Cross border workers between Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya will no longer have to acquire working permits, as the East African Community continues to realise its protocol on free movement of labor.The good news came in over the weekend following an agreement between the three states to abolish work permits. A statement released on Monday by Trademark East Africa, notes that:Increasingly over the past years qualified staff from East Africa have been recruited into managerial positions and a number of professionals. Accountants, lawyers and doctors too have benefited from the mutual recognition of qualifications, allowing them to practice their vocation in any of the three states, subject to registration with the respective professional bodies, the communiqué reads in part. Trademark East Africa is a body that funds integration projects and it believes that the move is expected to help the three countries in recruiting competent skilled workers, which in the past was often sourced from international markets. In particular in the hotel industry Rwanda has previously gained expertise from Kenyans and Ugandans. This is yet another tangible benefit for citizens of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects which have benefited through a range of measures, from common phone tariffs when calling into one of the other two countries to passport free travel, from a widening of air transport choices to recognition of professional qualifications and now work permit free employment Trademark East Africa notes. Among all the five partner states, only Rwanda had previously waived work permit fees on citizens of the...

Logistics is a critical yet easily neglected component of economic development. Investment in agriculture is futile, if there is no supply chain in place to get produce to market. Essential medication is rendered ineffective, if it cannot be transported in the appropriate conditions. Consumer goods cannot improve people's lives, if the cost of importing them means they are too expensive for people to access. Yet in discussions of "sustainable development goals" or "poverty reduction", there is too often a tendency to focus on headline targets and forget about the mechanics of delivery. In East Africa, transport and freight costs are among the highest in the world, with freight logistics expenditure more than 50pc higher per kilometre than in Europe or the United States. This extra cost is caused by a 'logistics gap': a lack of infrastructure, technology and expertise affecting everything from road networks to payment systems and warehousing facilities. In landlocked countries, this gap is even more pronounced. Transport costs there can reach as high as 75pc of the value of exports. Transit times are also high in East Africa. The 1600Km journey from Mombassa (Kenya) to Kigali (Rwanda) takes on average 422 hours - nearly 18 days. Trucks must stop at two border posts and are likely to encounter 45 road blocks, each of which involves delays and costs, as well as potentially damaging the goods being transited. In contrast, a truck covering a similar distance in Europe - driving from, say, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) to Budapest (Hungary)...

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Dar port has overtaken Kenya’s Mombasa in terms of handling Rwandan cargo and that destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) writes LEONARD MAGOMBA Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) which manages all port in the country said that last year (2014), Mombasa port handled 235,912 tonnes of Rwandan cargo which is 33% of the cargo handled by Dar es Salaam port. In contrast Dar handled 630,000 mts. The acting Director General of TPA, Mr Awadh Massawe told Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and his host Dr. Jakaya Kikwete when they visited Dar es Salaam port. “As a matter of comparison during the year 2014, Mombasa port handled 235,912mts of cargo to Rwanda which is 33% of cargo handled by Dar es Salaam port which was 630,000mts of cargo for the same endpoint,” Massawe said. On the other hand, Massawe said cargo to the DRC which passes through Mombasa port during the same period was 407,727 mts which was 15% of the cargo handled by Dar port. The port currently handles 1,577,000 mts of cargo for the same destination. “This shows the importance of Dar es Salaam port and the central corridor to the neighbouring countries,” he said. The TPA chief said for the past five years, Dar es Salaam port throughput has continued to increase at an average rate of 12.8% per annum. Last year the port handled 14.6 million mts including 621,000 containers. “Out of cargo handled, transit cargo averaged 34% which was 5.020 million...

