Importers will from the first quarter of next year have the option of making customs declarations themselves, saving them fees they pay to clearing agents, the Kenya Revenue Authority has said. The taxman said the ongoing rollout of Integrated Customs Management System (iCMS) will enable importers to declare contents of their cargo online on their own, a development that may open a new battlefront with the agents. The KRA is taking the new turn in an effort to tame revenue leakage tied to undervaluation of imports. Importers are, however, free to continue engaging the services of accredited agents. “The provision of an automated tariff facility effectively empowers any person to make a customs declaration. This feature means that in the not too distant future, Kenyans will be able to make customs declarations without having to depend on clearing agents,” commissioner-general John Njiraini said. The ICMS, which replaces the 12-year old Simba system, has capability to detect and block clearance for consignments whose declarations fall outside the limits of their values which are in-built. The values in the system are based on prices of various goods from various markets around the world. “This feature will substantially address the perennial problem of cargo undervaluation which is a major source of revenue leakage,” the chief taxman said. Importers will also have to confirm the values declared by the agents. “This lapse has occasioned fraud opportunities where importers are duped into paying money in excess of what KRA receives. The new feature will prevent such fraud...

Kenya is selling to Uganda the reduced cost of clearing and moving goods from the Mombasa Port to Uganda, and the standard gauge railway, to revive its bid to extend the line to its neighbour. Uncertainty hit the Kenya-Uganda SGR project after Uganda said it was considering building a railway through Tanzania. In a bilateral meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni at State House, Nairobi, Kenya sold the project as the answers to its neighbour’s transport needs. It is estimated that more than 50 per cent of the cargo handled at the Port of Mombasa is destined for markets like Uganda, with 11.2 million tonnes of cargo moved between the two nations annually. On Tuesday, Mr Kenyatta said that the completion of the second container terminal increased the port’s overall capacity to 1.65 million containers, with its capacity expected to hit 2.7 million containers per year once the three-stage project is complete. “The modernisation programme has resulted in reduced average time to import and export goods through the port of Mombasa — from 11 days to under 3.5 days, and work for even greater efficiency continues,” State House said in a statement on Tuesday. Source: Business Daily

US President Donald Trump’s newly-unveiled National Security Strategy has shifted America’s engagement with Africa away from human rights, good governance, trade and development to one that merely sees the continent as a market for US goods and services. Mr Trump also depicts Africa as a competitive arena in which US interests are pitted against those of China. “Africa contains many of the world’s fastest growing economies, which represent potential new markets for US goods and services,” the Trump plan states in the slightly more than one page it devotes to Africa. “The demand for quality American exports is high and will likely grow as Africa’s population and prosperity increase,” the paper adds. The Trump team’s global strategy outline, which can be viewed as a roadmap for US foreign policy in the coming years, makes only a single reference to human rights in its 55 pages. This was an exceptionally low figure compared to Barack Obama’s mention of human rights 16 times in a 29-page strategy document his administration issued in 2015. Mr Trump’s America-first approach to global trade involves an explicit determination to outpace China, which the president regards as the US’ top economic rival. This worldview comes into focus in the Africa chapter of the national security strategy, which sees China as expanding its economic and military presence in Africa, “growing from a small investor in the continent two decades ago into Africa’s largest trading partner today.” “Some Chinese practices undermine Africa’s long-term development by corrupting elites, dominating extractive...

Business owners can start to ferry cargo through the Standard Guage Railway beginning January 2018, Kenya Railways Corporation has said. Speaking to the Star, Kenya Railways Corporation managing director Atanas Maina said the cargo freight, which has been operating on a trial basis since June, is now ready to be used on a commercial basis. “The cargo freight has been operational since June and has seen the movement of 6,000 containers via 70 trains,” he said. “We are now letting importers and exporters know that SGR is operational for commercial use.” Maina dismissed claims reported in part of media that there was need for construction of a new line to operate the cargo freight sighting that the SGR had been fashioned through loop-lines at each station to allow movement of multiple trains. He added that the SGR has the capacity to handle at least 30 trains per day adding that of these, 13 cargo freight can be moved in a day. Given that one cargo train has a capacity of 130 containers, this means that up to 1,690 containers can be moved per day. This is more than 10 fold what the old meter gauge was able to transport from Mombasa to Nairobi in a day. “The old meter gauge has been doing about 50-100 containers per day meaning the Nairobi Inland Container Depot has been highly underutilised,” Kenya Ports Authority principal corporate communications officer Haji Masemo told the Star. The industrial area based depot, according to Masemo, had been...

NAIROBI – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has replaced India as Kenya’s second-largest source of imports. Initially, the UAE was the top source of imports for Kenya, but it lost the position to India. However, India later relinquished it to China, which remains at the apex. However, trade between India and Kenya has dropped, especially in the third quarter of this year, with the UAE gaining as its rival loses. Official economic data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday that imports to Kenya from the UAE rose considerably to $473 million in the third quarter, from $284 million in the second quarter. On the other hand, imports from India in the third quarter fell to $332 million, from $467 million in the previous quarter. Trade between the two nations mainly involves tea export from Kenya and UAE petroleum products, electronics and clothes sold to Kenya. The rising trade, which is expected to hit over $1 billion at the close of the year, is attributed to improving relations between the two nations, which culminated in the signing in September of a bilateral agreement to boost trade and cooperation. An estimated 40,000 Kenyans live and work in the UAE, especially in the hospitality, aviation, medical, construction, engineering and security sectors. On the other hand, Dubai-based real estate firms have been hunting for buyers in Kenya for their luxurious property consisting of mainly residences. Dubai is also an attractive destination for many Kenyan investors. Source: The New Times

