Like many other farmers across the region, Alice Akabera, the president of Gwiza cooperative, which works with over 290 cereal farmers in Rwamagana District, faced challenges related to post-harvest storage. Often, the farmers would count losses when their cereals went bad for lack of proper storage. The farmers also had limited access to markets and lacked financing. “As farmers we work so hard, but these challenges have always affected our efforts to thrive in the agriculture sector. One of the biggest problems has been lack of finance,” she said. The cooperative’s challenges are not unique to it; across the country, players within the agriculture sector have continuously decried lack of funding as financial institutions are reluctant to take on the risks associated with the sector. However, farmers can now access short-term funding from banks under an initiative by East Africa Exchange (EAX), a regional commodity exchange based in Kigali. This is possible through the warehouse receipt system operated by EAX. Under the system, farmers cooperatives working with EAX can get funding from partner financial institutions, including Urwego Opportunity Bank, Ecobank, KCB, Equity bank, BRD, and BPR, among others. “For the past nine months, our cooperative has secured Rwf21 million from KCB and we have almost paid off the loan. This is because EAX accepted to be our collateral,” Akabera says. The farmers use electronic receipts issued by the commodity exchange as collateral, according to Clement Kayitakire, the EAX trading officer, an initiative that has so far seen thousands of farmers...

The governments of Rwanda and Ghana on Monday signed a Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) liberalizing commercial flights between the two countries. The agreement was signed between Rwanda’s Minister of State in charge of Transport, Eng. Jean De Dieu Uwihanganye and the Minister for Aviation of Ghana, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, at the Ministry of Infrastructure in Kigali. Uwihanganye explained that the signing marks the first and very important step towards the fulfillment of constitutional formalities, so that once the latter are complied with by their two countries, the agreement comes into force. He said the move will not only boost ties between the two countries but also provide more reliable and predictable air services, between and beyond. Dapaah said air travel is essential to Africa to enhance connectivity, trade, job creation, drive tourism and economic growth. She said: “Although the African air transport industry currently supports nearly seven million jobs and US$80 billion in GDP, it faces numerous challenges that hinder the potential growth of the industry.” The challenges, she said, include poor intra-Africa connectivity, inadequate infrastructure and weak human capacity. In April, the national carrier RwandAir, launched a new route to the Nigerian capital Abuja, operating flights four times a week between Kigali and Abuja, making it the airline’s second destination in the West African country, after the commercial hub Lagos. From Abuja the airline connects to Accra, Ghana’s capital city. Besides flights to Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, in Abuja, RwandAir also flies to many other West African countries...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) summit held in Kigali, Rwanda in March 2018 was supposed to be the culmination of former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of a truly united Africa. The CFTA, which was drafted in Niger in December 2017, envisages a trade area across the continent covering a market of 1.2bn people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion. According to research conducted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the agreement could boost African economic output to around $29 trillion by 2050, and increase intra-African trade significantly. Currently, it stands at around 18% of total trade, which compares negatively to 59% in Asia and 69% in Europe. But just days before leaders from across the continent were supposed to sign the agreement, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari announced that Africa’s largest economy would not sign up to the historic accord pending further discussions with local trade unions and the business community. The move surprised most delegates in the opulent conference hall of the Kigali Convention Centre, especially because part of the agreement was negotiated under the chairpersonship of Nigeria. The country’s absence was compounded by the fact that South Africa, which is the continent’s second-largest economy, also did not sign up to the agreement. The absence of the two largest economies, however, did not come as a shock to one of the architects of the agreement, David Luke, coordinator of the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) at UNECA. “It’s not all that surprising that we...

