South Sudan peace talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa show signs of progress after nearly two weeks marked by boycotts and walkouts. On Wednesday, the parties to the Igad-led negotiations agreed on the composition of a transitional government and security arrangements. According to the South Sudan ambassador to Ethiopia, James Morgan, the government has agreed to incorporate armed and non-armed groups in the Transitional Government of National Unity, whose term ends in October, as soon as the talks close on February 16. Earlier, Minister for Information Michael Makuei, who is also the government spokesperson, had stated that Juba will not accept the reconstitution of the government and the issue of two armies. About 14 factions are in attendance in the talks officially known as the High Level Revitalisation Programme to review the stalled implementation of the 2015 South Sudan peace agreement. In the 2015 agreement, 30 ministerial posts were divided among the government, with 16 posts, the main opposition SPLM-IO taking 10 seats while the former detainees and other political parties got two posts each. Endless debates and numerous boycotts forced the Inter-Governmental Authority of Development (Igad) mediators to form sub-committees to discuss different issues and required written submissions to speed up the peace process. Last week, the talks had stalled after the government delegation objected to a clause calling for punitive measures against saboteurs of the peace process. The government refused to sign the Declaration of Principles. Among issues being discussed, since the talks started on February 5,...

East African nations that are en-route to banning the importation of used clothes may soon pay the price after Washington said it will impose trade penalties in retaliation to what it sees as a blockage of free trade. The US State Department's Harry Sullivan, the Africa Bureau acting head of the economic and regional affairs, said Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have until next week to reverse the decision or face the penalties. The East African leaders are expected to meet at the EAC Heads of State Summit on Infrastructure and Health Financing and Development in Kampala, Uganda on February 23. "I believe the results of the meeting next week will determine how we proceed," Mr Sullivan said in a conference call with reporters. East African Community (EAC) member states agreed two years ago to impose phased ban on used clothing imports (known as mitumba) over a three-year period beginning 2019. Kenya subsequently withdrew from that agreement following US threats to end its eligibility for duty-free clothing exports to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Kenyan retreat US trade officials say that the mitumba ban violates an Agoa stipulation requiring beneficiary countries to eliminate barriers to trade with the America. Kenya feared the loss of the duty-free and quota-free access to the US, its third largest market. Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda -- each of which earns far less through Agoa than Kenya -- jointly affirmed last July that they intend to proceed with the mitumba ban....

The headline news at the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa last month was the announcement of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), with 23 countries pledging to remove non-physical barriers to air routes, and ultimately create a single aviation area across the continent. Most of Africa’s major airlines belong to countries that are signatories, such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa. Together, they represent over 70% of intra-African air traffic. SAATM sets a new standard for regional policy-making because the benefits are clear and the challenges more practical than political. Furthermore, it brings together coalitions of actors in government and the private sector whose interests align well. What this flagship project from the AU shows is that regional integration can succeed as long as certain conditions are met. Important lessons may be gleaned from this example. Impact International industry groups and the major African carriers immediately welcomed the news. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had recently estimated that a unification of 12 countries’ air markets could result in some 155,000 jobs and US$1.3bn additional GDP to their economies. It is also hoped that African airlines will be able to increase their market share on the continent, which currently stands at only 20% of the total. The benefits for the air traveller and African trade were plainly obvious, as it would make connections faster and cheaper, if implemented well. Moreover, SAATM may be more significant than the sum of its parts. Because of the largely bilateral...

Environment Principal Secretary Charles Sunkuli has said collaboration between East African Community members would help eliminate plastic bags. "During a meeting of Environment ministers in Arusha last week, we agreed that cooperation is needed if we are to eliminate the menace," Mr Sunkuli told the Nation on the side-lines of the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook forum at Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa that ended Tuesday. The PS said the ban in Kenya had seen an 80 per cent drop in the use of the bags. "The environment is no longer filled with the pollutants," he added. Mr Sunkuli said ministry officials would appear in Parliament to explain the ban, adding that jobs had been created since August 2017 when the law came into effect. PETITION AT HIGH COURT "Jobs for women and youth involved in manufacturing of non-plastic materials like sisal and papyrus have been created. Others are making gunny bags and biodegradable and fibre bags," he said. Asked about companies still manufacturing plastic bags, Mr Sunkuli said he was not aware of any. In Mombasa, County National Environment Management Authority director Stephen Wambua and inspectorate chief Mohammed Amir have been conducting crackdowns on businesses flouting the law, particularly at Kongowea market. They said since the ban on plastic bags took effect, the tourism city had become "aesthetically clean". "We are working with Nema to identify sources of the flat bags," Mr Amir said. But the ban is yet to take effect in grocery markets. In August 2017, the...

JOHANNESBURG - The African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) has boosted US trade with Africa, which rose 15.8percent to $338.5billion (R4.04trillion) in the past year. Briefing the media from Washington DC yesterday, Harry Sullivan, the US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs acting director for economic and regional affairs, said the exponential growth was as a result of trade conducted under Agoa, a legislation allowing qualifying sub-Saharan African countries to export certain products to the US duty free. Sullivan said African exports to the US rose 24percent to more than $24bn, with agricultural products accounting for $2.7bn in 2017. Madagascar’s garments exports to the US rose 57percent to $152bn and Ethiopia’s total exports accounted for $92bn. The US government, which was forced into a PR exercise recently, when Trump characterised African states as “shithole countries”, said it would continue to work with Africa to reduce impediments to trade and investment - and encourage intra-trading among the continent. Sullivan identified the East Africa community as needing more focus in terms of reducing time and costs associated with transporting goods. “These are really important,” he said, adding that many of the barriers keeping African countries from doing business with each other would be dealt with. He noted that Africa lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of intra-trading, and added: “We are supporting regional immigration. (The US will) help African economies to develop regional value chain to spike global markets.” They wanted to catapult Africa into the lucrative global...

