Trade ministers from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) member states will on Thursday meet in Mombasa to discuss how to improve cross border trade. The ministers are expected to consider the adoption of a regional policy framework to solve cross-border security challenges. The meeting will be held at the Serena Beach Resort & Spa. It will be presided over by Kenya’s Industry, Trade and Cooperatives minister Adan Mohamed, Igad Executive Secretary Mahboub Maalim and senior representatives from the African Union Commission. The Igad members are Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Djibouti, Uganda, Somalia and Eritrea. Formed in 1986 initially to tackle effects of drought, the bloc grew both in size and mandate to be a forum for discussing other development issues such as cross-border trade, energy, transportation and migration. Source: The East African

Many East Africans are largely ignorant of the East African Community (EAC) programmes and opportunities. The EAC secretary general, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, admitted on Saturday that the six-nation bloc has not done enough to make people aware of its affairs. This calls for an aggressive approach to raise awareness if East Africans are to effectively tap into the opportunities it offers. There is so much to benefit from regional integration, but little is being done to prepare citizens. Poor feedback from the EA Legislative Assembly (Eala) members is seemingly the cause of the unawareness. The EAC has registered increased intra-regional trade – and we believe we can do better. Eala members should not relax; they have an obligation to raise awareness and enable the public to harness the integration opportunities. With a population of 170 million, the EAC has a huge potential for growth considering its abundance of resources and trade opportunities. It is high time our legislators acted proactively to inform the public on EAC activities. By the time $450 million infrastructure projects are completed, it is our expectation that majority of the East Africans will be involved in various intra-regional economic activities. Source: The Citizen

Kigali. Technology promotion and development can accelerate economic growth in East Africa if appropriately applied. Major beneficiaries will include the industrial and entrepreneurship sectors and assure employment to thousands of jobless youth. “Application of science, technology and innovation (STI) will also support other key sectors like agriculture and energy,” affirmed Dr Saidi Kibeya, the deputy executive secretary of the East African Science and Technology Commission (Easteco). He told visiting journalists from across the region that the institution, operationalised only three years ago, was geared to carry on its mandate with support from the partner states. “In so doing we are set to identify potential regional centres of excellence and create a network of industrial research and development institutions,” he said. The Kigali-based institution of the East African Community (EAC) will soon start to develop a protocol on intellectual property rights (IPR) for the region. Dr Kibeya, however, appealed for increased budget to enable the institution acquired adequate office space to cater for its expanding needs as well as enable it recruit more staff members. For the coming 2018/2019 financial year budget unveiled recently, Easteco has been allocated $ 1.6 million for its expenditure, trailing seven of the nine other EAC institutions. Speaking during the visit, EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko said STI can transform the largely agro-based economies of the region into a competitive industrial zone. He said it was worrying that the region was consuming goods that were manufactured elsewhere “and by so doing exporting jobs that would ordinarily...

Traders trucked in 3.28 million bags of cheaper maize from Uganda in five months through May, fresh official statistics indicate, helping price out maize farmers from Kenya’s food basket regions. Data released by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) shows 295,200 metric tonnes of staple maize was imported from the west-neighbouring country in the period, which was 47,610 tonnes more than what was bought in the whole of 2017 and 2016. Uganda accounted for 70.36 per cent of the nearly 419,548 tonnes of maize, an equivalent of about 4.66 million 90-kilo bags, which was was shipped into Kenya in that period. The rest of the maize was bought from Zambia (64,800 tonnes), Tanzania (56,245 tonnes), Mozambique (3,300 tonnes) and United Arabs Emirates (1.45 tonnes), KRA Commissioner for Customs and Border Control Julius Musyoki said in a report to legislators. There was no maize that was shipped in from Mexico where 584,095 tonnes (6.49 million bags) was bought last year, representing nearly half (44.36 per cent) of the 1.32 million tonnes that was imported to bridge a drought-induced shortage. The maize imports in the January-May period of the year were valued at nearly Ksh8.78 billion, Mr Musyoki told the National Assembly’s departmental committee on Agriculture and Livestock, chaired by chaired by Mandera South MP Adan Haji. The committee is investigating irregular purchase of maize by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) from traders at the expense of farmers. Maize from six-nation East African Community such as Uganda and Tanzania is exempted...

GENEVA – According to an old African proverb, “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” The same is true for full-blown trade wars: when major economies clash, developing countries will be among the hardest hit. On June 1, the US administration imposed import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum. The levies will affect not just China, but also Canada, Mexico, and the countries of the European Union. As Cecilia Malmström, the EU Commissioner for Trade, observed at a recent event held by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), “We are not in a trade war, but we could be.” It is a situation that should concern everyone. We know from history that nobody “wins” in a trade war. Tariff hikes by major trading countries represent a reversal of efforts since the end of World War II to eliminate trade barriers and facilitate global commerce. Since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade took effect in 1947, the average value of tariffs in force around the world has declined by 85%. That is no coincidence; rather, it is the result of multilateral cooperation, and eight rounds of global trade negotiations, first under the GATT, and then under its successor, the World Trade Organization. Tariff reductions, together with technological advances, drove the extraordinary expansion of global trade that we have witnessed just in our lifetimes. In 1960, trade as share of world GDP stood at 24%; today it is nearly 60%. The expansion of...

