By Aggrey Mutambo The East African Community could soon admit South Sudan into its fold despite reports of war crimes and violence in the world's youngest country. The five heads of state and government of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda will on Wednesday next week deliberate on formally admitting South Sudan into the regional bloc. A statement from EAC headquarters in Arusha said the leaders would decide "on the negotiations on the admission of South Sudan into the community" among other issues. Juba's step towards joining the EAC now depends on whether the leaders would endorse a report by the council of ministers, which has recommended the country's admission though citing certain areas that member states may have to assist. If it happens, it would be a sweet end to a five-year wait for Juba and a potentially expanded market for traders in the region. CONTRADICTION But it could also contradict one of the tenets under which EAC was established. According to the treaty establishing the EAC, new members are admitted if they respect the principles of democracy, rule of law, accountability, transparency and social justice. The treaty also says the countries must, besides being geographically near any of the existing members, practise "equal opportunities, gender equality as well as the recognise, promote and protect rights in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights." South Sudan applied to join the EAC soon after it gained independence in July 2011. That year, the community...

A RECENT report, the first of its kind, by the African Development Bank titled Africa Visa Openness Report 2016, confirmed that Africa largely remains closed, with Africans still needing visas to travel to over half of the continent. According to the report, Africans need visas to travel to 55% of other African countries, while Africans can get visas on arrival in 25% of other African countries and do not need a visa to travel to 20% of other African countries. These headlines go against the continent’s goal of truly becoming “one Africa”. Tourism minister Walter Mzembi has long argued for the removal of entry visa requirements in Zimbabwe. Having an open visa policy does not require large resources or complex systems. Countries such as Seychelles, Mauritius and Rwanda have seen a big impact on tourism, investment and financial services as a result of opening up their economies. If Zimbabwe is to achieve its goal of generating US$5 billion from tourism, then it almost certainly needs to review its visa regime. According to the report, African countries are on average more closed off to each other than open, making travel within the continent difficult. Global comparisons show that North Americans have easier travel access to the continent than Africans themselves. North Americans require a visa to travel to 45% of African countries, can get visas on arrival in 35% of African countries and do not need a visa in 20% of African countries. Some key findings of the report: Only 13...

IN SUMMARY The business lobby had petitioned the EAC heads of state not to assent to the Bill until the clause on dispute resolution was amended. Tanzania has disregarded calls by the East African Business Council and assented to the EAC Non-Tariff Barriers Bill. The business lobby had petitioned the EAC heads of state not to assent to the Bill until the clause on dispute resolution was amended. The business community in the region is concerned that the Bill gives powers to the governments to identify NTBs and at the same time resolve them. “This clause has to be changed; the private sector should be given the mandate of identifying NTBs and pushing governments to resolve them,” said an EABC official. “NTBs are usually imposed by government bodies and thus it makes no sense for the same governments to resolve them,” the official told The EastAfrican. The East African Community Elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers Act 2015, passed recently by the East African Legislative Assembly is to be enacted into law in March after being assented to by the presidents ahead of the EAC heads of state summit scheduled for March 2. Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has already assented to the law and it has been taken to Kenya for assent before being passed on to Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Once enacted, the NTB law is expected to eliminate non-tariff barriers to trade among the EAC partner states by compelling them to eliminate the numerous NTBs that hinder smooth movement of...

By Joe Ombuor The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is right on course. This is attested to by the intensity of the work going on along the 472km corridor between Mombasa and Nairobi. Heavy machinery characterise the scenes along the route where major works, including building bridges, elevating the gradient with earth and concrete to desired levels and drilling rocky surfaces, are ongoing. Concrete patterns that can be easily confused for decorations are done to prevent erosion on the raised embankments. Blasts from explosives are common occurrences to build a uniform platform devoid of curves and slopes that are not ideal for speeds of up 120km per hour for passenger trains and 80km per hour for the freight ones, the experts explained. Civil works, said to be 60 per cent complete, include the replacement of unsuitable black cotton soil in the path of the railway with red soil, which is preferred for its compactness. The soil is fortified with murram, as we found in the stretch between Sultan Hamud and Emali, where earth movers are being used to remove black cotton soil as lorries bring in the red soil and murram. A foreman on the ground, Mr Ibrahim Malike, explained that clay soil stretches while the red one is compact. See also: Uhuru’s meeting with other heads of state paying off Low pay There are approximately 32,000 casual workers who earn between Sh57 and Sh96 per hour for a minimum of eight hours. It is estimated the Nairobi-Mombasa stretch will have...

Proving Africa will reap from trading with itself, vacationers from Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and Ethiopia have shored up Kenya's tourism LAST year, to much fanfare, 26 African nations signed off on a free-trade ‘super bloc’ that seeks to improve the absurdly low levels of intra-regional trade on the continent, at the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. In the same city at the Africa 2016 Forum last weekend, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina painted a picture of just how insufficient trade with other African countries is. African trade represents just 2% of the global total, and intra-African trade makes up 12% of the continent’s activity, compared to 60% in Europe and 35% in Asia. “This is not acceptable,” Adesina said.  He added that AfDB will continue to invest heavily in regional infrastructure, especially rail, transnational highways, power interconnections, ICT, air and maritime transport, reducing the bottlenecks that cost the region billions in inefficiencies and lost opportunities. While tariffs on the continent are high—according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) an African company making sales on the continent would pay more than three times the 2.5% average tariff rate elsewhere - non-tariff barriers tend to wreak more damage than levies. Despite an abundance of trade blocs on the continent—17 at the moment—their poor internal workings has led potential benefits such as comparative advantage trading to be erased by red-tape heavy protectionist approaches. African countries have also kept the same export-geared infrastructure, leaving the continent vulnerable to global market shifts. Trade in...