As Rwanda was holding its national dialogue (Umushyikirano) bringing together all its children on one table to chart a new course and address shortcomings, a thousand kilometres away, drama was unfolding that left a major blot on the region’s future. While Umushyikirano was all about consolidating Rwanda’s hard earned unity and strengthening the country’s economic and social gains, in the Tanzanian northern town of Arusha, cracks were again beginning to appear in the unifying bond of the East African Community (EAC). Well, consolidating the East African unity, be it political or economic, has always had its ups and downs, but what happened at the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) this week left a sour taste in the mouth; EAC members are not reading from the same text. The bone of contention was the election of the Speaker of the EALA fourth Assembly, a post that is usually occupied on a rotational basis but through the ballot. Since Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda had occupied the previous three slots, the post was open to the other three members. Theoretically, South Sudan was out of the contest as it was the first time it was participating, so the floor was left between Burundi and Rwanda, to be decided democratically. It is still a mystery why Tanzania decided to join the fray yet it had already exhausted its slot, but that was not the issue; the ultimate decision lay with the Assembly through the ballot. Attempts to scuttle the elections by walking out failed,...

Kenya is banking on the reduced cost of clearing and moving goods from the Mombasa Port to Uganda and the progress of the standard gauge railway project to revive its bid to extend the line to its neighbour. During a bilateral meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni at State House, Nairobi, on Tuesday, Kenya said the speed of clearing goods and the upcoming cargo trains are the answer to Uganda’s transport needs. President Kenyatta said that the completion of the second container terminal increased the port’s overall holding capacity to 1.65 million containers per year, with its capacity expected to hit 2.7 million containers per year once the three-stage project is complete. “The modernisation programme has resulted in reduced average time to import and export goods through the port of Mombasa – from 11 days to under 3.5 days – and work for even greater efficiency continues,” State House said in a statement. CARGO And with the commissioning of the Inland Container Depot at Embakasi, President Kenyatta told his counterpart that more goods would be transported by train. “This will further shorten the time of moving goods from Mombasa to Kenya’s hinterland and neighbouring countries as well as the cost for doing so by a further 30 per cent,” the statement added. Uncertainty hit the joint Kenya-Uganda SGR project after Uganda said it was considering building a railway through Tanzania instead. It is estimated that more than 50 per cent of the cargo handled at...

Egypt can be a front runner in transforming intra-African trade and boosting innovation and industrialization on the African continent, Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the Intra-African Trade Initiative at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), said today. Speaking in Cairo during the opening of a one-day workshop on intra-African trade, organized by Afreximbank, Ms. Awani said that despite current low trade figures, opportunities abounded and there were many areas in which Egypt could expand its trade with the rest of Africa. “With the new significant policy shift toward export promotion, especially within Africa, and capitalizing on regional trade agreements, like COMESA and the upcoming Continental Free Trade Area, an improved and dedicated shipping line from Sokhna Port to Mombasa, quality and competitive Egyptian products and services, Egypt can transform its trade with Africa and become a major trade partner,” she stated. Egypt could expand its export trade in textiles, electricity, utilities and construction services, said Ms. Awani, who added that there were opportunities to boost pharmaceuticals exports to Nigeria, and furniture to Kenya, as well as to import beef from Sudan and fruits and vegetables from East Africa. The Managing Director said that Afreximbank had engaged with Egyptian businesses over the last year in order to address their trade finance needs and to identify the trade facilitation issues they faced as they tried to expand into existing African markets or to enter new ones. She explained that the Bank decided to organise the workshop in order to respond to some of...

The debate about economic growth and economic development in third world countries has been going on for decades and is not about to stop. For instance, policies that work in some countries, but failing in other nations, is one of the issues that arouse debate. In addition, though growth has gained momentum over the last two decades in some developing countries, it cannot be sustainable until it is localised or based on exploitation of local resources. As a result of these and other contradictions, most countries in the southern hemisphere are characterised by low levels of economic growth and development. Several reasons have been cited for low rate of development and growth in these countries, including colonisation, dependency, political instability, neo-liberalisation, and foreign involvement, among others. Many of these are external factors acting as constraints to their development. Some economists consider structural deficiencies and institutional weaknesses as reasons for low levels of economic development in third world economies. They believe that structural deficiencies and institutional weaknesses create conditions that keep developing countries at low levels of development and growth. In sub-Saharan Africa, domination of agriculture sector has led to continued heavy reliance on commodity exports as a major source of foreign exchange earnings, subjecting these countries to fluctuation in prices and weather conditions. Geographical factors were also considered as affecting Africa’s and developing countries’ economic growth. Landlocked countries which are also resource scarce, are some of least growing economies in Africa. Those do not have good bilateral and free trade...

Economists are cautiously optimistic of a better 2018 even as risks to recovery remain a possibility. According to Focus Economics, Kenya’s economic growth is likely to bounce back to 5.3 per cent in 2018 from the estimated 5 per cent this year on the back of a recovery in the agricultural sector and increased investment. The economists, however, note that lingering political tensions and the Government’s interest rate cap policy pose significant downside risks. Control Risks, which maps out potential risks for business, also says regional squabbles, fights between national and county government and pressure of paying maturing debts will be key concerns for businesses. “The year 2018 is set to be a promising one for Kenya and the East Africa region. We have started to see the recovery of investor confidence due to the return of political stability in Kenya, as well as renewed interest in major infrastructure projects both in Kenya and across the region,” said Control Risks’ Senior Partner for East Africa Daniel Heal. “We expect this to continue throughout 2018.” Mr Heal said a pending repayment of the first portion of the Eurobond worth $774.8 million (Sh77.5 billion)in 2018 should be a trigger for the Government to refocus attention on controlling public borrowing and spending. Source: Standard Digital