The East African Community will roll out improved Customs Union Rules of Origin in the next fiscal year, promising a better future for cross-border trade. The EAC Customs Union Protocol, which came into force in 2005, provides for the rules of origin, but since its inception, the business community has been complaining about its applicability. “It is our expectation that the new rules of origin will spur intra-EAC trade as they are more flexible for the private sector to comply with compared with the former ones,” said Adrian Njau, a trade economist at the East African Business Council. Currently, some partner states do not recognise some goods, forcing the business community to pay all taxes including those eligible for zero import duty, just to save time. Uganda and Tanzania, for example, have not been recognising the EAC rules of origin granted to several Kenyan tobacco products. Kampala and Dar demanded that tobacco products from Kenya comprise 70 per cent and 75 per cent of local content respectively, for them to enjoy the free import duty. But British American Tobacco says the 75 per cent local content required by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) does not recognise the EAC RoOs as stipulated in the protocol. Under the current RoOs, only goods wholly produced using local inputs or those made using imported raw materials but have 35 per cent of the ex-factory value added within the region, can cross national borders without being taxed. This, among other setbacks, has been blamed for the...

Top officials from the World Bank and the East African Community have been exploring ways to improve transport links to landlocked countries. At a meeting at the Unesco headquarters in Paris on June 9, representatives of the two organisations as well as other development partners proposed ways to improve infrastructure and transport challenges along key trading corridors. The meeting, dubbed the Integrated Corridor Development Convention, was organised to assess the challenges and opportunities to facilitate better regional integration in East Africa. “In East Africa, high transport costs, poor infrastructure and underdeveloped logistics services limit the competitiveness and inhibit the integration of both the landlocked and transit countries into the regional and global market,” said Pierre Guislain, senior director for the World Bank’s Transport and ICT Global Practice. “Increasing the integration between the different modes of transport by developing the corridors can significantly improve connectivity and contribute to higher growth in the region.” The convention’s goal was to discuss solutions to facilitate the funding of trading corridor development in countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. The meeting was a follow-up to the third EAC Heads of State retreat on infrastructure development and financing held in Kenya in November last year where EAC leaders endorsed a strategy and action plan to improve the quality of service, and reduce the costs of transport, by improving links between the different modes of transport along the key trading corridors in the region. Freight transport The strategy, which the EAC Secretariat was tasked to implement,...

Good news came in over the weekend that Uganda has finally signed on to the lifting of work permit requirements for citizens of Rwanda and Kenya, which had between them already gone ahead in 2013 to abolish these requirements and implement the East African Community’s protocol on the freedom of movement of labor. The deal was signed on occasion of the recent summit held in Kampala of the three countries now best described as the "Coalition of the Willing" among the East African Community’s five member states. Increasingly over the past years have qualified staff from East Africa been recruited into managerial positions and a number of professionals like accountants, lawyers and doctors too have benefited from the mutual recognition of qualifications, allowing them to practice their vocation in any of the three states, subject to registration with the respective professional bodies. The move is expected to help the three countries in recruiting competent skilled labour, which in the past was often sourced from international markets, but the cost advantage in Uganda will be a major one for employers who have to pay up to 2.500 US Dollars in annual work permit fees for citizens from third countries. In particular in the hotel industry have many Kenyans found job opportunities in Rwanda and Uganda, largely as a result of better training opportunities in Kenya, where such institutions like the Kenya Utalii College have produced management graduates since the mid 1970’s. This is yet another tangible benefit for citizens of the...

East Africa’s producers of sugar, maize, cement and other goods categorised as “sensitive” will be protected from intense competition from Egypt and other countries as the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) comes into force next month. Restrictions on the entry of the sensitive goods will remain in force until 2017, allowing the industries to adjust to the cut-throat competition expected from cheaper products. The list of sensitive goods also has wheat, rice, textiles, milk and cream, meslin grain and flour, cane and beet sugar, khangas, kikois, kitenges, second hand clothes, beverages, spirits, plastics, electronic equipment and paper materials. All these will be subject to duty and quota restrictions. TFTA was launched by the Heads of State in Egypt on Wednesday last week. It will pool the trade interests of the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and other African countries that have a combined GDP of more than $1 trillion, and a population of 625 million people. The countries that signed the deal were Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Comoros, Seychelles, Mozambique. Others were Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Lesotho, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia. The launch of the TFTA effectively opens the door for EAC goods that could not easily access bigger markets such as South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea. “The two-year period will allow for gradual tariff alignments and adjustments by the TFTA...

