The signing of a trade pact with the European Union for free market access for East Africa’s horticultural crops about a decade ago significantly improved foreign earnings for the region. Under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), East Africa was granted a duty-free quota market access by the EU in efforts aimed at balancing the skewed terms of trade. The agreement is coming to an end this month and a new one is due by October 1. In the trade agreement, EU treats East Africa as a single trade entity and offers it a common package. However, East Africa is now pulling in different directions. Kenya and Rwanda have signed and committed themselves to the extension of the pact, but the others have not. This is why Deputy President William Ruto yesterday reached out to the other EAC heads of state, during a meeting in Arusha, to sign the deal. In particular, Tanzania has been reluctant to sign, arguing that it was interrogating its impact on its industrial production. Perhaps there are other underlying concerns. Burundi is unhappy because of a trade embargo by the EU over its recent controversial elections. Clearly, the hesitation over signing the partnership exemplifies the challenges of regional economic blocs, where at times countries focus on individual, rather than the union’s greater interest. Yet there is much value in hunting as a pack in pursuit of common interests. Among other advantages, this enables a region to attract more investment and puts it in better stead to...

Financing entrepreneurial ventures is one of the key issues to feature prominently in the forthcoming maiden East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition in Nairobi, Kenya. EABC Executive Director Ms Lilian Awinja said one year after the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, they realised the need for a critical follow up on the actual tangible impacts of initiatives like "Trade Africa" or "Power Africa", that have come along with large funds to promote entrepreneurship. "This is why we will have two sessions on the opportunities and experiences to access those funds and on the requirements for other ways of financing," she said. Slated for October 10 to 13 in Nairobi, the crucial conference is organised by the East African Business Council (EABC) in partnership with the East African Community (EAC) respective national investment agencies. On the session, financial Institutions such Kenya's KCB Bank will elaborate on the key issues relevant for the financing of entrepreneurial enterprises. EABC chief added: "This is not on big funds and programmes only but also a chance to learn about innovative sources like crowd funding, impact investment and other incubator initiatives". The conference will also focus on Manufacturing, infrastructure, leather and textiles and energy in parallel sessions, Ms Awinja said. The exhibition expects to pull some 300 participants from the infrastructure-, manufacturingand energy sector, from ICT - and leather and textile industries, as well as from financing institutions. "Important policy makers and top representatives of relevant international organisations have committed themselves to participate," she said. In...

The six-nation East African Community bloc said it would deliberate over a free-trade agreement with the European Union for three months before committing to a treaty that should be in place before October. “We have considered all the issues on EPA and we have given this issue another three months until January so that we can come up with a solution,” Tanzanian President John Magufuli said after a regional summit in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania. The countries have been negotiating the so-called Economic Partnership Agreement, or EPA, with the European Union since 2002, a reciprocal pact that will extend their duty- and quota-free access to the bloc, while opening up their economies. The EAC groups Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. While Rwanda and Kenya have already initialed the treaty, all other nations are required to commit to the deal for it to take effect. Kenya is the only nation that stands to lose access to Europe because it isn’t grouped among the Least Developed Countries. The others can continue exporting to the bloc under a separate Everything But Arms treaty for LDCs.   Source: Bloomerg

Recently, member states of the East African Community (EAC) discussed the need to accept regional currencies as a means of payments in cross-border trade. This means traders will now transact without having to convert their respective currencies to US dollars and back to their own – a process which was not only tedious but time consuming and costly. On Monday this week, while opening the Global African Investment Summit (TGAIS) in Kigali, President Paul Kagame called on African governments to be time conscious in the implementation of regional integration projects, highlighting the enormous cost that is incurred when such projects are delayed or stalled. This brings to mind English Playwright, William Shakespeare, who once said “better three hours too soon than a minute late”. The move to accept regional currencies as a means of payment will not only be timely but will see the region’s member states save a substantial amount of money that was previously lost through exchange. Implementing this will cushion our local currencies’ against drastic fluctuation against foreign currencies as it has been before. The move to trade in national currencies will protect them from adverse vulnerability of the local currencies in the member-countries of the bloc. Experts attribute our struggling currencies to keep afloat against the US Dollar to a globally strengthening dollar and reduced foreign exchange inflows from tourism, trade and agriculture. The global currency and exchange movement remains one of the most important developments in human liberation since the World War Two. It evidences a...

