According to energy cabinet secretary Charles Keter, The first export of oil from Kenya through the port of Mombasa is now expected for April 2017. Source: KTN

The Kenya TradeNetwork System for application of local marine cargo insur-ance is up and running, the Kenya Trade Network Agency has said. The state agency mandated to facilitate the new government initiative yesterday said importers and insurance firms can now process marine covers online, under the government’s new policy for mandatory local underwriting for all imports. e new law, which came into effect on January 1, requires imports to be covered locally, under section 20 of the Insurance Act, Cap 487.“ e KenTrade system is up and running,” head of corporate communi-cations Ann Odero said yesterday. She said KenTrade is working with other industry stakeholders including State department for Maritime and Ship-ping Aff airs, Kenya Revenue Authority and the Association of Kenya Insurers to implement the rule.Marine Cargo Insurance policy pro-vides indemnity against loss or damage for goods being transported by sea or air and incidental land transportationFirst time users of the system are required to get access credentials by contacting KenTrade to procure the marine cover insurance certifi cate from their preferred Insurance Company. is process will be done outside the National Electronic Single Window System, KenTrade said yesterday.“ Upon issuance of the MCI ,the trader, insurance company will be required to submit to KRA and any other partner government agencies the certificate through the Kenya TradeNet System,” Odero said. e application through KenTrade is intended to allow KRA and other government agencies to view the marine cargo insurance certificate electronically in the course of cargo clearance. The Shippers...

The proposed reduction of the Tourism ministry budget by Treasury will hurt the country’s tourism sector which is on a recovery path, CS Najib Balala has warned. Treasury CS Henry Rotich in a mini budget tabled at the National Assembly in December 2016, has proposed a cut on the tourism promotion budget by Sh1.5 billion, as he seeks to reduce the government’s expenditure for the financial year 2016/17 by Sh181 billion. Balala has however retaliated saying the reduction will hard hit structures set for recovery, which include marketing campaigns by the Kenya Tourism Board in the international markets. “The proposed budget cuts will drastically affect the tourism industry but like most sectors affected, we have to go back to the drawing board and re-strategise in order to reverse the effects,” Balala said in an interview with the Star. Rotich allocated Sh4.5 billion for tourism promotion activities in the current financial year which ends in June. Also to be affected, Balala said the Sh1.2 billion charter incentive programme launched in December 2015. “We will definitely need to review the allocation for the charter incentive programme,” Balala said. The Treasury is seeking to cut development spending by Sh213.5 billion for the current financial year. Balala said there is a need to open skies to low cost airlines in both Nairobi and Mombasa, as the charter incentive programme may have to be prolonged to 2018, owing to the budget cuts. “Charter airlines which comprise two per cent of the airline business are not...

Kenya’s exports to the region dropped by the largest margin in three years in the third quarter of last year, to $275.7 million from $380.3 million in the first nine months of 2015, new data shows.All countries in the region, with the exception of the Democratic Republic of Congo, cut their uptake of imports from Kenya, according to a report from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. While the drop in exports has been attributed to encroachment in key market segments by Chinese products, local factors like taxation, new competing industries in export markets and instability in South Sudan have contributed to the trade down turn. Goods from China, some of dubious quality, have flooded the market, making the Asian giant the biggest exporter to the region.Kenya relies on Africa to absorb more than 40 per cent of its manufactured exports. The data shows a 30 per cent drop in exports to Uganda to $152.1 million in the period under review, from $228.18 million over the same period in 2015. “Africa remained the leading destination of the country’s exports, accounting for 40.6 per cent of the total during the review period. Within Africa, Uganda was the largest market for Kenya’s exports, accounting for 11.3 per cent of total export earnings, followed by Tanzania, which accounted for 5 per cent of total export earnings in the third quarter of 2016,” the report notes.Tanzania’s imports from Kenya dropped to $67.5 million in the third quarter of last year, from $78.2 million over...

Kenya’s exports to the region dropped by the largest margin in three years in the third quarter of last year, to $275.7 million from $380.3 million in the first nine months of 2015, new data shows.All countries in the region, with the exception of the Democratic Republic of Congo, cut their uptake of imports from Kenya, according to a report from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. While the drop in exports has been attributed to encroachment in key market segments by Chinese products, local factors like taxation, new competing industries in export markets and instability in South Sudan have contributed to the trade down turn. Goods from China, some of dubious quality, have flooded the market, making the Asian giant the biggest exporter to the region. Kenya relies on Africa to absorb more than 40 per cent of its manufactured exports. The data shows a 30 per cent drop in exports to Uganda to $152.1 million in the period under review, from $228.18 million over the same period in 2015. “Africa remained the leading destination of the country’s exports, accounting for 40.6 per cent of the total during the review period. Within Africa, Uganda was the largest market for Kenya’s exports, accounting for 11.3 per cent of total export earnings, followed by Tanzania, which accounted for 5 per cent of total export earnings in the third quarter of 2016,” the report notes. Tanzania’s imports from Kenya dropped to $67.5 million in the third quarter of last year, from $78.2...

