Talks to formally allow South Sudan into the East African Community have resumed earlier this week in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, a senior official of the regional grouping said in Kampala on Wednesday. In an interview the East African Community Secretary General Dr. Richard Ssezibera said they have been in touch with the government of South Sudan over the country’s application to join the EAC. He said Juba’s request for membership is being carefully reviewed but did not elaborate whether the world’s newest nation would be accepted to the regional grouping. According to Dr. Sezibera, South Sudan will be an important member of the EAC thanks to its big market. He said a stable South Sudan will mean a secure East Africa. A team from the South Sudanese government is already in Arusha negotiating its entry into the East African Community to which the country had applied following her independence from the rest of Sudan in 2011. The East African Community (EAC) headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania is made up of several countries in the region including Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda among others. Source: Star Africa

Kampala — Talks to accept South Sudan as a member of the East African Community resume this week in Tanzania's City Arusha, according to Dr Richard Sezibera, the East African Community Secretary General. "We have been in touch with South Sudan and handling their request to join the EAC. Further negotiations resume this week in Arusha-Tanzania," Dr Sezibera said Wednesday while visiting Monitor Publications Limited Head Office in Kampala. South Sudan's plan to join the EAC is likely to add 11 million people to a regional market that has 140 million people in the five states of Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi. EAC member states like Uganda and Kenya stand to benefit most from South Sudan which gives them a significant market. Currently, Uganda and Kenya's annual exports to South Sudan are valued at over $200 million (Shs504 billion) and $180 million (Shs453.6 billion) respectively. Mr Sezibera added that EAC Secretariat is committed to work closely with South Sudan to ensure "a smooth negotiation process". Last year, South Sudan had halted negotiations because of an armed conflict that broke out, displacing close to 2.2 million people and claiming hundreds killed. The conflict put 4.6m people at severe risk of food insecurity, according to the UN. However, negotiations to return peace in South Sudan are under-way in Juba where regional leaders are expected to assign a peace pact. South Sudan marked its independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011. It had been at war for almost half a century when...

Africa’s rise challenges the imagination. During the last decade, sub-Saharan Africa was home to six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies. During the next five years, the region’s GDP is expected to grow 30 per cent faster than that of the rest of the world. And, during the next 35 years, the continent will account for more than half of the world’s population growth, according to the United Nations. These trends will give African countries a more prominent role on the world stage, and provide new opportunities for people to better their lives. As African countries assume their new role, they want meaningful economic partnerships that deliver the sustainable, inclusive growth they seek. As US President Barack Obama said during his visit to Ethiopia last month, “Real economic partnerships have to be a good deal for Africa. They have to create jobs and capacity for Africans.” By those criteria, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been tremendously effective since its enactment in 2000. By removing tariffs on exports to the US from 39 sub-Saharan countries, it has stimulated growth, encouraged economic integration, and created opportunity where it otherwise might not have existed. Earlier, the US Congress, recognising these gains and underscoring the strength of America’s commitment to Africa, overwhelmingly approved legislation to re-authorise AGOA for another 10 years. To make the most of this extension – the longest in the programme’s history – the US and its African partners need to start working towards a more comprehensive partnership....

Two Rwandans are among 11 eminent private sector members who were unveiled yesterday in Nairobi, as the new ‘independent’ board of directors of TradeMark Africa (TMA), a non-profit organisation established in 2010 to support regional integration and trade. The new board members beat competition from over 500 East Africans who had applied to fill eight of the eleven director seats on a regional body that has funded the implementation of over 150 integration projects across the region. Rosette Chantal Rugamba, the managing director of Songa Africa Ltd, and Anthony Masozera, the chief executive of the Burundi-based Econet Wireless, are the two Rwandans on the board that will be chaired by prominent Tanzanian businessman Ali Mufuruki. Other members include Patrick Obath, the managing consultant of Edwardo and Associates; Duncan Onyango, CEO of Acumen Fund; Patricia Ithau, managing-director of Patricia Ithau Ltd; Earl Gast, an American independent consultant; and Jacqueline Lutaya, the managing-director of Kampala Accountancy Bureau. TMA chief executive Frank Matsaert said the new board is a reflection of a huge pool of talent in East Africa and draws from the leading business people in the region’s private sector. Matsaert also announced that Pascal Lamy, the former head of the World Trade Organisation, has joined TMA as a special advisor to the board of directors; he is one of three non East African members representing donor interests on the new board. Mufuruki, who is the CEO of Dar es Salaam-based InfoTech Investment Group, said he was happy to lead a board...

Regional artistes can play a vital role in the integration agenda of the East African Community (EAC), a lawmaker said, yesterday, during the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) as members passed the EAC Creative and Cultural Industries Bill. A private members Bill introduced by MP Dr James Ndahiro (Rwanda) seeks to boost the bloc’s creative industries by establishing a council charged with ensuring a favourable environment to enhance and stimulate creativity and innovativeness among EAC citizens. The assembly is currently sitting in Kampala, Uganda. Noting that the Bill was a vital piece of legislation that “should be supported” by everyone, MP Susan Nakawuki (Uganda) pointed out how artistes have been helpful in many respects. “Music and art have always been a tool for sensitisation. We have, for example, had musicians composing educative songs. Ugandan artiste Bobi Wine, for example, composed a song teaching the public about cleanliness,” she said. “Even when it comes to the integration process, we could have musicians singing about integration. Their music can reach far places where ministers cannot reach easily.” Nakawuki spoke of how the music industry is “also key to promoting tourism”. To achieve all this, however, she cautioned that the assembly should also bear in mind the importance of intellectual property rights. She proposed that an intellectual property legislation be enacted as soon as possible so that artistes benefit as they should. Creative industries originate from individual creativity, skill and talent. They have a potential for wealth and job-creation through the generation and...

