Ecobank Kenya Wednesday launched the Emerald Ecobank Business Club aimed at widening opportunities for its Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) customers by creating direct linkages between businesses operation in 33 African Markets with over 12.8 million customers. Members of the club will also get access to direct networking platforms, market information as well as business advisory services from the Ecobank, associated partners, external trade facilitation and preferential banking among others. The Emerald Ecobank Business Club will focus on bolstering intra-Africa trade leveraging on the Bank’s presence in 33 African markets enabling SMEs to leverage on Ecobank’s customer book to authenticate and vet trading partners across the continent. Speaking during the media launch, Ecobank Kenya Executive Director, Head of Commercial Banking Kenya & EAC Humphrey Muturi noted that the launch of the new Business Club is a wider strategy by the bank to grow SME sector by offering direct linkages and a seamless base of transaction for Kenyan businesses and their counterparts across the continent. “As a pan African bank, we recognize the pivotal role that emerging businesses play in our economy, thus our target is to empower our SME customers by availing networking opportunities across our network of 33 African countries to help them grow with us. Most SMEs here in Kenya and generally across Africa face capacity challenges either in terms of technical knowledge on how businesses operate across the continent or in terms of access to opportunities to forge partnership. Emerald Ecobank Business Club members will therefore in...

I am a concerned citizen who always travels across borders, but has failed to see the benefits of the East African Community. Recently, I travelled to watch the 2018 Safari Rally in Kenya in which Uganda sent two representatives (Jas Mangat and Duncan Mubiru). However, Ugandans were treated as if we were from another planet. From the border to all the rally sections, the moment Kenyan traffic police officers saw Ugandan-registered number plates; they would stop and hold you until you gave them money. They asked between KShs 500 [approximately Shs 16,000] and KShs 2,000 [approximately Shs 64,000]. I was personally stopped seven times; and on the eighth one, I complained and tried to confront them. They immediately took me to their express court where I was fined KShs 15,000 (about Shs 480,000). At the road block where they arrested me, I had all they asked for but one officer told me my vehicle was dirty! It had been raining from the time I left Jinja to Nairobi. Funny enough, when I reached the court, they changed the statement and said I did not have a safety reflector triangle. I hope EALA MPs, the minister of East African Community Affairs and respective embassies can look into this matter; otherwise, we are losing hope in the EAC. Keith Ssali Isaac, Deputy mayor, Nansana municipality. Ochola has started on a positive note Since the new inspector general of police, Martin Okoth Ochola, took over the mantle, changes have been made within the force....

Forty-four African leaders gathered in Kigali last month and signed a continental free-trade agreement (FTA). By so doing, they laid the foundation stone for the creation of an enormous free-trade area that will likely facilitate regional integration and inspire economic growth across the continent. Although I support this leap of faith, I am not too sure that the negotiations leading up to this treaty have exhausted all points of friction. Implementing the treaty will certainly require some nurturing of relationships and massive support from citizens of every African country. This is so because the FTA is a product of pronouncements from top leadership without details that matter in such agreements. This process first started in October 2008, when the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) held a summit that birthed the African Free Trade Zone (AFTZ). In 2012, it was extended to the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). MASSIVE MARKET In June 2015, at the African Union summit in South Africa, negotiations started to create a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) with all 55 African Union states by 2017. A continental free-trade policy means there will be no restrictions on imports from, or exports to, any African country except for South Africa or Nigeria unless they accede at some point in the future. Nevertheless, even without these two giant states, FTA members...

