For several years, experts from the three largest trading blocs in Africa — the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) — were locked in intense negotiations over a free trade agreement whose aim is to bring about a unified and liberalized single market. The talks finally bore fruit on 10 June 2015 when 26 African countries signed the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) agreement in Cairo, Egypt. Under this agreement, all the 26 countries, with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of about $1.3 trillion and a population of 565 million, will merge into a common market and eliminate tariff lines and trade barriers. The participating countries will benefit from liberalized intra-regional trade, which is expected to boost the flow of goods and services. When implemented, the free trade area will constitute about half of Africa’s GDP, half of its population and will cover a combined landmass of 17 million square kilometres, about the size of Russia. At the moment, however, only three of Africa’s eight regional economic communities are participating in the TFTA. Non-participating economic blocs include the Arab Maghreb Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Economic Community of Central African States and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States. For now, these blocs are not participating in this new initiative for political and economic reasons. The Abuja Treaty of 1995 signed by 51 African countries mandates all regional...

The move, according to Rwanda ministry of trade and industry seeks to boost international trade and competition in the global market. The small Central African country being land locked sees the new initiative as a platform that will address challenges affecting transportation of goods from Mombasa and Dar-es Salaam ports to Rwanda. A dry port is an inland terminal directly connected by rail or road to a sea port, providing services for handling, temporary storage, inspection and customs clearance for international trade. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Francois Kanimba, Rwanda minister trade and industry said that, the facility would help flourish Rwanda exports. “Our country aims to enhance the logistics sector to support the export of products for regional and international markets. The logistics facility is expected to significantly contribute to the development of this strategy,” he said. Rwanda has signed an agreement with Dubai-based global marine terminal operator Dubai Port World to develop and operate the dry port in Kigali special economic zone in the city suburbs of Rwanda, Capital Kigali. The 25-year renewable concession agreement with Dubai Port World will see a 35 million U.S. dollars dry port developed. “There had been cases where offloading and loading containers takes almost a week, forcing trucks to make only two trips per month. But with new infrastructure, the trucks will do as many as five trips per month. This will reduce transport costs and transit time, spurring investment in the surrounding areas,” Kanimba said. He said that the government will...

A concession agreement between Dubai Port World and Rwanda signed last week will see Kigali becoming a regional inland port as well as provide opportunities for youth in the East African country. According to Francois Kanimba, Minister of Trade and Industry, the logistics platform comes at an opportune time, streamlining increasing traffic from regional and international players. This will help “trucks bringing cargo to Rwanda, to offload the containers as they arrive and load empty containers and go back where they come from,” said Kanimba. “This facility will significantly increase the turnaround of trucks which do international transport services and then increase the efficiency, reduce the cost.” Another benefit of this deal is that it includes the warehouse industry, so this gives importers a space where they can store the raw materials or finished products to make selling more efficient “These kinds of services in the past have been expressed as missing in our economy by a number of industries,” said Kanimba. Other services include a “big” parking yard because in the past few years Rwanda has been suffering from lack of such logistic services. This “resulted in trucks parking alongside the loads here and there or even going through the city - creating problems of heavy traffic.” The minister explains that this parking lot will be located out of the main business centre of the city to minimise congestion from the trucks. “We have booked around 30 hectares there, but the 30 hectares will not be developed at the...

CHINA plans to develop a free trade area with African countries - to increase the continent’s exports to the far-east nation and offset the huge trade imbalance, a top official has said. Prof Hu Hailiang, the Vice-Chairman of the Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education in China, told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the envisaged free trade area falls under its new fiveyear development plan slated to begin this year. The free trade area agreement is expected to increase exports of goods from Africa to offset huge trade imbalance between the continent and China, he said “China will negotiate with individual African countries and regional blocks to develop free trade area agreement to promote exchange of goods and services and investments,” he said at a press conference organised after a seminar on new China. China’s policymakers are compiling the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), whose proposal was adopted at the Fifth Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in October last year. The new five-year national socio-economic development will charter an explicit blueprint for the country’s development over the next five years - and provide more opportunities for the development of other countries. China is Africa’s largest trading partner, surpassing the United States in 2009. According to Brookings Education Institution, in 2012, China’s trade with Africa reached $198.5 billion, while U.S.-African trade in 2012 was $99.8 billion. China’s trade with Africa is only 5 per cent of its global trade total. More than 80...

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Most of us dread sitting for examination papers. The East African Community (EAC) at Summit level of Heads of State should be no exception. There is a big problem in the neighbourhood. This year the EAC will have to sit the paper on ‘relevance of good governance in the integration process’, because the Burundi situation is getting out of hand. Failure will be a huge setback in the aspirations for a Common Market. Success however, will make the EAC that much stronger and more competitive as a investment destination. Burundi is tittering at the edge of an abyss. Foreign investor confidence is being tested. Uncertainity does not attract money. It simply scares it away, but the Burundi opposing parties remain stuck in their uncompromising positions. This has put the rest of the EAC in a muddle. Worse still, all efforts at peace-making have been soundly rebuffed, including the manhandling of EAC Secretary General, Amb. Richard Sezibera last October. The African Union has fared no better. The Burundi government was scalding in December when the AU mooted a force of 5000. There is nothing as frustrating as being caught up in a situation that is not of your own making. Both Rwanda and Tanzania have had to take in refugess, which  puts an added strain on their national budgets. A quick response came from Germany, who offered $18 million in appreciation of Tanzania’s efforts to handle the influx. Other help is hard to come by. The United Nations High...