Urbanization, Housing and rural settlement : An insight into how Infrastructures in Rwanda are transforming lives, boosting the economy 24 years after 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that left over a million of people dead, thousands of orphans and widows and others fleeing the country let alone a failed state—it might sound too long or short a time to deliver tangible transformation depending on who is arguing and why. In this pictorial series, we will be running a number of selected pictures from all around the country showing how Rwanda has changed since 1994 in different sectors. In the first edition of “Before and after” we look at how the capital city of Kigali has evolved in urbanization, housing and rural settlement since 2007 with a few exceptions of some photos taken before that time. Today’s Green, clean, and safe Kigali city, is boasting with socio- and economic development. This is a result of the choice of the government for a well-managed urbanization and sustainable human settlement development. Until 2004, the urban housing was self-led without any regulation, and the result was unplanned human development, settlement in High Risk zones, and underserviced residential neighborhood. Efforts were made to regulate both the land use and housing, to ensure access to basic services and safety of Kigali citizens. Known for its cleanliness’ and Rwanda’s capital’s distinct charm and security, in this bulletin, we bring you pictures of Kigali city that show how the city looked like ten years ago by comparing them with...

The Kagitumba-Mirama Hills One-Stop Border Post (OSBP), one of the major border crossings linking Rwanda and Uganda, on Saturday started operating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. William Musoni, the acting Commissioner of Customs at Rwanda Revenue Authority, confirmed this on Sunday, noting that having round-the-clock service available every day of the year, “is important as it will facilitate cross border trade in general.” Musoni added: “Passengers will cross at any time without necessarily saying that the border post is closing at any time. We are expecting the usual traffic plus the traffic that was passing through Gatuna.” The new development comes shortly after Horizon Construction, the subsidiary of Horizon Group Limited last week completed emergency repair works on a section of the Kigali-Gatuna highway and managed to normalize traffic on the busy highway. However, another section of this road on the Ugandan side, in the Kyonyo area along the Katuna-Kabale road, also caved on Saturday, disrupting transport especially for heavy trucks. The road in Uganda, just like the Rwandan section earlier, was affected by heavy landslides. Following the incident, the Ugandan police placed signs to direct light traffic and advised heavy traffic to use the newly completed Ntungamo-Mirama Hills tarmac road to connect to Rwanda. Last year, the Ugandan section of the 37-kilometre Ntungamo-Mirama Hills road was upgraded to bitumen standard. Previously, transporters had over decades braved potholes, dust, delays and high transport costs associated with the murrum road which would especially be chaotic during rainy seasons....

Regional integration ranks among the most beneficial policies pursued by Kenya and its neighbours. By creating one large market, pooling resources and influence, East Africa is able to punch way above the weight of individual members. A bigger market is better placed to create jobs and prosperity. It is also more attractive to external investment. The East African Community (EAC) has travelled further down this road than many people realise. On all four fronts — creation of a customs union, common market, monetary union and a political federation — progress has been made, albeit, of course, amid challenges. The challenges are, however, tackled in an atmosphere of amity, mutual respect and trust. ONE MARKET A customs union has existed in East Africa since 2005. Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi and South Sudan have agreed to trade freely without charging goods and services originating from these countries any taxes and all goods entering their markets are charged a standard duty, the common external tariff. This, effectively, creates one market. Subsequent to the customs union, which became fully fledged in 2010, is the common market — in force for eight years. This allows the movement of goods, labour and capital and citizens to travel, work and live anywhere in the community. Member states do not move at the same speed but they do not have to — so long as they are committed and moving in the same direction. Kenya has opened its doors to all East Africans, setting an example to...

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA- There are basically three ways to earn an income – stealing, inheriting or trading goods, services and assets. Stealing in its myriad forms is contrary to good public policy. Inheritance would be limited and subject to vicissitudes. Trade at various levels has been acceptable architecture for incomes. The higher the trade values, the better for income generation. Lots of jeremiads about low intra-Africa trade have been churned out. Figures of a decade ago, putting intra-Africa trade at 10 to 12 percent of total trade, still haunt recent analysis. According to the COMTRADE data base, 2016 figures put intra-Africa trade at 21.2 percent. This is still low relative to EU at 61.7 percent, NAFTA at 50.3 percent and ASEAN at 24.3 percent, which are more developed regions. Intra-Africa trade levels, however, are comparable to or higher than those of other developing regions, with MERCOSUR and CARICOM at 13.6 and 9.7 percent in 2016 respectively. It can be noted also that the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite region accounts for 72 percent of intra-Africa trade, and Africa is the No.1 export market for the Tripartite region and several other countries. In a global environment of protectionist tit-for-tats sparked off by the Donald Trump of the United States, threatening a melt-down of the international trade system, conclusion of the African Continental Free Trade Area by 44 countries on 21 March 2018 in Rwanda, sent delightful reverberations around the world. This Agreement is expected to double intra-African trade, and as such a panacea to the low levels. A...