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 25 – TradeMark Africa (TMA) has announced the appointment of a new board of directors. The newly appointed members are from East Africa Community states to represent diversity and present a balance of representation. They include Tanzanian entrepreneur and philanthropist Ali Mufuruki who takes over as the chairman of the board. He is the Chairperson of Infotech Investment Group Limited where he is also the Chief Executive Officer. Other boards where he sits as the chairperson include Msingi Limited Kenya, Legacy Capital Partners Limited Tanzania and Chai Bora Limited Tanzania. “The newly appointed board will work as advisors of Trade Mark East Africa. We will not be employees of the company. We also do not have any shares in the company which ensures that we remain objective to matters affecting company,” said the incoming chairman. Rosette Chantal Rugamba from Rwanda will also sit on the board. Rugamba, who is currently the Managing Director of Songa Africa Limited, is an Aspen Global Leadership Network Fellow and special advisor to the Secretary General UN World Tourism Organization. She also sits on other boards such as that of Equity Bank Rwanda, Sonarwa Insurance Company and Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund International among others. Others to be appointed board members include Patrick Obath from Kenya who also sits at the board of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, and Unga Group Holdings Limited among others. Obath is currently the Managing Consultant of Eduardo and Associates. It will also include...

More than five years in the making, the ambitious African trade agreement known as the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), officially launched in June, aims to bring together three key African trading blocs—the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)—to create a common market spanning the continent from Cairo to Cape Town. With a huge free trade zone encompassing a region of more than 626 million people and a total gross domestic product of $1.2 trillion—equivalent to 58 percent of the continent’s entire GDP—the deal hopes to succeed where earlier, smaller efforts have failed in boosting intra-African trade and economic integration. So far 16 countries have signed on, with another 10 expected to do so after they fully comply with their own internal protocols for joining a binding international agreement. Although the endorsement of 26 African heads of state is in itself a major achievement for the TFTA, there are still many barriers that must be overcome to make this deal a success before negotiations are concluded Source: World Politics Review

TMA is the first company in East Africa to receive the Award Nairobi, 26th August 2015. TradeMark Africa today received the world’s most prestigious corporate procurement certification from the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS). The award was presented to TMA at the DusitD2 Hotel in Nairobi during a press conference led by the organization’s vice chairman, Tim Lamont and CEO Frank Matsaert. The award makes TMA the second organisation in Africa, after the Africa Development Bank, to receive the certification, and the first in East Africa. [caption id="attachment_8703" align="alignleft" width="600"] From left Felix Muema-Branch Chair Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Kenya, Frank Matsaert-CEO TradeMarkEast Africa (TMA), Tim Lamont,-Vice Chair of the TMA Board, Ken Jones-Chief Operating Officer TMA, André Coetzee-Managing Director CIPS Africa and Isaac Mwesigye-Procurement director TMA[/caption] The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) informed TMA of the certification this week after a detailed evaluation of the organisation’s procurement structures and practices. CIPS analysed TMA procurement processes according to 110 questions under the following headings: leadership & organization, people, performance management, process & systems and strategy. The CIPS process, through the 110 questions, provided the greatest audit, internal/ external and constructive feedback received from internal and external stakeholders. After an evaluation period of 8 months, TMA received the news of the certification on Monday making it the first East African company to have qualified for the award. “This award serves as further proof of TMA adhering to the highest international standards in procurement, maintaining...

The East Africa Community's conference of women in business was launched at the KICC in Nairobi on Thursday. The event brought together women from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya to share their experiences about doing business in their countries. It was also a forum for them to network with their sisters from across the region. The main speakers were East Africa Community secretary general Amb Richard Sezibera, East Africa Community, Trade and Tourism cabinet secretary Phyllis Kandie and National Assembly deputy speaker Joyce Laboso. Also in attendance were the East Africa women in business chair Dorothy Tuma, KNCCI women in business chair Martha Mugambi and UNDP inclusive business adviser Minaj Nieminen. Source: All Africa

The official statements are clear: Regional leaders and policymakers want to make the 26-member Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) the main stepping stone towards the gradual establishment of the Continental FTA (CFTA) comprising the 54 members of the African Union. Indeed, during the June 2015 African Union Summit in Johannesburg leaders ambitiously insisted that the negotiations on goods and services for the establishment of the CFTA be concluded by 2017. High-level political will seems to be strong. The challenge, now, is to convert this political will into something more than a paper agreement. The importance of stakeholder involvement The real effectiveness any trade agreement (or the expansion of an existing one) ultimately depends on the support and the involvement of the key stakeholders—most importantly the private sector—in the design and the implementation. Surprisingly, the regional private sector has not been vocal about its support for either the TFTA or the CFTA. The absence of vigorous national debates about the pros and cons of these agreements has been quite notable. In many countries, the prevailing attitude of the business community ranges from a cautious optimism to a wait-and-see approach. Perhaps this lack of interest is due to a lack of mobilization or consultation at the local level. Or it could be due to a lack of understanding regarding the stakes and potential benefits from what many consider a top-down process. These stakeholders will ultimately put pressure on governments to pursue or reject steps to the CFTA. Thus, in order to comprehend...