This comes after the completion of the standard gauge railway by the Kenyan government from Mombasa to Nairobi. Kenya ports authority has opened its doors to Ugandan businessmen to begin picking their goods from Nairobi instead of Mombasa. This comes after the completion of the standard gauge railway by the Kenyan government from Mombasa to Nairobi. This was revealed by The Managing Director of Kenya Ports Authority Catherine Mthuri during a meeting with lawmakers of the East African legislative assembely at the port of Mombasa. Source: NTV

Zanzibar — MEMBER states within the East African Community now wish to establish National Kiswahili Councils within their respective countries to show commitment in promoting the language in the region. The call was made here yesterday by Prof Kenneth Inyani Simala, Executive Secretary, East African Kiswahili Commission (EAKC) during a meeting with team of the East African Legislatives Assembly (EALA) delegation on 'the on-spot assessment of institutions, installations and facilities of the EAC on the central corridor.' "Despite financial challenges facing the Commission, we have been playing our part well, advising the governments on how we should move on. It is unfortunate that there is slowness in implementation," Prof Simala said here yesterday at the Commission offices. "It is only Tanzania which has the Kiswahili Council. I urge other member states to do the same and implement other agreed plans," the Executive Secretary said as he also listed some challenges facing the commission. The team of EALA delegation led by Hon Wanjiku Muhia from Kenya heard Prof talk about weakness in legislation, insufficient budget allocation, under staffing, and last year's attempted theft of the commission's funds from its account (he did not release details at the open meeting). He said that after raising voice including reporting to the police about the missing money from the Commission's account, the amount was returned, "But we need to know who had taken the money and why?" Prof Simala said he has visited Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya to see the pace of building...

In 2016, the African Union (AU) announced plans to introduce a new African Union passport that would travel across the continent much easier. “The scene seems to be set to realize the dream of visa-free travel for African citizens within their own continent by 2020,” the AU said in a statement announcing the launch. However, in 2018, crossing borders remains a difficult process for the vast majority of Africans. Even now, African citizens on average need a visa to travel to more than 50% of nations across the continent. This makes travelling in Africa significantly easier for Americans, Brits and various other nationalities than it does for the majority of Africans. It’s not only African citizens that feel the constraints of travel difficulties either. Business travel is a painful process between African countries and the impact on trade between the continent’s nations is undeniable. So why are Africans still waiting for visa-free travel? Progress is being made The visa-free travel dream in Africa is taking longer than some African union optimists might have hoped but true progress is being made. In November last year, six nations – Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo – announced visa-free movement for citizens among their nations under the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). Meanwhile, Kenya became the latest country to relax visa requirements from citizens from African nations, who no longer need to get a visa prior to their arrival. According to the African Development Bank, which monitors visa openness...

Arusha — Performance of the recently established one stop border posts (OSBPs) in East Africa will come under scrutiny during an on the spot assessment by the regional lawmakers. Fresh from the recent session in Kampala, the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) members this week began a mission to assess the progress of the regional institutions including OSBPs. The jointly operated and shared facilities on the visit schedule include the famous Namanga and Holili on the Tanzania/Kenya border as well as Malaba on the border between Kenya and Uganda. Others are Katuna/Gatuna on the Uganda/Rwanda borderline, Kabanga/Kobero (Tanzania and Burundi) and the Rusumo OSBP along River Kagera that separates Tanzania and Rwanda. "The on-spot assessment commenced yesterday (Monday) and runs up to February 23rd", said Bobi Odiko, the spokesperson for Eala, adding that the visit will cover other infrastructure projects. One of the two groups will inspect projects along the northern corridor; Mombasa through Nairobi and Kampala to Kigali while another will do the same on the central corridor; Dar es Salaam to Bujumbura. OSBPs which are being established along the key routes at the borders of the East African Community (EAC) member states to lessen time in exiting one country and entering another have come under scrutiny for some time especially from the regional MPs. For instance, an on the spot assessment carried out in 2015 by Eala members found out that some of them can turn into 'white elephants' due to unwarranted delays to complete the basic structures...

The East African Business Council (EABC) board met in Kigali, last week, to discuss strategies that will help encourage the implementation of key projects by East African Community (EAC) states that seek to improve the business environment. This comes on the back of a lot of frustration among the business community because of the slow pace by partner states in the implementation process despite Heads of State directives for the projects to be prioritised. Lilian Awinja, the EABC chief executive officer, says the fact that some partner states are backtracking on some of these projects when others are undertaking the projects is very discouraging and unfortunate. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Business Times’ Peterson Tumwebaze after the meeting, Awinja said the delay is costing the region in terms of trade, investments, jobs and economic prosperity. Excerpts: You held an EABC board meeting in Kigali last Friday. Briefly tell us what it was about We mainly wanted to discuss issues affecting regional businesses and how we can address them as a region. Some of these issues are policy challenges, while others are financial in nature. For example, the directives that were issued by Heads of State for immediate implementation across the region are yet to be enforced. This is very discouraging for us as a business community. Awinja says delay in implementation of some EAC projects by states is hurting the business community. / Net. We still have a long list of pending projects aimed at improving doing business in...