for their dealings in oil, refrigeration/cooling and heavy importation of tea coffee, meat and leather products. The visit will involve an exhibition at the KICC, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) meetings as well as industry, plant and farm visits. Source: All Africa

TANZANIA Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) yesterday launched a freight and logistics platform in Dar es Salaam, calling upon the government and other key players to engage amicably in business to enhance the services in the country. Inaugurating the launch that drew in many stakeholders which form TPSF in its voice of the representing different private businesses owners which attended the occasion, Angelina Ngalula thanked the government for setting aside 2.18 trilion/- in its 2016/17 budget for the growth of the sector in the country. She named some of the business owners as Transporters Association of Tanzania (TAT), Tanzania Truck Owners Association (TATOA), to Tanzania Shipping Agents Association (TASAAA), among others. She said they collectively require strategic thinking and planning to improve economy that is not a one-man affair, adding that the private sector must marry with the government to revolutionise and improve the business climate currently prevailing in the country. She asked the government on behalf of the other key players in TPSF to address barriers in the market which create obstacles in their businesses, singling one as “consumers who must be protected in their rights and only served with standardised quality goods. ” Promising to conduct a survey to improve the business climate in the country, the chairperson of TPSF said that Dar es Salaam port and railway should be under one umbrella as in South Africa where the merge is doing well as they save time to consult one another as one body in business. She also mentioned...

Over the last year, all eyes have been on Africa’s technology sector. And for a very good reason: infrastructure growth is booming. Between 2010 and 2016, seven new undersea cables brought fast data connections to the continent, with two more already under development. Meanwhile, mobile providers have invested $13.6billion into getting 500,000,000 Africans online by 2020. But as necessary as infrastructure investment is, it alone won’t take African business global. So what technological development or product has the potential to make African businesses global players? Tech sector already outperforms expectations A common misconception is that raw materials are the big African growth story of the last decade. But according to research by Freshfields, since 2004 Africa’s technology companies have delivered 19% annualised returns, compared to just 11% in commodities. A clue to why the African tech sector is growing can be found in the East African mobile payments industry. In most of the world, mobile payments is a niche sector, because consumers have many other convenient ways to pay -bank cards, credit cards and banking transfers, for instance. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 34% of people have a bank account. This used to be a significant barrier to any transaction that wasn’t small-scale or local. Or, in plain English, it was a huge inconvenience. Change began in 2007, when local telco Safaricom teamed up with Vodafone to develop the mobile-payment system M-Pesa. Its creators expected M-Pesa to have 250,000 customers by the end of its third year. After just two...

East Africa is in the midst of an infrastructure projects surge due to low steel prices, regional economic strength and Chinese support for projects. The cost of steel, engineering and design services have all been low this year, as a result of weak international demand. In addition, contractors have more spare capacity than usual, so projects can be developed more quickly. A quarter of Chinese steel production capacity has been shut-in during the year to date and so Beijing has been keen to find outlets for Chinese output. This has helped drive the current boom in pipeline and railway projects in East Africa, including the new Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway line and Uganda’s planned oil export pipeline and railway to the northern Tanzanian port of Tanga, to name a few. Despite the rise in steel consumption in East Africa, other parts of the continent are unlikely to benefit from the same type of projects because of the economic downturn affecting many other countries. Weak Continental Demand The investment seen in East Africa is unlikely to be replicated in economies that rely on commodities, such as Zambia, Nigeria and Angola. Those African countries are facing extensive spending cuts, particularly where support from the IMF and other multilaterals is expected. With more emphasis on poverty reduction, the international lenders may not demand such deep spending cuts in return for loans as during previous downturns. Nevertheless, they are unlikely to countenance borrowing for big tickets infrastructural projects. Apart from anything else, the Mozambican...

A total of 286 construction projects were launched in Africa in the first half of this year worth a combined total of $324 billion, according to a new report. The Deloitte African Construction Trends report said each of the projects on which ground was broken up to 1 June was valued at $50m or more. However, the report said the number of projects qualifying for inclusion “fell by 5% year-on-year, while the value of included projects decreased by 14%, due in large part to the headwinds that countries are experiencing on account of a weak global macroeconomic environment and low commodity prices across the board”. In a preface to the report, Deloitte Africa infrastructure and capital projects leader Jean-Pierre Labuschagne said: “Africa has seen a downturn in both the number and value of projects included this year, in contrast to previous years... many governments and the low number of projects highlighted that the private sector is struggling to maintain their spending on infrastructure and capital projects.” “New pressure or factors such as drought, security concerns and rapid urbanisation coupled with falling government revenues is making it difficult to maintain the spending in infrastructure required by many countries,” Labuschagne said. To qualify for inclusion in its 2016 report, Deloitte said infrastructure construction projects had to be valued at over $50m and must have broken ground, but not yet been commissioned, as of 1 June. In regional terms, West Africa had the most number of projects (92) this year, which amounted to...