Investment in Africa is big business and the list of major corporations funding projects across the continent is rapidly growing. From the Chinese construction and engineering firms pushing infrastructural development to the biggest names in technology driving innovation, there’s serious money to be made for everyone involved. Aside from the African partners getting their cut from these lucrative deals, this investment boom is powering rapid development across Africa. the continent is rising fast and the short-term gains can be seen on a daily basis. As the World Economic Forum puts it: “2018 is going to be a good year for sub Saharan Africa’s economies” with a growth forecast of 3.2%, up from 2.4% in 2017. However, rapid development comes with compromises – ones that many are too busy counting the quick cash to see, or perhaps care about. At the 2018 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Chief Executive Officer for Brand South Africa, Kingsley Makhubela, highlighted the long-term issue of Africa becoming overreliant on external trade, rather than focusing on developing intra-African trade: “This is especially dangerous for Africa given its growing integration with the global economy in recent years. In order to mitigate this, Africa must take steps to secure its own share of global economic growth.” The threat is very real, too. Developed nations are enjoying the African boom, making the most of the continent’s investment opportunities, trade dependencies, innovations and loan interest payments – not to mention the natural resources and professional talent that escapes along the way. The problem is there are gaping holes in this...

Kenya and South Africa, the undisputed economic powerhouses of East and Southern Africa, respectively, are the hubs of trade, investment and financial services in their regions. While Kenya is the largest and most dynamic economy in the East African Community (EAC), South Africa is the engine of the South African Development Community (SADC). This context underpins the importance of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent visit to South Africa. Even though the visit was more focused on cooperation between the respective ruling parties — Kenya’s Jubilee and South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) — President Kenyatta and his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma had an opportunity to discuss how to strengthen bilateral relations. DEVELOPMENT Vice-President Cyril Ramaphosa, the new ANC leader, was the pointman for party affairs but his likelihood of succeeding President Zuma makes him a key figure in future development cooperation. Among the strategic opportunities emerging from the visit was talk of manufacturing, one of President Kenyatta’s “Big 4” pillars of economic development. Both countries rely on manufacturing to expand capacity for economic growth and reduce their frighteningly rising youth unemployment problem. South Africa, the second-largest and -most industrialised economy in Africa, after Nigeria, has been more successful than Kenya in developing a vibrant manufacturing sector. Its massive economy, with an output of $295 billion by the latest World Bank statistics, is substantially driven by manufacturing — which contributes over 30 per cent to gross domestic product. Kenya’s contributes just over 10 per cent to a GDP of $78 billion...

Truck drivers transporting heavy loads along the Northern Corridor want other motorists to adhere to traffic rules governing moving of such special cargo to reduce accidents. They are also demanding better pay for challenges of navigation and routing. Drivers of smaller cars are notorious for overlapping, sometimes blocking them, the truckers said. “These motorists don’t have courtesy because they can see the load is wide but they get into the way of the escort vehicles, forcing us to stop,” said John Njoroge, who has been on the road since December 13. He is transporting a beer tank from Mombasa to Mbarara, Uganda which was offloaded at the port on October 19 last year but could not leave Mombasa due to political uncertainty. Mr Ngugi had stopped in Eldoret and expects to arrive at Mbarara in mid February. Heavy Commercial Vehicles Union secretary John Muite said the drivers go through many hardships. “Transporters and importers of such cargo should agree on how better to remunerate our drivers,” Mr Muite said.  Because they avoid barriers like billboards and overpasses and underpasses, the journey is longer. Between Mombasa and Nairobi, they cover 650km instead of the normal 500km. Source:Business Daily