Africa’s internal trade deals look good on paper. A pity that they are rarely followed TWO of the largest regional trade accords in history were agreed on last year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership involves 12 countries in Asia and the Americas, and was the subject of headlines and heated debate. But most people have never heard of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), which covers 26 African countries. It will create the biggest free-trade area on the continent, “from Cairo to the Cape”, as its supporters boast. Many in the developing world see global trade as rigged in favour of rich countries. But African regional integration is all the rage. The continent features 17 trade blocs. The TFTA aims to join up three of them: the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). At a conference on African business on February 20th-21st in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, several leaders called for a united African market. An abundance of borders has long divided the continent’s 54 countries, limiting economies of scale. Fixing common problems such as a shortage of roads takes teamwork—and in turn should lead to more integration. Average transport costs in Africa are twice the world average and are thought to harm trade on the continent more than tariffs and other barriers. A shame, then, that regional economic deals are often poorly implemented. An African firm selling goods on the continent still faces an average...

TWO OF the largest regional trade accords in history were agreed last year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership involves 12 countries in Asia and the Americas, and was the subject of headlines and heated debate. But most people have never heard of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), which covers 26 African countries. It will create the biggest free-trade area on the continent, “from Cairo to the Cape”, as its supporters boast. Many in the developing world see trade as rigged in favour of rich countries. But African regional integration is all the rage. The continent features 17 trade blocs. The TFTA aims to join up three of them: the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). At a conference on African business on February 20th-21st in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, several leaders called for a united African market. An abundance of borders has long separated the continent’s 54 countries, limiting economies of scale. Fixing common problems such as a shortage of roads takes teamwork—and in turn should lead to more integration. Average transport costs in Africa are twice the world average and are thought to harm trade on the continent more than tariffs and other barriers. A shame, then, that regional economic deals are often poorly implemented. An African firm selling goods on the continent still faces an average protection rate of 8.7%, compared to 2.5% overseas, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development...

By ALLAN ODHIAMBO IN SUMMARY: DRC committed to phased tariff reduction scheme, starting with an instant tariff reduction of 40 per cent which would be followed by two equal cuts of 30 per cent. The flow of goods on the Mombasa-Malaba corridor is set to ease further after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) joined the Comesa free trade area (FTA), signalling intention to eliminate time-consuming customs procedures. Comesa secretary-general Sindiso Ngwenya said the DRC was committed to a phased tariff reduction scheme, starting with an instant tariff reduction of 40 per cent which would be followed by two equal cuts of 30 per cent. Kenyan traders rely on the Mombasa-Malaba road (Northern Corridor) to move produce to their key markets in the region. Landlocked states such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and South Sudan also rely on the highway to receive import orders via Mombasa Port. Kenya has previously reduced administrative barriers on the Northern Corridor in part of efforts to speed up cargo flow to landlocked markets. Under FTA, a designated group of countries agrees to eliminate tariffs, quotas and preferences on most (if not all) goods. Kenya is among countries seeking to reap from the Comesa FTA model with the planned construction of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Mombasa’s Dongo Kundu area. The Kenyan Cabinet last week approved the development of the SEZ that will host wholesale and retail trading, breaking bulk, re-packaging logistics, warehousing and handling and storage of goods, among others. The facility will...

By Robert Ford In October 2015, the bustling city of Nairobi hosted the 11thHeads of State summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Project (NCIP). This high-level, bi-monthly meeting, attended by the presidents of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan, was convened to review the progress of strategic regional infrastructure projects in the region. Away from the glare of mainstream media, and amid government speak, a momentous development for the Private Sector was finally unraveling; after several months of arduous deliberations, the Heads of State issued a directive for the institutionalization and actualization of the Northern Corridor Technology Alliance, (NCTA): a regional ICT sector alliance formed to champion the implementation of key ICT Projects within the NCIP. For a region whose infrastructure development has been heavily characterized by use of foreign expertise for seemingly trivial tasks as procurement of paper for national exams or bicycles for farmers, this is a feat- unparalleled in the scope and magnitude. One whose significance is only dwarfed by the opportunities it holds for the private sector. What started as a tripartite initiative between Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, to speed up the flow of cargo, and development in the railway and crude oil sectors, quickly evolved, culminating in a 50 per cent reduction in call rates across partner states - under the One Network Area; drastic improvements in transit time, from 16 days to under 5 days between Mombasa and Kampala, and the waiving of visa fees to name a few. Notwithstanding, all of these projects...

By Baher Kamal and Fareed Mahdy Madrid/Cairo — In Egypt more than 1,500 public and private business delegates and state leaders agreed on 20-21 February to mobilise massive investments for the implementation of Africa's largest trading bloc whichwas created last year by 26 African countries with a total of 620 million consumers and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) nearing 1,2 trillion dollars. The agreement crowned the "Africa 2016" investment forum held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort Sharm El Sheikh with the participation of business leaders together with government officials and heads of international organisations to discuss trade and investment as engines of progress. African heads of state and government from Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Sudan and Togo took part in the forum. No official figures relating to the amount of these investments have been released. "They (the private business sector) are ready to invest. Africa is the continent of the future, this is clear. However, there are huge hurdles that have been 'scaring' the big business pundits," an Egyptian diplomat commented to IPS on condition of anonymity. Titanic Efforts "African governments must make titanic efforts to ensure the right atmosphere needed to attract investors; adopt the necessary legislative measures to facilitate business activities; combat rampant corruption and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles; reform their financial systems to facilitate re-exporting capitals and benefits... not to mention democratic governance and preventing and ending so many armed conflicts... " Corruption comes first on the list of impediments to investment along with instability,...