IN SUMMARY Otherwise, Kenyan exports could be asked to start paying taxes from as early as October 1, a development that will make its produce — mainly flowers and fish — uncompetitive in the EU market. The fate of Kenya’s Europe-bound exports rests with the European Union parliament after the East African presidents pushed back the date for reaching final decision on free trade pact to January. President John Magufuli who chaired yesterday’s extraordinary heads of state summit said the bloc would continue to discuss the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the aim of concluding it at the start of next year. “We have given ourselves three months to discuss further the signing of the EPA agreement and we will meet in January 2017 over this issue,” Mr Magufuli, who is also the East African Community chairman, said during the extraordinary summit in Dar es Salaam. “We appeal to the EU not to punish Kenya by denying it access to the European market,” he said in a statement. Tanzania had earlier indicated it would not sign the EPA during yesterday’s summit. The EU had given the region up to September 30 to sign and ratify EPA. Sources said it later asked EAC to show commitment by November 30 after Kenya’s Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed and his Rwandese counterpart Francis Kanimba asked EU parliament for more time few days ago “to prove region’s commitment.” Start paying taxes Kenya, the only state classified as developing country among the EAC’s six members, ships...

Kenya will have to lobby for its own duty-free market access to Europe to shield its exports to the European Union from taxes. This is after Tanzania and Burundi’s refusal to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement at the Heads of State Summit in Dar es Salaam yesterday, dealing a blow to the pact whose deadline is October 1. Uganda, which had indicated willingness, also failed to sign the deal at the summit. Consequently the East Africa Community presidents pushed the EPA talks to January. The move leaves Kenya with no other option rather than to lobby for its own quota-free market. Kenya and Rwanda signed the deal in Brussels, Belgium, last week on Thursday but it cannot be ratified by the EU commission without signatures from all the EAC member states. Deputy President William Ruto represented Kenya at the summit attended by president John Magufuli (Tanzania) Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame,which was meant to convince Tanzania and Burundi to sign the EPA. Burundi sent a representative - minister for external relations and international cooperation Alain Aime Nyamitwe, to the 17th extra-ordinary summit. “Tanzania has reneged arguing that it was analysing it (EPA)while Burundi is furious after European countries slapped an aid embargo on the country following its disputed elections and violence that followed it,” a communiqué from the Deputy President Press Service said. It said the East Africa Community will write to the EU not to punish Kenya by imposing taxes on its goods. “The deadline given by...

Kippra board vice chair Emma Mwongeli, EAC Affairs PS Betty Maina with her State Department of Planning counterpart Torome Saitoti and Kippra acting executive director Dickson Khainga at the launch of economic survey in Nairobi yesterday / ENOS TECHE Kenya is hoping to convince Tanzania and Burundi to sign the region’s Economic Partnership Agreement at the extraordinary Heads of State Summit in Dar es Salaam today. The two East African Community member states are holding back the EU pact, after Uganda agreed to sign the deal at the summit. If Uganda signs, it will join Kenya and Rwanda who signed on September 1 in Brussels. The summit, which will discuss among others, regional integration, is expected to prioritise the stalemate on the EPA. The conclusion of the deal by October 1 – the ratification deadline set by the European Commission – is being threatened by reluctant member states. “We hope they (Uganda) will sign tomorrow (today),” East African Affairs Principal secretary Betty Maina said yesterday during the launch of the Kenya Economic Report in Nairobi. Though the PS is confident of closing the deal in Dar, she admitted Tanzania could still play hardball, while Burundi’s political instability also remained a challenge. “Tanzania says there are prevailing circumstances making it not to sign. Burundi says it is not prepared to sign at the moment because of its relationship with the EU,” Maina said. She said the issues being raised by the two countries will, however, be addressed at the summit. EAC...