Ivory markets are set to shut down following the banning of the trade in the world’s biggest market, China, which is good news for the African elephant. Wildlife activists will be closely watching other Asian markets, led by Vietnam and Hong Kong, that have also provided the market for ivory. Last week, China’s State Council announced a ban on all ivory trade and processing activities in the country by the end of this year. This signals the implementation of President Xi Jinping’s joint commitment with US President Barack Obama, in 2015, to end the legal and illegal trade in ivory.The ban by China — with an estimated 70 per cent of the global consumption — will be done in stages; the processing and sale of ivory will stop by March 31, followed by all registered traders being phased out, bringing an end to the trade in the country by the end of the year. “There will be a stop in the ivory fixed-point processing unit or point-of-sale processing and sales of ivory and products activities by the end of the year,” the statement from the State Council, released last Friday, says. The news comes barely six months after Beijing announced it would push for the total ban on the ivory trade within its territory by the end of the year.Yan Xun, deputy general director of the country’s Department of Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Management, had said that by the end of 2016 China would set a timetable to phase...

The New Year pressure from importers seeking to firm up their dollar positions in a bid to meet their requirements has seen all the regional currencies come under pressure, losing to the dollar. The Kenyan shilling recorded the biggest loss, touching a 15-month low of 103.60/80 against the dollar on Thursday, mainly due to a surge in demand by im-porters. The shilling last hit such lows in August 2015, when it traded at 103.90. The Central Bank of Kenya has recently been under pressure, spending $337 million in December alone to prop up the currency. Analysts from Cytonn Invest-ments say that despite the Kenya shilling remaining stable despite the 25 bps hike in the Federal Funds Rate last month, there has been a reduction in the country’s reserves, an indication the CBK has been using the funds to keep the currency stable.“On a year-to-date basis, the shilling is flat against the dol-lar. However, in recent weeks, we have seen the forex reserves reduce to $7 billion in December, from $7.8 in October 2016, which has led to the decline in the months of import cover below the one-year average of 4.9 months, and is currently at 4.60 months. This is worrying as the rate of de-crease in the reserves could be an indication that the CBK is using a lot of reserves to support the shil-ling, and may continue to do so in the near-term given the global strengthening of the dollar,” the Cytonn analysts said.Currently, the reserves stand at...

BURUNDI’S TAX revenues rose 8 per cent last year, exceeding the government’s target, the revenue board said on Wednesday. The semi-autonomous revenue authority (OBR) said it had collected 637.4 billion francs ($382.64 million) in tax, beating the govern-ment’s target of 596.2 billion francs and the 590.6 billion francs collected a year before. It did not give a reason for the increase. Government officials have in the past said tax revenues were boosted during the third and fourth quarters by improved security across the country.Burundi is relying on domestic taxes and revenues from coffee and tea exports after major donors like the European Union and Bel-gium suspended aid over accusations of seri-ous human rights abuses. The rift with donors was sparked by Presi-dent Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term of office and the subsequent vio-lence and protests.The government said in December it would increase 2017 public spending by 5.3 per cent from last year’s budget. The budget, estimated at 1.326 trillion francs ($796.49 million), will be 70.7 per cent funded by domestic resources and 29.9 per cent by external resources.Economic analysts predict 2017 will be very hard for Burundians, whose poor purchas-ing power is already weakened by almost two years of political turmoil since President Nku-runziza’s decision to run again in April 2015. Meanwhile, Burundi will increase public spending by 5.3 per cent this year, according to a budget passed in parliament last week.Last week, the budget passed by parliament showed state spending will increase to 1.326 trillion...

Five East African countries have joined forces with the aim of forming a single currency area by 2024. Since the project’s inception in 2000, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda have been laying the groundwork for greater economic integration. Measures such as establishing a Customs Union has helped streamline border clearances, simplify work permit issuance, and ensure the recognition of professional agreements by member countries. As a result, regional trade has increased by over 40 percent in the last five years. Speaking at a conference on regional integration in Arusha, Tanzania, Abebe Aemro Selassie, head of the IMF’s African department, said while GDP growth in the East African Community is well above average for sub-Saharan Africa, the challenge will be how to sustain this strong growth over the medium-term, how to ensure that scaled-up public investment and borrowing translates into durable growth and not unserviceable debt, and how to make the growth felt by a wider segment of the population. “Faster economic integration within the East African Community is a potential game changer, as it holds the promise of improved productivity, competitiveness, and welfare gains,” Selassie said. Monetary unions and common currency areas are not new to Africa. The West African Economic and Monetary Union, for one, was formed in 1994 and shares the CFA franc among eight West African countries, while Namibia, Swaziland, and Lesotho have been linking their currencies to the South African rand under a Common Monetary Area established in 1986. Roger Nord, IMF deputy director of...

The European Union could cut development aid to East African countries that have refused to enter its trade agreement. Refusal by the other countries to sign up to the Economic Partnership Agreement has subjected exports from Kenya to the EU to fresh taxation. Tanzania and the other East African nations could be the target of the threat after declining to ratify the EPA. Patrick Gomes, the Secretary General of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of states (ACP), said foreign aid to the poor countries must be tied to trade agreements. “Truth is Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, which are sluggish in signing the deal, could end up losing important development aid from the EU,” Gomes said during a regional trade meeting in Nairobi yesterday. Withdrawal of foreign aid could be an attempt to arm-twist the countries into accepting the trade pact. “EPAs comes not only with trade opportunities with Europe, but development aid as well,” he added. Gomes spoke after the EU opened a new avenue for Kenya to walk it alone to the trade pact, which had initially been discussed by the five countries of the East African Community. ACP is composed of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states that are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, also known as the “ACP-EC Partnership Agreement” which binds them to the European Union. President of the European Parliament, Louis Michel, said Kenya could sign a bilateral trade agreement with the EU, pointing out that a similar deal had been struck with South...