Kenya no longer faces loss of duty-free access to the United States under Agoa trade benefits in relation to East Africa ban of used clothing or mitumba, US officials have announced. Washington’s top trade agency affirmed, however, that three other East African Community (EAC) member states — Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda — must undergo an assessment of their Agoa eligibility status that could result in their ejection from the preferential trade programme. A review of Kenya’s inclusion in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) “is not warranted at this time,” the Office of the US Trade Representative said in a notice published in a federal government gazette. It cited “recent actions Kenya has taken, including reversing tariff increases, effective July 1, 2017, and committing not to ban imports of used clothing through policy measures that are more trade-restrictive than necessary to protect human health. The agency added that it “will continue to monitor Kenya’s actions to ensure that Kenya follows through on its commitments.” The decision to spare Kenya from a process that would have jeopardised the country’s 66,000 Agoa-related jobs “is, no doubt, a victory for Kenya’s trade diplomacy,” said Abdirizak Musa, an official in Nairobi’s embassy in Washington. Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda still risk loss of their Agoa benefits due to their ongoing commitment to a March 2016 EAC decision to phase in a ban on imports of used clothing and footwear from the US. The EAC countries, including Kenya, were named in a petition filed three...

Pan-African multilateral infrastructural financier Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has admitted Kenya as its 15th member. AFC chief executive Andrew Alli welcomed Kenya’s membership saying it was a critical step to AFC’s strategic positioning to inject funds into infrastructural development in the country. Other members are Rwanda, Uganda, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra-Leone. “By improving Kenya’s infrastructure, AFC is making it a regional hub that promotes intra-regional trade links with better transport, telecommunications networks and power supply,” he said. Mr Alli said AFC will step in to complement ongoing infrastructural developments such as the Standard Gauge Railway thereby helping improve services to Kenyans. AFC through its flagship joint venture with Harith General Partners has interest in Lake Turkana Wind Farm, set to provide Kenya with 300MW of energy upon completion. The Pan-African Development Financier has also invested Sh5 billion ($50 million) in ARM Cement, which enabled ARM to expand its foothold across east and into southern Africa. Mr Alli added that Kenya also enjoyed a Sh2.5 billion loan injection for rehabilitating and expanding the power transmission and distribution networks. “AFC is perfectly placed to help improve the quality of Kenya’s infrastructure making it a regional hub especially after last month’s completion of the SGR project,” said the statement. Projects underway include power generation and distribution as well as last mile connectivity. Source: The Standard

The construction of Phase 1 of the Dongo Kundu bypass is almost complete, with 70 per cent of the work done, Kenya National Highways Authority director general Peter Mundinia has said. The 12km Miritini-Mwache road is expected to be opened by December to reduce the congestion at the Changamwe roundabout, he said. Once operational, Mundinia said, the road will open up the economy of the Coast region. “We will also have a road with three lanes on either side of the road from Changamwe to Mariakani,” he added. Mundinia spoke in Mwache on Tuesday while inspecting the ongoing works. Kenha board chairman Erastus Mwongera justified the heavy investment on the projects, saying for any country to develop, it must invest heavily on infrastructure. He said it is prudent that the government borrows heavily as it has no capacity to do all the projects on its own. “It is essential that we open infrastructure like roads, railways and ports. Since we don’t have [the required money], we must borrow, build the infrastructure, and Kenyans will do business and would be able to service those loans,” Mwongera said. The road is crucial to the opening up of increased business opportunities which will in turn create more jobs and boost the economy. The road connects Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Airports Authority through the Moi International Airport, Kenya Railways and the county governments of Kwale, Mombasa, Taita Taveta and Kilifi. “It will also connect us with our neighbours on the south, Tanzania, and then...