The EAC Monetary Institute Bill, 2017 and the EAC Statistics Bureau Bill, 2017, are two key pieces of draft legislations on agenda as the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) moves its sitting to Dodoma, Tanzania starting today, Monday. The regional House’s first ever sitting in Tanzania’s designate capital – which starts today Monday and ends on April 28 – is to be presided over by Speaker, Martin Ngoga, with Tanzanian President Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli expected to address the Assembly at a special sitting sometime next week. The two pieces of legislation are critical in the eventual set up of the East African Monetary Union (EAMU), the East African Community’s third pillar of integration preceding the ultimate phase – the EAC Political Federation. Partner States negotiated a Protocol for establishment of the EAMU which was signed by regional leaders in November 2013. The EAMU protocol provides for the establishment of four support institutions: the East African Monetary Institute – a precursor to the East African Central Bank – which was supposed to be set up by December 2015 but never happened, and the East African Statistics Bureau (2018), among others. In March, when MP Dr Pierre Celestin Rwigema (Rwanda) asked the Council of Ministers to inform the House about the status of implementation of the third and fourth pillars of the integration during the last sitting in Arusha, Tanzania, Dr Ali Kirunda Kivejinja, Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, said the EAC Secretariat – the executive organ of the...

Some 73 companies are on track for expedited payment of refunds and reduced customs security checks after they enrolled in an East African Community (EAC) programme to promote regulatory compliance, enhance trade and improve border security. The firms will reap other benefits of the programme, named Authorised Economic Operators (AEO), including automatic passing of their declarations and will undergo no physical examination of goods except where risks are high, among others. The incentives apply to multinationals as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have joined the programme. 73 companies Among private sector organisations to benefit from the AEO programme are Mitchel Cotts Freight, Mzuri Sweets Ltd and Umoja Rubber. "Seventy three companies have so far been enrolled in the programme since it was introduced over three years ago. The EAC targets to enrol over 500 companies in the next five years," said Duncan Karari, Communications Manager at German international development organisation GIZ which provides technical support for the initiative. GIZ is also supporting the EAC integration process and its development goals.Mr Karari said the programme is headed for roll-out. Regional customs The AEO initiative -- launched to reform regional customs services -- targets more than 500 companies, indicating that over 400 more are expected to join in due course. Under the scheme, firms involved in international trade are scrutinised and certified as AEO. The programme is open to all players including clearing agents, revenue authorities and standards bodies. The programme is expected to reduce the cost of doing...

African development hinges on a maddening paradox: its greatest asset—the sheer size and diversity of its landscape—is also the greatest barrier to its development. Landlocked countries are cut off from ports, and the difficulty of moving goods from country to country weighs down intra-continental trade (only 15% of African trade is within Africa. (African Development Bank, 2017) African consumers bear the brunt of these difficulties. [1]. Costs are driven up by a host of factors: tariffs, border delays, corruption. But the biggest challenge is that no streamlined transport route exists between West and East Africa – only a decaying and underdeveloped road and rail system which pushes up costs and drags down efficiency. Several ambitious schemes have been proposed to link Africa’s east and west coasts, some of which are closer to full realization than others. Most notable in this respect is a plan to expand the existing Trans-African Highway 5 (TAH5) into a true cross-continental road and rail link, the early stages of which China has helped bring to fruition where Western consortiums failed. Likewise, Chinese investment in African infrastructure through Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may help create expanded sub-regional linkages, particularly in East Africa, that could help facilitate the emergence of an eventual, true East-West link in the long term. However, in the short-to-mid-term, the obstacles to a truly robust set of East-West transport links are formidable, and it is unlikely that China’s involvement will be a panacea. Long March to the Red Sea Portions...

Some 73 companies are on track for expedited payment of refunds and reduced customs security checks after they enrolled in an East African Community (EAC) programme to promote regulatory compliance, enhance trade and improve border security. The firms will reap other benefits of the programme, named Authorised Economic Operators (AEO), including automatic passing of their declarations and will undergo no physical examination of goods except where risks are high, among others. The incentives apply to multinationals as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have joined the programme. 73 companies Among private sector organisations to benefit from the AEO programme are Mitchel Cotts Freight, Mzuri Sweets Ltd and Umoja Rubber. “Seventy three companies have so far been enrolled in the programme since it was introduced over three years ago. The EAC targets to enrol over 500 companies in the next five years,” said Duncan Karari, Communications Manager at German international development organisation GIZ which provides technical support for the initiative. GIZ is also supporting the EAC integration process and its development goals. Mr Karari said the programme is headed for roll-out. Regional customs The AEO initiative — launched to reform regional customs services — targets more than 500 companies, indicating that over 400 more are expected to join in due course. Under the scheme, firms involved in international trade are scrutinised and certified as AEO. The programme is open to all players including clearing agents, revenue authorities and standards bodies. The programme is expected to reduce the cost of doing...

