When you are in our business, you spend a lot of time talking to people who have some fascinating insights on public affairs to give you, and also those who are checking out the truth of rumours and conspiracy theories. Sometimes they pay for the coffee, sometimes you pay. Now, when President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned a Sh30 billion container terminal at Mombasa Port a few days ago, he said; “Kenya itself discovered oil in Turkana and intends to export its first shipment in June 2017,” and that his government was in the process of improving oil-handling capacity at the port of Mombasa. President Kenyatta said the Kipevu oil terminal in Mombasa county would be moved to a more suitable location to allow expansion. Then the clincher. He said the new terminal and the “expansion of the pipeline capacity between Mombasa and Eldoret will enhance efficiency in the oil sector and reduce costs, both locally and in the region”, or words to that effect. On the face of it, the idea is to truck crude from the fields in Turkana and then by train from Eldoret to Mombasa, a distance of 1,089 kilometres. Critics have said it does not make economic sense. So recently I had coffee with people who know more about these things than the rest of us civilians. Remember early in the year, Kenya lost the bid for the Uganda pipeline to Tanzania, a development that left some people who look after the country’s long-term regional interests miffed....

East African heads of state met the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, on Thursday, September 8, to discuss the ratification of the European Partnership Agreement (EPA). Tanzanian president John Magufuli (pictured above), who is also chair of the bloc demanded more time to assess the impact of the agreements before the actual signing takes place. The day-long meeting concentrated on Tanzania's reluctance in signing the trade deal with the EU. The "Daily News" of Tanzania has quoted Magufuli as saying: "There are a number of questions to be looked upon, why are we signing the agreement while the EU has imposed sanctions on Burundi? Why are we signing while UK has pulled out of the EU?" According to Honnest Prosper Ngowi, an economics lecturer at Mzumbe University in Tanzania, the country needs investment in areas of roads, water and power for it to compete in European markets. "I think, what Tanzania has done means that it wants to assess the situation so that it does not lose out once it joins," he said. South Sudan is the newest member of the East African bloc Kenya would pay more taxes Out of the six EAC countries, Kenya stands to lose the most if the deal is not signed. Other member states, like Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, would still be elligible for duty and quota-free access under EU's Everything But Arms initiative for teh world's "Least Developed Countries". Kenya does not fall under this category. "If the EPA is not signed and...

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...

Kenya will be hosting to over 60 international companies in September  at a Four -day International Trade fair that will showcase chemical products from various sectors such as plastics, packaging, paper, printing  coating,  pharmaceutical & cosmetics bottling equipment, Agrochemicals and fertilizers. Manufacturers and distributors, as well as business people from Kenya and East Africa region will converge at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (K.I.C.C) from 27th -30thSeptember 2016. Dubbed Kenya Chemex, the trade fair provides the biggest investment opportunities in the East African region. Among the local participants include; the Ministry of Industry& Enterprise Development Government agencies- KENINVEST, KNCCI- county Chapters, business federations and Private sector Associations such as  Kenya Publishers Association, Micro and Small Enterprise Federation, KNCCI, as well as the  foreign Diplomatic Missions in Kenya; Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia,  Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Egypt among others. Combined, the event will see over 5,000 trade partners explore investment opportunities at a time when trade and tourism has opened up doors for international trade and also at a time when Kenya is seen as a trade hub by international investors. The Event will bring together potential international investors with great interest in investing, trading and doing business in the region to participate as exhibitors and key resource persons during the trade fair. The 5th Edition was held in December 2015, Nairobi with resounding success and the chemical industries’ sectors in Kenya, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Uganda are set to benefit from the four -day international trade fair. The Trade Fair is organized...

Ever Delight cargo ship docks at the Port of Mombasa on August 15 /JOHN CHESOLI A slowdown in imports from the US and India caused Kenya’s trade volumes to fall by 3.29 per cent in the first half of the year, narrowing the country’s account deficit. Total half-year trade volume, comprising both imports and exports, stood at Sh988.86 billion as at end June, from Sh1.02 trillion recorded in the first half of last year, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The deficit has fallen against the backdrop of improving tea and horticulture exports – Kenya’s main foreign exchange earners – and increasing remittances from Kenyans living abroad, coupled with a strong shilling. During the period, the balance of trade (the difference between the imports and exports), dropped to Sh390.83 billion from Sh492.81 billion. The value of imports from the US fell by more than half, from Sh51.77 billion in June 2015 to Sh25.54 billion, while the import value from India dropped by 11.7 per cent, from Sh129.60 billion to Sh114.33 billion. Imports from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Japan, Germany and Netherlands also fell in the January to June period. However, Chinese imports, which make the bulk of goods bought overseas, grew by 0.6 per cent, to Sh150.26 billion from Sh149.84 billion. Imports from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia also grew by 2.71 and 13.61 per cent respectively.The total import bill fell 8.9 per cent, from Sh757.7 billion to Sh689.85 billion. Exports increased by 12 per...