The Kenya Maritime Authority and the ports manager KPA have joined hands to ensure exporters comply with container weight limit to secure the Mombasa port from blacklisting under the new international standards. The maritime authority has approved 67 firms to weigh containers and so far licensed 20. The International Maritime Organisation amended the Safety of Life at Sea (Solas) chapter on cargo information that came into force on July 1 2016 requiring exporters to adhere to weight limit for containers. KMA acting director general Cosmas Cherop said so far the regulator has licensed 20 firms to weigh containers. Misdeclared cargo weights within the supply chain damaged port terminals, railways, and roads due to excessive weight and uneven weight distribution on ships which may lead to damage of the ship. The IMO regulations place the responsibility of providing the verified gross mass of a container on the shipper. The shipper may outsource the weighing and packing of containers. The maximum weight limit was adopted after accidents relating to overweight containers, resulting to poor balancing of the vessels which may lead to a vessel “listing”, a shipping term meaning leaning. Listing may result in financial loss and environmental disaster. The KMA has so far approved 67 firms to provide the services, most them manufacturers. At least 14 of them are third party operators who weigh the containers and certify that they are of required weight. Some of the firms listed as third party providers of the service include SGS Kenya, Bureau Veristas...

Several businesses in the East African Community region stand a chance to win awards at the inaugural East African Business Council (EABC), inaugural Business Excellence Awards. EABC is an apex body of business associations of the private sector and corporates from the six East African Community partner states. The awards were organised as part of events marking its 20th anniversary. November 2017 marked 20 years since the establishment of the EABC and its Secretariat has outlined a number of activities and events. According to the EABC Executive Director, Lilian Awinja, the awards are aimed at showcasing and celebrating businesses that have achieved excellence in various aspects of their operations across East Africa, keeping with the spirit of the EAC integration. She said: “The business sector is a driving force in East Africa’s economy through the creation of jobs and opportunities that enable citizens to earn a living and thrive as well as being a major player in the integration process.” “The idea to host these awards was thus born out of the need for a platform upon which the Council will honour businesses that have achieved success through their vision, operations and business ethics.” Award categories The inaugural EABC Business Excellence Awards will be organised across three categories, the first will recognize one company as Overall East African Regional Company. The second category will recognise business that excelled in cross cutting categories, namely manufacturing, services, SME, woman owned enterprises, green economy, innovation and corporate social responsibility. The third category will...

... as a 10bn/- project for two bus terminals in Arusha is on the drawing board as part of a drive to add a notch to Arusha as the seat of the East African Community (EAC), its civic leadership is in the process of establishing two large bus terminals here, which will link all six member states of the regional bloc by a road network. The project cost is estimated at around 10 billion/- . The Arusha City Director, Mr Athumani Kihamia has revealed that locations for the proposed terminals had been earmarked, Moshono being the envisaged host of the larger one, to cater for buses traveling between Arusha, Nairobi and Mombasa (Kenya) as well as Kampala (Uganda), plus linking the region with Dar-essalaam, Tanga and Morogoro. The second one will be constructed in Olasiti Ward and become the main station for passenger vehicles traveling between Arusha and Kigali (Rwanda), Bujumbura (Burundi) via the Great North Road which connects Cape Town (South Africa) to Cairo (Egypt). The station will also serve routes linking the northern zone with the lake zone regions (Mwanza, Shinyanga, Simiyu and Kigoma) as well as Manyara, Dodoma, Singida, Tabora and Iringa as well as southern highlands regions. "We have written to the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government (TAMISEMI) seeking permission for applying for loans in the range of 10 billion/- from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to fund the proposed projects," said Mr Kihamia, adding that the works at Moshono would commence in March....

The world’s largest container shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk is teaming up with IBM to create an industry-wide trading platform it says can speed up trade and save billions of dollars. The global shipping industry has seen little innovation since the container was invented in the 1950s, and cross-border trade still leaves an enormous trail of paperwork and bureaucracy. Success of the platform, which will be made available to the ocean shipping industry around mid-2018, depends on whether Maersk and IBM can convince shippers, freight forwarders, ocean carriers, ports and customs authorities to sign up. Blockchain technology powers the digital currency bitcoin and enables data sharing across a network of individual computers. It will help manage and track tens of millions of shipping containers globally by digitizing the supply chain process from end to end, the companies said. “The big thing that is missing from this industry to digitize and unleash the potential of the technology is really to create a form of utility that brings standards across the entire ecosystem,” Maersk’s Chief Commercial Officer Vincent Clerc said in an interview. A shipment of refrigerated goods from East Africa to Europe can go through nearly 30 people and organizations and involve more than 200 different communications, according to Maersk. Documentation and bureaucracy can be as much as a fifth of the total cost of moving a container. “There is a strong push from the end-customer to see this change. We may meet initial resistance form one part of the ecosystem,” Clerc...