The port of Mombasa handled 11 per cent more cargo in the first quarter of this year, helped by increased efficiency after its handling capacity was expanded, the management said yesterday. Last year Kenya commissioned a second container terminal worth $300 million (about Sh31.08 billion) at the port, which is 900 metres long with three docking berths, and provides an additional cargo-handling capacity of 550,000 TEUs (20-foot-equivalent units) per year. The port handled 7.2 million tonnes of cargo between January and March against 6.5 million in a similar period last year. During the period, imports accounted for six million tonnes against 5.5 million handled in the same 2016 period, an increase of 10 per cent, the Kenya Ports Authority said in a report. It handled 877,778 tonnes in exports, up four per cent on the 845,068 tonnes handled in the same period last year. The Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, the biggest in east Africa and the region's trade gateway, is seen as a measure of economic activity in the region, handling imports of fuel and consumer goods as well as exports of tea and coffee for landlocked neighbours such as Uganda and South Sudan. Kenya holds elections in August. Voters will pick a president, parliament and local authorities on August 8, and investors and consumers are taking a wait-and-see attitude due to concerns of potential violence during the polls. The port's management assured there would be minimum disruption to its operations due to the elections. "We want to assure...

Experts attending the second high-level East African Manufacturing Business Summit and Exhibition (EAMBS) held in Rwanda’s capital city Kigali said Wednesday that innovation is key for the East Africa manufacturing sector to compete globally. “We have to understand that our industries are operating in a global context, in an open globalized market place, and that is not going to change. We have to be innovative and work on our efficiencies. We should be able to produce high quality products that are competitive at international markets,” said Ali Mafuruki, board chair of Trade Mark East Africa. He added that regional economies should strategically position themselves in the global business environment through producing locally made products that are price competitive. Rwanda hosts the forum from May 23 to 25, 2017 dubbed “harnessing the Manufacturing Potential for Sustainable Economic Growth”. The three-day meeting includes an exhibition where investors, enterprises, researchers and academia will collectively showcase new products and services as well as exhibit the latest advances in manufacturing technology and innovation, particularly those with relevance to Small Medium Enterprises. Lilian Awinja, executive director of East African Business Council (EABC), called for innovative strategies that will raise competitiveness levels and expand the region’s manufacturing and export base. “Innovations are now shaping the business environment. We need to add value to products produced in EAC. Our regional industries can now begin to raise manufacturing output and increase its share of global trade and production,” she added. Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary-general of United Nations Conference on Trade...

The one-stop border post connecting Ethiopia and Kenya is near completion and will commence service within the coming two months period, according to the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA). While the construction of the Ethiopian segment is now close to completion at 98 percent, Kenya has already completed construction of its border post. The completion of the Ethiopian part will enable the service provision. The one stop border post, under construction along the border between Ethiopia and Kenya in Moyale area is built together with the Hawassa-Moyale road project in Ethiopia, Samson Wondimu, communication director of the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) told Xinhua on Friday. Part of the Mombassa-Nairobi-Addis Ababa road corridor, the 502 km Hawassa-Moyale road project is a 5.6 billion Ethiopian birr (244 million U.S. dollars) project under construction in 6 phases by Chinese, Indian and Egypt construction companies and expected to be fully operational in a two years period, he said. The one-stop border post together with 100km Mega-Moyale road project is under construction by an Indian construction company, according to Samson. Kenya and Ethiopia have signed a bilateral agreement back in 2011 to develop the joint border point and road that will enhance bilateral trade relations between the two east African neighboring countries. The Mombassa-Nairobi-Addis Ababa road corridor is an important segment of the Trans-African Highway corridor from Cairo to Cape Town. Once completed, the road corridor would help reduce transport and shipping costs of goods between the two neighboring east African countries. It is also expected...

Construction of the Mombasa-Jomvu superhighway is set to kick off after the Sh6.5 billion contract was awarded, Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) Director General Peter Mundinia has said. Third China Engineering Company has been awarded the tender and will construct the 10 kilometre road that will expand the current single-two roadway into a dual carriageway with six lanes in 30 months. Mr Mundinia said the road once complete will ease transportation of cargo from the port of Mombasa to Nairobi and neighbouring countries of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We will also provide non-motorised transport network and adjacent truck parking areas including service lanes to improve accessibility to surrounding business areas and port related activity centres such as Container Freight Stations (CFSs),” said Mr Mundinia. He spoke on Tuesday when members of KeNHA board led by the chairman Erastus Mwongera inspected construction works on Dongo Kundu bypass. The project, which is phase one of turning the 41.6 kilometre Mombasa to Mariakani road into a dual carriageway, is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the government. At the same time, Mr Mundinia said KeNHA was waiting for bids for the construction of phase two and three of the Dongo Kundu bypass. The first phase, the Kipevu 11-kilometre stretch between Mombasa port and Miritini is 70 per cent complete, Mr Mwongera said. Early this month, the KeNHA advertised for the tender for construction of phases two and three of the project after the government secured funds. Phase two...