The dream of a unified African market took a giant leap towards reality following the signing in Cairo, Egypt, in June 2015 of a Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), bringing together EAC, COMESA & SADC blocs. With South Africa and Egypt, two of Africa's leading economies, driving the 26-country TFTA participants, experts are now advocating for, among others, good governance and prudent macroeconomic policies to reap the full benefits of the agreement. For several years, experts from the three largest trading blocs in Africa — the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) — were locked in intense negotiations over a free trade agreement whose aim is to bring about a unified and liberalised single market. The talks finally bore fruit on 10 June 2015 when 26 African countries signed the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) agreement in Cairo, Egypt. "The conditions [to form the TFTA] have never been better Under this agreement, all the 26 countries, with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of about $1.3 trillion and a population of 565 million, will merge into a common market and eliminate tariff lines and trade barriers. The participating countries will benefit from liberalised intra-regional trade, which is expected to boost the flow of goods and services. When implemented, the free trade area will constitute about half of Africa's GDP, half of its population and will cover a combined landmass of 17 million square kilometres, about the...

Arusha — Embattled Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza may be stopped from assuming the chair of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Summit if a petition filed by human rights groups in Africa is given a nod by relevant regional bodies during its hearing which kicks off here today. The Pan African Lawyers Union (Palu) and other petitioners from within and outside the region want the Burundi leader stopped from taking over the rotating chairmanship of EAC until he resolves the political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in his country. The petition was submitted to the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) and is set for hearing at the EAC headquarters beginning this morning at a time the mediation efforts among the warring parties in Burundi are yet to bear fruit and with the humanitarian crisis there worsening. President Nkurunziza, whose country is one of the EAC partner state, is expected to assume the Chair of the regional Heads of State during the coming Summit, whose date and venue is yet to be announced. He will take over from President John Magufuli. According to the EAC Treaty, the tenure of office of the Chairperson of the Summit is one year and the office of the Chairperson shall be held in rotation among the partner states. Currently there are five the others being Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. Subject to the provisions of the Treaty, the Summit shall determine its own procedure, including that for convening its meetings for the rotation of...

For a long time, the 54 countries of Africa have been a patchwork of different languages, laws, and currencies, making travel (let alone business) on the continent quite an endeavor. Indeed, for businesses, for a long time being in Africa has required moving from country to country, which too often means more than just navigating a map and changing money—it includes meeting different standards, understanding different laws, and paying different tariffs at every (and there are many) border crossings. At the same time, African countries, many landlocked and small, face unique challenges in being able to scale industries and access markets. How might Rwanda export its coffee if it has no access to the ocean? How might a line of countries best collaborate to create a railroad or road spanning their collective land for the benefit of all? How might countries with different advantages integrate into global value chains? And so, in 1991, 51 heads of state and government signed the Abuja Treaty, which established a roadmap towards an African Economic Community to be completed by 2028. In 2013, the African Union, created Agenda 2063—a vision and action plan—which, among other objectives, sets out to better integrate the continent to circumvent and even knock down these obstacles to trade, investment, and overall economic growth. Thus, the African continent has been creating and fostering “regional economic communities” with the aim of facilitating trade and eliminating economic bottlenecks. Eight of these communities, as seen in Figure 1, are the “building blocks” of...

Transport costs have reduced by up to 40 per cent in the last four years across the East African Community (EAC), a new report has revealed. According to the 2015 East Africa Logistics Performance Survey, improvement of Mombasa Port operations and ongoing infrastructure projects in the EAC had contributed to the trend. The report says average transport rates between Mombasa and other major towns of East Africa had been on the decline from 2011 to 2015. The reduction has been attributed to efficient operations in handling of cargo that is going parallel with improved infrastructure. “The average cost of transporting a 40-foot container from Mombasa to Nairobi gradually reduced from a high of Sh130,000 per 40-foot container to Sh100,000. “The trend is replicated on the Juba route which registered a drop from a high of Sh980,000 to a low of Sh550,000,” read part of the report. The survey further attributes this to a plunge in fuel prices which in turn increased the number of fleet trucks that lead to cut-throat competition among truckers. Decline rate “The route with the highest rate of decline was Juba at 44 per cent while the least gainer was Bujumbura with a 14 per cent increase,” it added. However, this was quite the opposite of the Central Corridor which Tanzania is part of where on average the transport rate increased by 39 per cent over the same period; Kampala rates increased by 79 per cent while Bujumbura remained relatively stable at three per cent. “EAC...

A few of us 'pundits' were invited on the now popular TV show "Debate 411" that is hosted by the gregarious Eugene Anangwe to discuss democracy in Africa and, in particular, the communiqué by the United States in which it stated that it was "deeply disappointed" by the decision by President Paul Kagame to seek a third term. An active member of Rwandans on Twitter tweeted asking whether I would elaborate in this space a point that I had raised in which I pointed out that it was important for us to distinguish between democracy of form and democracy of substance. At the very basic level, democracy can be defined as the rule by consent from the ruled. It is also about values.We give consent to our leaders to express - put in practice, promote - certain values on our behalf. If democracy was not about the expression of values, there would not be so much effort to impose it on others. In other words, what is being imposed, beyond the dogmatic rhetoric, are one's values. And this is where the plot thickens. Because societies by nature jealously guard against distorting their value systems, they tend to resist any form of transposition that is placed upon them. The question, thus, becomes this: whose values shall prevail? Democracy finds expression - positive or negative - in that question.Which is how in Africa, or in any other neo-colonial setting for that matter, the comprador class (domestic purveyors of foreign interests) finds itself...