Uganda has finally joined Kenya and Rwanda in abolishing work permits for professionals following the signing of an agreement. In a 2010 arrangement, Rwanda and Kenya agreed to waive work permit fees for either county’s citizens, although the work permits themselves were still a requirement before one could secure employment in either country. In October 2013, Uganda promised to follow suit but it was not until last week that Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Okello Oryem and his Kenyan and Rwandan counterparts Amina Mohammed and Louise Mushikiwabo respectively, signed the agreement to liberalise the movement of labour. The three countries can thus partially meet the deadline set in the East African Community Common Market Protocol to liberalise the movement of labour before the end of 2015. Tanzania and Burundi still require work permits for which all non-nationals have to pay fees. Martin Wandera, a labour markets consultant, said that the three countries could fully liberalise the movement of people because employment is a hot political issue that can cause unrest if citizens of one country flood another, looking for jobs. Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya will also meet the EAC Common Market schedule for liberalisation of services — another agreement that was signed at the Kampala meeting by the foreign affairs ministers. Research, law, architectural and real estate firms domiciled in one of the countries can now provide cross-border services in all three. Hotels, restaurants and travel agencies can also offer cross-border services in the three EAC countries. The signing of the...

The East Africa Community governments are using technology to promote e-commerce and take services closer to citizens. Kenya has allocated Ksh2.5 billion ($25.7 million) towards increasing the one-stop shop Huduma Centres and Ksh1.9 billion ($19.5 million) for the continued rollout of Integrated Financial Management Information Systems. Rwanda and Kenya will promote e-learning through providing ICT learning devices to schools. Rwanda will continue with its One-Laptop-a-Child project while Kenya will be making a second attempt to provide laptops to primary school children. The government has allocated Ksh17.58 billion ($181 million) towards this initiative covering ICT learning devices, digital content, building capacity for teachers and the building of computer labs. Tanzania is also planning to have more learning equipment in place with the aim of promoting technology. The country is planning to take more e-services available to its citizens through Internet and mobile penetration. “Key challenges that the government needs to overcome for successful implementation are access to electricity and Internet connectivity in remote areas and safety of the devices,” says a report by PwC on budget analysis. Over 400,000 Kenyans have registered on the e-Citizen Payment platform with over 8,000 transactions and with revenue collection averaging about Ksh10 million ($103,000) daily, the government further aims to digitise at least 100 inbound payment service transactions by end of 2015. In Uganda, the National Information Technology Authority is currently consolidating the hardware and software licences to accelerate delivery of government services. It is also connecting public universities to the national backbone infrastructure to...

Rwanda will impose a new levy on goods imported from outside the EAC to raise funds for regional infrastructure projects. The 1.5 per cent charge on all imports into the EAC, referred to as the infrastructure levy, was agreed on by finance ministers from member states during pre-budget consultations held in Nairobi in last year. Uganda and Kenya are already charging the levy; Tanzania and Burundi requested for time to consult before releasing a timeframe for implementing the levy. Rwanda is targeting to collect Rwf10.6 billion ($15 million) from the levy in the new financial year, although it will continue to collect the fees in the coming years mainly for regional projects including the central corridor. Although the funds will be devoted to regional infrastructure projects agreed on under the Northern corridor initiative, priority will be given to the standard gauge railway (SGR) project. Completion of the railway is expected to significantly reduce the cost of freight and doing business within the region, particularly for landlocked countries. Other regional projects to be funded include energy networking infrastructure such as electricity grids and oil pipelines. “This (SGR) is one of the projects that is being prioritised,” Rwanda Finance Minister Claver Gatete told The EastAfrican. The country needs Rwf1.2 billion ($1.7 million) to finance the Gatuna-Kigali segment of the 2,000-km SGR to connect Rwanda and Uganda to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. Feasibility studies of the project are expected to be completed by the end of July. Mr Gatete said the country...