Kenya’s main port of Mombasa handled 11 percent more cargo in the first quarter of this year, helped by increased efficiency after its handling capacity was expanded, the port’s management said on Wednesday. Last year Kenya commissioned a second container terminal worth $300 million at the port, which is 900 metres long with three docking berths, and provides an additional cargo-handling capacity of 550,000 TEUs (20-foot-equivalent units) per year. The port handled 7.2 million tonnes of cargo between January and March against 6.5 million in a similar period last year. During the period, imports accounted for 6 million tonnes against 5.5 million handled in the same 2016 period, an increase of 10 percent, the Kenya Ports Authority said in a report. It handled 877,778 tonnes in exports, up 4 percent on the 845,068 tonnes handled in the same period last year. The Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, the biggest in east Africa and the region’s trade gateway, is seen as a measure of economic activity in the region, handling imports of fuel and consumer goods as well as exports of tea and coffee for landlocked neighbours such as Uganda and South Sudan. Kenya holds elections in August. Voters will pick a president, parliament and local authorities on Aug. 8, and investors and consumers are taking a wait-and-see attitude due to concerns of potential violence during the polls. The port’s management assured there would be minimum disruption to its operations due to the elections. “We want to assure importers and exporters...

Arusha — The East African Community (EAC) says it will go ahead with its annual secretary-general's forum in Bujumbura, Burundi, which will kick off tomorrow despite a boycott by a regional umbrella body of civil society organisations. Officials of the secretariat said yesterday that preparations for the two-day event were progressing well and were not bothered by threats from the East African Civil Society Organisations Forum (EACSOF). "We are not bothered at all. Officials of the organisation or their partners can attend the meeting or not. It is up to those invited to turn up or not," one of them told The Citizen on the condition of anonymity. EACSOF, an umbrella body of civil society organisations with an observer status to the EAC, said last week that its members would boycott this year's forum in Burundi for security concerns. In a letter sent to the EAC secretary-general Liberat Mfumukeko said they would keep away from the Bujumbura event to protest against alleged human rights abuses against members of CSOs in Burundi, some of who had been forced into exile. EACSOF president Marie Ingabire added that it was also concerned by the security situation in Burundi, where more than 400 people were killed during the 2015/16 political chaos. However, EAC officials insisted that the meeting would be attended by members of non-governmental organisations, professional bodies, universities, representatives from partner states, EAC organs and institutions. One official cautioned that EAC would not like to be drawn into frosty relations between Burundi and...

Kenya is currently reviewing all its bilateral trade agreements it has signed with other countries with a view to enhancing exports, officials said on Tuesday. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Chris Kiptoo told Xinhua in Nairobi that the review follows the approval of the National Trade Policy by the Cabinet early this month. “We hope to complete the review of bilateral trade agreements by the end of the year,” Kiptoo said on the sidelines of a consultative meeting between Kenya and Commercial Attaches representing foreign countries in Kenya. The East Africa nation has so far signed over 35 trade agreement with other nations. “The objective of the exercise is for Kenya to reap maximum benefit from agreements that it has signed,” Kiptoo said. The review will help Kenya to identify those agreements which we can fully implement and those that that have difficulties in implementation. The government official noted that Kenya’s exports have grown slightly or stagnated over the past decade while imports have more than doubled. The PS said that despite Kenya signing a lot of bilateral agreements, Kenya’s exports are not growing as expected. “Unfortunately, imports are growing faster than exports meaning other countries could be benefiting more from Kenya, than Kenya is reaping from the relationships,” he added. The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry has signed over 120 agreements with counterparts of other nations. The ministry of industry has set a target of increasing exports as a percentage of Gross...