The Access Bank UK looking into Shariah-compliant offerings The Access Bank UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nigeria's Access Bank, aims to strengthen its Dubai position as local operations here are performing better than expected due to strong and growing trade ties between China, the Middle East and Sub-Sahara Africa, said a senior official. Jamie Simmonds, CEO and managing director of The Access Bank UK, said the amount of business flows between the UAE and Sub-Saharan Africa are expanding rapidly and the decision to have representation has reaped to have its benefits here. "For more broad views, the handshake between China and Sub-Saharan [Africa] is equally growing. We have a good presence in China; it also required good representation here and we are seeing benefit of that," he said. The bank's profit grew by 80 per cent from £9.9 million to £17.8 million. Included within these results was an improving performance from the bank's international branch in Dubai, which delivered income of £671,00 (Dh3.4 million), ensuring positive contribution after meeting its direct costs. "It [profits from Dubai operations] may not sound a lot but it covered more than cost base for us. And we are seeing considerable increase on the performance delivered in 2017. For Dubai, we are slightly ahead of what we expected to be; we want a sustainable base to be built around relationship. It takes time but once it happens it give rapid pace to the growth," he said. The bank has an office at the Dubai International...

One major factor that has continued to stigmatize the continent of Africa is lack of infrastructure. The African Development Bank (AFDB) reported that Africa has an infrastructure gap that would require approximately $112 billion per year over the next decade to fix. This situation explains why both intra-and extra-African trade has been negatively impacted over the years. The development of infrastructure in the transport sector including rail systems, roads, new maritime routes and ports expansion, are crucial to trade facilitation and economic growth. Now, it appears this critical issue is receiving some attention following an aggressive push from all stakeholders including multilateral agencies. Many African countries have started addressing this challenge as we have seen turnkey projects being undertaken across the region through different partnership vehicles and financial models. According to Deloitte’s Africa Construction Trends (ACT) report of 2017, 303 projects valued at $307 billion are currently ongoing in the continent with Transport and Power sectors dominating. Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing unprecedented magnitude of infrastructural development in the transportation industry especially railways. In East Africa – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania have launched major transportation programs linking ports expansion to modern rail systems and road networks to facilitate easy access to market. To reference a few of these key projects, under the East African Railway Master Plan, the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) system connecting port of Mombasa to Nairobi will eventually be extended to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. This megaproject is currently transforming logistics in the sub-region. Ports...

The ability of global trade to feed the world is one of the great success stories of the past generation. More than 1 billion people faced hunger on a planet of 5.6 billion a quarter-century ago; that number has fallen to 800 million, even as the population has grown to 7.6 billion. Trade has brought much of that progress: Shippers and exporters have become better and better at getting affordable food from places of surplus to regions of scarcity. But the planet is at rising risk of choking on its good fortune. More people, less hunger In billions, 2000-2016 Population Undernourished The shipping of farm commodities by road, rail and sea—the basics of how a harvest gets from Point A to Point B—remains concentrated on increasingly vulnerable trade routes that, when disrupted, become “chokepoints” in the global food supply, suddenly raising food prices and cutting off supplies when they fail. From aging locks and dams on the Mississippi River and days-long traffic delays in the heart of Brazil to political unrest on routes serving the Black Sea, the Middle East and China, transit networks are strained from growing agricultural shipments. Agricultural goods exported worldwide Billions of tons, 1990-2016 Global farm-commodity trade volume nearly tripled from 2000 to 2016, to 1.66 billion tons, according to UN data. Nearly half of all soybeans, almost a quarter of all wheat and more than an eighth of all corn is traded internationally, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Percentage of major crops exported...