ARUSHA, Tanzania - Development partners are to fund more than half of the 2015/2016 East African Community Secretariat budget. The Tanzania Deputy Minister for East African Affairs Dr. Abdallah Sadaala Abdallah, who is also the Chair of the Council of Ministers was presenting the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat budget last week. Sadaala said, “Member states will contribute ($47,566,973) compared to $46, 958,273 of the current year and Development Partners support will inject ($58,555,635) which is a significant drop from the $75,121,126 of the previous year. Other sources of revenue shall account for $4,537, 490.” Assessing the Community performance in the financial year 2014/2015, Dr. Abdallah said the EAC achieved various achievements in the financial year ending 2014/2015. These include the commencement of the clearance of goods under the Single Customs Territory on the Central Corridor as well as rollout of more products on the corresponding Northern Corridor. He remarked that the EAC worked hard to see that there is an Elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers Bill (NTB) and this has been achieved following the passing of the Bill in 2015 he said the Elimination of NTB, coupled with legally binding mechanism for elimination of NTBs, would spur business and enhance the free movement of goods and services in the Five country’s Economic block. The Minister said in the financial year 2014/2015 EAC adopted the legal and regulatory framework of the EAC Securities Market that includes public offers for equity securities and fixed securities and regional listings in the securities market....

AFRICA is a continent endowed with a lot of resources and yet the continent continues wallowing in poverty with most of its people living below the poverty datum lime. There have been several issues of humanitarian crises in Africa and most of these have dwelt on the debilitating poverty crises that many African countries face. Some economists argue that the absence of economic growth is in part due to a detrimental geography that impacts on the economies of the countries. Another cause for the sluggish economies, it is argued, is the insufficient cooperation among member states. This could, however, be significantly eased when some of Africa’s regional groupings sign a pact. Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Kalaba says the three regional groupings will next month sign a tripartite agreement aimed at emancipating Africa from poverty through a well-coordinated trade environment. The three regional groupings: Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC) will sign an agreement to enhance trade. The tripartite agreement will be signed in Egypt’s resort city of Sharm El Sheikh on June 10, 2015. This is a welcome development because African stands to benefit from increased inter-continental trade and this development can translate into more revenues for respective countries. The removal of tariff barriers will help African countries improve trade amongst themselves and this would serve as a catalyst for enhancing trade and lead to more revenues. It has long been realised that trade is a...

THE government is committed to working with the private sector to make sure Tanzania played active role in the regional integration process, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of East African Cooperation, Ms Joyce Mapunjo, has said. She said in Dar es Salaam that the government was welcoming more engagement with the private sector to address issues that affect trade and investments in the country. "The government is very much committed to work with the private sector to improve the business environment," she told the East African Community Secretary General forum with the Chief Executive Officers of business organisations in the EAC region. The PS encouraged the private sector to engage more with the government on matters affecting trade and investments and noted the government would even entertain informal meetings to speed up process of addressing particular hassles to the private sector. "We support more engagement with the private sector. Formal and even informal arrangements are most of the times entertained to make things go faster," she said. The PS said the government was working on tax and standard harmonization, two areas that have been raised by the private sector as a problem in efforts to boost trade and investments in the region. She said non-tariff barriers to trade was an area where the government made significant progress but noted addressing the NTBs was a continuous process calling for the cooperation of the private sector. Earlier, the Secretary General of the East African Community, Dr Richard Sezibera, said there were...

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Continued investments in trade infrastructure as well as the dismantling of bureaucratic and procedural barriers to economic integration is positioning the East African Community (EAC) as the destination of choice for doing business. Senior officials from consultants, TradeMark Africa (TMA) were last week launching their annual report covering the period 2013/2014. Recently they did the same for Uganda a couple of weeks ago. TMA is the lead advisor for improving trade flows across the region. Partnership between TMA and the East African governments has been described as vital in achieving the great progress in delivering seven key One Stop Border Posts (OSBP) across East Africa this year. This has helped increase physical access to markets for both formal and informal traders. Nelson Karanja, the TMA Communications Manager said pilot operations at the Kobero/Kabanga between Tanzania and Burundi borders already indicate a two-day reduction in transit times at Kabanga for cargo trucks. There has also been a reduction in tedious formalities for traders which previously had an adverse impact on time and costs of business. Karanja was giving a presentation in an event which was officiated by Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of East Africa Cooperation Joyce Mapunjo. George Lauwo, Director in Tanzania’s Ministry of East African Cooperation, who represented the PS, expressed appreciation of TMA work in East Africa and Tanzania in particular. He reiterated that the government was very pleased with the partnership with TMA, who continue to work with partners in...

Technocrats from the Central Corridor countries of Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda meeting in Kigali, this week, commended the level of political will that has been demonstrated by the leaders of the regional countries to ensure the trade route's efficiency. It was noted that Tanzania had lately taken significant steps toward addressing longstanding Non-Tariff Barriers along the corridor, including ending cargo theft at the port of Dar-es-Salaam, an endemic phenomenon that had increasingly frustrated businesses from other countries, including Rwanda. This, among other challenges like unnecessary weighbridges and corruption along the corridor, had forced many to turn to the Northern Corridor which links to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. Tanzanian officials also announced that they had taken a raft of measures to make the route more efficient, including putting in place infrastructure and services that would help cut transport costs. That technocrats are already implementing the decisions taken at the Central Corridor presidential round-table in March, including acquisition of new wagons and commencement of block trains to facilitate faster movement of cargo from Dar to areas closer to respective destinations (neighbouring countries), is commendable and indeed encouraging. While the Northern Corridor, which serves Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi, has seen tremendous improvements in recent years, the Central Corridor had been heavily affected by endless trade barriers that only needed political will to address. But recent developments along the corridor signal a renewed commitment to translate policies into real action. In the end, if business thrives along...