Lusaka – Calls for regional integration and boosting of economic growth in Africa will remain unanswered unless all countries strive to fulfil agreements to the letter unlike piece-meal legislation, a leading economist has noted.  In recent years, several African economic blocs – the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) ‑ have signed and adopted various agreements relating to trade but a few, or none, have been ratified and operationalised. Key among the trade agreements that have been signed and not ratified are the Comesa Free Trade Area (FTA) and the recently signed Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) in which 44 African countries signed various agreements during the just-ended AU Summit in Rwanda but remain to be ratified. Sindiso Ngwenya, the Comesa Secretary-General, noted that while there has been a zeal to append signatures on various trade treaties, the majority of agreements still remain on the shelves, unratified to make them fully operational and bolster intra-trade growth in the 54 member states. In an interview with The Southern Times in Lusaka, Ngwenya, the outgoing chief administrator of 25-year-old Comesa, noted that while there has been increasing zeal for countries in various groupings to sign agreements and necessitate their operationalisation, many have remained on the drawing board, incomplete because they are not ratified to the letter. Twenty-two countries out of 26 signed the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) Agreement, Botswana being the latest signatory to the agreement, after signing...

Africa’s textile industry may be caught in the crosshairs of US president Donald Trump’s global trade war. In reaction to Rwanda raising tariffs on used clothing and footwear from the US, the Trump administration says it will suspend duty-free privileges on eligible Rwandan clothing—a benefit of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)— within 60 days. US Trade Representative’s office says a suspension rather than a termination of the benefits will “allow for continued engagement with the aim of restoring market access.” Other East African countries, including Tanzania and Uganda, have been spared a similar fate as, according to the trade office, both countries have “committed not to phase in a ban” for second-hand products. Last year, Kenya also backtracked on the 2016 decision from the East Africa community nations to ban used clothing by 2019. The move is an extension of Trump’s “America First” stance seen in the ongoing tariff battle between the US and China. But the Trump administration is being lobbied by the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, which says a ban will lead to the loss of 40,000 US jobs and negatively impact the environment with pounds of textile waste ending up in landfills. For its part, Rwanda says the withdrawal of its AGOA benefits are “at the discretion of the United States” and has given no indication of reversing the tariff hike on used clothes from the US. The looming threat of a withdrawal of AGOA benefits is fueling pending conversations about the second-hand...

Twenty years ago, I hoped for an Africa that would draw closer and forge forward boldly, despite a bag of mixed fortunes. Rwanda had just been blighted by genocide; the ubiquitous coup d’état still reared its ugly head in West Africa; although a tentative calm prevailed in Central Africa, political tensions simmered below the surface; Zaïre was in the throes of the ‘first Congo war’; the civil war in Somalia grew in magnitude and intensity; Ethiopia began an experiment in state-led macroeconomic planning; a democratic South Africa rose from the ashes of Apartheid, a veritable validation of the OAU’s ultimate goal of political liberation for Africa. An interim period of positive change ensued, a growth fuelled by new media including the Internet, greater multiculturalism and a stronger attachment to democratic principles. In March 2018, 44 of the 55 African Union Heads of State and Government enacted the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (CFTA) in Kigali, Rwanda at its 10th Extraordinary Session, under the able leadership of H.E. President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, with H.E. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda as current AU Chairperson and H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission. Once in force CFTA will be the largest trade zone in the world, increase intra-African trade by 52% by the year 2022, remove tariffs on 90% of goods, liberalise services and tackle other barriers to intra-African trade, such as long delays at border posts. The end of colonialism in the early 1960s created 55 African countries...