Tanzanian president John Magufuli. PHOTO | AFP  IN SUMMARY That means a country such as Tanzania — which belongs to South African Development Community (SADC) — has to treat EU firms the same way it treats those from its southern Africa neighbours. A cloud of secrecy shrouds proposed free trade pact with Europe even as the region’s presidents gather in Dar es Salaam today to make their final decision. Except for its versions leaked earlier, the details of the final Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) draft that East African negotiators settled for in July has remained a closely guarded secret of a small clique of government officials. Kenya and Rwanda signed the deal in Brussels two weeks ago while Uganda is set to confirm its approval today at the extraordinary summit of East African Community (EAC) heads of state. “The 17th extra-ordinary meeting will be considering the Council of Ministers report on EU-EAC Economic Partnership Agreement,” the EAC secretariat said in a statement. The ministers’ report had recommended collective signing of the EPA to safeguard EU market that accounted for 32 per cent of Kenya’s Sh1.577 trillion exports in 2015 but Tanzania later pulled out of the deal. Today, at the summit chaired by President John Magufuli, President Uhuru Kenyatta will most likely push for Tanzania’s signature after Kenya said its 200 firms and four million jobs are at stake. As the haggling continues, the region’s citizens remain helpless bystanders. A lack of mass participation has relegated public discourse to a...

L-R; Lord Popat, Kouyate, Jassal, and Karera during the panel discussion. (Photos by Timothy Kisambira) MANY A TIME African governments’ representatives and economic experts have convened to deliberate on the continent’s growth potential, intra-Africa trade has been cited as one of the untapped avenues. At the just-concluded The Global African Investment Summit, it was not any different; delegates highlighted the continent’s low capacity to trade with itself as one of the bottlenecks holding it back from competing with other regions. Government officials, business representatives and economic experts insisted that low levels of trade among African countries had seen Africa become less attractive to multinationals and led to slow development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The current levels of trade within the continent have been placed at between 10 and 12 per cent by the various indexes compared to about 40 per cent in North America and around 60 per cent in western Europe. Participants follow proceedings during the meeting in Kigali. All this at a time when Africa has close to 10 trading blocs that have been set up to facilitate trade. Lord Dolar Popat, the UK prime minister’s trade envoy to Rwanda and Uganda, said the greatest hindrances to trade across Africa  was high cost of transport, energy as well as low skills. Lord Popat said beyond the often cited challenges of transport and logistics, most regions across Africa were lacking in terms of the level of skills required  to trade beyond their borders. Another common hindrance observed...

FINANCING entrepreneurial ventures is one of the key issues to feature prominently in the forthcoming maiden East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition in Nairobi, Kenya. EABC Executive Director Ms Lilian Awinja said one year after the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, they realised the need for a critical follow up on the actual tangible impacts of initiatives like “Trade Africa” or “Power Africa”, that have come along with large funds to promote entrepreneurship. “This is why we will have two sessions on the opportunities and experiences to access those funds and on the requirements for other ways of financing,” she said. Slated for October 10 to 13 in Nairobi, the crucial conference is organised by the East African Business Council (EABC) in partnership with the East African Community (EAC) respective national investment agencies. On the session, financial Institutions such Kenya’s KCB Bank will elaborate on the key issues relevant for the financing of entrepreneurial enterprises. EABC chief added: “This is not on big funds and programmes only but also a chance to learn about innovative sources like crowd funding, impact investment and other incubator initiatives”. The conference will also focus on Manufacturing, infrastructure, leather and textiles and energy in parallel sessions, Ms Awinja said. The exhibition expects to pull some 300 participants from the infrastructure-, manufacturingand energy sector, from ICT - and leather and textile industries, as well as from financing institutions. “Important policy makers and top representatives of relevant international organisations have committed themselves to participate,” she said. In...