President Uhuru Kenyatta opened the first section of the Dongo Kundu bypass constructed at a cost of Sh11 billion, which will ease the perennial traffic congestion at Kenya’s second largest city of Mombasa. The 10 kilometre bypass runs from the Second Container Terminal of the Mombasa Port and joins the Mombasa – Nairobi Highway at Bonje near Mazeras. The only available connection to the southern part of the Kenya’s coast was using the Likoni Ferry along the Kilindini harbour that is plagued by traffic congestion. “This road we are commissioning today is a unique piece of infrastructure. It is designed with provisions to integrate seamlessly with the Port of Mombasa, the Moi International Airport, the Standard Gauge Railway, the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway, and the upcoming Mombasa Northern Bypass,” said the President at Bonje where the launch ceremony was held. The bypass is part of a grand plan by the Kenyan government to open up Kenya’s coast with several key infrastructural investments. These include the expansion of Port of Mombasa and its link roads, the development of Standard Gauge Railway both for cargo as well as passenger terminal as well as the development of the northern bypass which links the Mombasa- Nairobi road with the north coast at Kilifi. These are major connections to the Lamu Port under construction as well as to Tanzania border in Lungalunga, a major trade and commerce border port. The bypass is designed to ease the huge traffic snarl-ups that have always affected movement of people and evacuation of...

"The best is the enemy of the good" is an expression associated with Voltaire. It just might have critical relevance for the relation between the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), the Common Markert for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa)-the East African Community(EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the regional economic communities (RECs) in Africa. But on June 8, 2018, Kenya deposited with Comesa Secretariat in Lusaka, the instrument of ratification of the TFTA, having ratified ACFTA as well and deposited the instrument with the African Union Commission. Both South Africa and Uganda were also taking the same approach of ratifying both. Just a year ago, it all looked impossible to many around the world that Africa could have a Continental Free Trade Area. But for some, this was de javu, for it was the same trepidation in 2015 just before the TFTA was launched on 10 June in Egypt. The TFTA was an African revelation, for it demonstrated the palpable possibility of and spurred strategists towards a continental equivalent. Having missed the deadline of December 2017, ACFTA was duly launched a mere three months later on March 21, 2018 in Kigali, with 44 out of the 55 African countries signing the Agreement on the spot. World history was made, despite entrenched skepticism rooted in pessimistic narratives about Africa but delighting and vindicating optimists around the world. There was some pending work though. Precise time frames were duly set. Annexes (with detailed...

The Kenya Ports Authority has recorded huge improvement in cargo clearance and ship performance in just a few days since the new management took office. On Monday, the parastatal announced it had reduced the number of containers sitting at the port from an all time high of 22,500 to about 10,000. New MD Daniel Manduku attributed the improvement to efficiency measures, including seamless connection of operations between discharge and eventual delivery to location. "We are committed to ensure that the numbers go much lower while maintaining good business practice. Those discharging from the cranes, those transporting from the terminal, those evacuating out of the port, and those doing documentation, all work in harmony," he told the Star. Manduku said anyone implicated in graft will be summarily dismissed and prosecuted. He said no contraband will be allowed to pass through the port whose management is working with other agencies to enforce the law. Manduku said that the chain process must be efficient because a small break in the link is normally passed on to eventual clogging of the port. At the same time, he revealed that a new record ship performance has been registered at the Port of Mombasa, two years after the last one was set in 2015. Container carrier Ms Kota Lambai, docked at berth No.17 and recorded 82 gross moves per hour, handling a total of 4,367 Twenty-toot Equivalent Units (TEUs). The vessel recorded her first sling on Saturday at 8.20am and sailed on Sunday morning after registering...

Kampala. East African currencies, including the Ugandan and Tanzanian shillings as well as the Rwanda franc have taken a beating as they continue to weaken against the dollar. The Ugandan shilling has edged downwards by 3.6 per cent against the dollar since January while the Tanzanian shilling has edged by 1.8 per cent. The Rwanda franc has been a bit resistant only weakening by 0.9 per cent. The Uganda shilling has been the worst hit closing last Thursday at Shs3,824 against the dollar, according to Bank of Uganda. The weakening trends present a tricky situation for the region, which has been recovering from a difficult period characterised by a rapid increase in imports, relatively violent elections and slowed economic growth. This has not been helped by stagnated or reduced growth in the export sector. The Uganda shilling, according to Mr Stephen Kaboyo, the Alpha Capital managing partner, has been undermined by surging dollar demand amid low forex inflows. “Bank of Uganda’s intervention [last week] provided a short period of relief,” he said, highlighting the likelihood of continued weakening of the Uganda shilling in the weeks ahead. “Outlook indicates sustained weakening in the coming days on account of intense demand from importers and commercial banks,” he said. The Central Bank, Mr Kaboyo said, had last week only sold Shs101b worth of dollars against the targeted Shs180b after the unit lost almost Shs50 of its value in just three days. Earlier, Bank of Uganda had said it would not intervene in the...

Transport and trade in and around the port city of Mombasa received a major boost with the opening of the first phase of the Sh11 billion Dongo Kundu bypass. The bypass will ease transport of cargo by road from the port of Mombasa and boost business between Kenya and Tanzania. Residents, too, will have an alternative to the congested Likoni channel once phases two and three of the project are complete. “There is also the Dongo Kundu special economic zone whose construction will move faster because of the completion of the road. When the zone is complete our youth will secure employment,” said the president, who was flanked by his deputy William Ruto and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho. President Uhuru Kenyatta said the road will open up the economy of Mombasa and the entire country. He said the 10 kilometre Miritini-Mwache-Kipevu link road or phase one of the Dongo Kungu bypass was part of the thousands of kilometres of roads his government was doing. Related Content Sh11bn ocean bypass ready for use MAJOR DEVELOPMENT “There are those who said that some roads like the Mariakani- Bamba road will not be a reality but they can now see that movement has been smooth on that road and no passenger or motorist is delayed,” he said. The major infrastructure development by Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) has transformed Mombasa, easing traffic and movement of people and goods. Mombasa is Kenya’s main international gateway by sea and therefore crucial to its economy. The...