1.Kenya-Tanzania Highway Construction work on the US $751.3m Kenya-Tanzania Highway is set to begin in 2018. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is currently looking for financial partners capable of investing US $385.2m towards the construction of the highway connecting Kenya and Tanzania. The 445km Malindi-Bagamoyo highway begins from Malindi and moves through to Mombasa and Lunga Lunga on the Kenyan side. the highway will then cross into Tanga, Tanzania through Pangani and Saadani to Bagamoyo. 2.Lamu-Isiolo Road Construction of the 537-kilometre Lamu-Garissa-Isiolo is one of the biggest construction projects in Kenya road will start in June2018 and be completed in 2022.The project will cost Sh62 billion. The loan to fund the road construction has a repayment period of 13 years. The project, which is part of the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor, will be financed by a consortium of international investors led by the Development Bank of South Africa. 3.Ngong road dualling The Ngong road dualling is Sh3 billion project. The tender is set to be awarded anytime from now. The contract will be awarded to the lowest bidder. Expansion work for the 3.4-kilometre road is expected to start in March and run for two years. Japanese firm World Kaihatsu Kogyo upgraded the stretch between Kenya National Library and Prestige Plaza to a dual carriageway, the first phase of the road expansion plan. 4.Mombasa port expansion ( Phase 2) The project involves construction of the second phase of the second container terminal at the Mombasa port. The work was...

Kenya wants to use the East African Legislative Assembly to push for free movement of skilled labour and integration in the region. Nine representatives at the EALA’s Fourth Parliament are currently on a four-day retreat in Naivasha to iron out Kenya’s top agenda ahead of sittings resumption next Monday. MPs Simon Mbugua, Kennedy Kalonzo, Oburu Oginga, Wanjiku Muhia, Mpuru Aburi, Fatuma Ibrahim, Abdikadir Aden, Aden Noor and Florence Jematiah are attending the orientation retreat, which started on Sunday. Speaking to the Star yesterday, Mbugua, the chairman of the Kenyan chapter at the EALA, said President Uhuru Kenyatta’s agenda will be pushed through liberalisation of free movement of skilled labour. “Uhuru has set the pace for other Presidents in the East African Community,” he said. Customs Union Mbugua said they will also push for the consolidation of the East African Community Customs Union with the aim of expanding the list of goods under the Single Customs Territory to cover all imports and intra-EAC traded goods. He said Kenya wants the implementation of the common market and enhanced efficiency in utilisation of natural resources. “We want improvement of agricultural productivity, value addition and facilitation of movement of agricultural goods to enhance food security in the region. This fear that Kenya stands to benefit more if the region is opened up should be cast away completely,” Mbugua said. “Once the House resumes next week, we will check if there are pending Bills from the Third Parliament and ensure there is smooth continuity.” During...

The construction sector’s contribution to GDP hit an all-time high in the third quarter of 2017, buoyed by a raft of mega infrastructure and housing projects and defying a slump in the performance of the overall economy. Output from the sector in the July-September window was Sh99 billion — the highest ever, data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows. This was despite the fact that the country’s economy grew by 4.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2017, the slowest quarterly growth in five years, as prolonged electoral politics and drought took its toll on key segments of the economy. The July-September performance fell far below the impressive 5.6 per cent growth recorded in a similar period in 2016, data released by the KNBS shows. Most sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, health, accommodation, mining and education posted slower growth for the third quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter last year. The financial and insurance sector, for instance, recorded the biggest drop from 7.1 per cent in third quarter of 2016 to 2.4 per cent this year; while accommodation and food service slowed considerably from 13.5 per cent to 7.3 per cent over the period. Agriculture, which accounts for a quarter of the national GDP, also recorded slower July-September growth of 3.1 per cent compared to 3.8 per cent in the same period last year while manufacturing slowed over the period from 4.4 per cent to 2.1 per cent. The construction sector, however, recorded good performance...