Ongoing protests in Burundi against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to stand for re-election poses a great threat to the East African Community trade links if not dealt with at its early stages. The protest which began on 26th April has recorded a total death toll of 30 people. East African Community Heads of State are currently meeting to resolve the conflict in Burundi and further urge Mr Nkurunziza to drop his decision to run for a third term. The ongoing civil war is set to affect the present comprehensive economic ties between the countries and there is a great possibilities of trade barriers on trade within the region. Economy experts who have been following on the growing trend of the East African Community (EAC) trade state that if the civil war intensify, economic efforts within the region will be thwarted. The police have however taken charge of the protest as East African Community Heads of States are hastening process and procedures to ensure the civil war is brought to a stop. Source: Intelligence Briefs.com

Rukia Shamte, the executive secretary of CCTTFA (L), and Peterson Mutabazi, an engineer in charge of transport at the Ministry of Infrastructure, exchange ideas during the Central Corridor stakeholders’ meeting in Kigali yesterday. (Doreen Umutesi) The meeting has brought together over 50 participants from the public and private sectors of Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Benjamin Mbimbi, an official from Tanzania’s ministry of Transport, said his government will not leave any stone unturned as it continues to improve transport infrastructure and services so as to reduce transport costs. “We acquired new wagons and this has greatly improved the reliability and efficiency of our central railway network. After the presidential round-table in Dar es Salaam, in March, we’ve commenced the block trains from Dar es Salaam to Isaka, Mwanza and Kigoma, with cargo destined to Uganda, DR Congo, Rwanda and Burundi,” Mbimbi said. Tanzania’s intention, he said, is to have one block train “for each country, per week.” A block train, also called a unit train or a trainload service, is a train in which all wagons carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. Mbimbi said his government has also contained cargo theft at the port. However, he acknowledged, there is room for improvement and he hopes all members states will “join hands” to implement planned activities. Burundi’s Vital Narakwiye stressed that, for his landlocked country, the Central Corridor is a route of...

Africa’s infrastructure spend is set to rise as a report reveals that 30 per cent of the infrastructure is dilapidated. According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report, it indicated that East, Southern and West Africa could be spending up to $180 billion on infrastructure by 2025. The report highlights that at least 60 to 70 per cent of that amount is owed to infrastructure in South Africa and Nigeria. The West African country was leading due to the fundamentals of the oil price and naira shifts being stable despite being presently supressed. Head of capital projects and infrastructure at PwC, Jonathan Cawood, said that infrastructure outlook will be increasing by 10 per cent per annum. Cawood told CNBC Africa there is a “great sense of enthusiasm, commitment and willingness to engage in new ideas” from government developers, funders and operators of infrastructure. The strong relationship between China and African economies could see the Asian country being a key player in terms of funding, knowhow and labour. Although Cawood notes that localisation and local participation should be a priority moving forward. Capital innovation for infrastructure requires clarity of regulatory frameworks, so that investors feel “more secure” of their long-term nature. Shortage of funding came out as the main issue in the PwC survey, however Cawood said after unpacking it, there was actually “a tremendous amount of funding available”. “It’s really about better project preparation and feasible projects that are part of a bigger longer term master plan.” On the issue of...

Regional business with Burundi has been slowing at an alarming rate in the past weeks amid persistent protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid to run for a third term in office. When The New Times visited the Nemba One Stop Border Post, on Thursday, the usually active border crossing was relatively dormant. Besides a visiting team of regional experts who were visiting to assess operations at the border post, immigration and customs officers were attending to very few travelers. Shops, forex bureaus and tea houses operating at the border were open but no clients streamed in and out. "Things are not good today. I am contemplating closing. I am wasting time here," said a forex bureau dealer who preferred anonymity. Four of his colleagues sat about indulging in chit-chat outside the small structure that houses two forex bureaus. On the Burundian side of the border, forex bureau agents were disheartened when they learnt that this reporter was not bringing business but sought information. They refused to talk. The cause of the state of affairs, apparently, is that most of the buses and the heavy trucks usually criss-crossing the Kigali-Bujumbura route halted operations as owners cautiously keep an eye on events in Burundi, hoping the situation in the East African nation calms. Political events in the capital Bujumbura, and the entire country, took a dip when, on April 26, Burundi's ruling CNDD-FDD political party picked President Nkurunziza as its candidate for what would be his third term in office, two months...

COALITION of the willing which created so much fuss in the East African integration process in the past one year is a thing of the past. The TradeMark Africa Country Director, Dr Josephat Kweka, said last week that East African Community member states had become more aware of provisions under the EAC treaty which allow some members to expedite implementation of some projects. “Coalition of the willing is a thing of the past. It is not helpful to discuss it now (because) it was realized it was a misconception,” he told reporters in Dar es Salaam in a familiarization meeting with editors. “We came at a point that we understood that with EAC treaty there are provisions for some member states to accelerate implementation of some projects,” he said. Tension arose among the EAC member states as Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda were being seen to be fast-tracking implementation of some projects in the region and referred to themselves as the coalition of the willing. Tanzania and Burundi, were seen to be taking a more cautious approach on the integration progress. The three members of the willing had held high-level meetings to which other members did not attend sparking fears that Tanzania might eventually pull out of the community which were however calmed down by President Jakaya Kikwete in his rare address to Parliament in November 2013. President Kikwete explained that Tanzania was taking a more cautious approach and had stuck to principles in the process as agreed in the treaty....