Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has promised to provide adequate financial support to the East African community. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has promised to provide adequate financial support to the East African community. In a speech read for him by the speaker of the Kenyan senate, Ekwe Ethuro, Kenyatta expressed concern about the poor financial status of the community. Source: NTV Uganda

By Katare Mbashiru Zambian President Edgar Lungu toured the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) yesterday, reaffirming his country's commitment to continue using the Dar es Salaam Port. Mr Lungu who concluded his three day state visit in the country said that strong business ties between Tanzania and Zambia were only based on the brotherly relationship that the two countries have enjoyed for many years, but also because on the efficiency and continued improvements in service delivery at the port. The Zambian leader spoke after his tour of various departments at the port, categorically stating that his country would contine hauling huge cargo volume through the port, should it continue improving services ahead of other ports in the Southern African region. During a joint press briefing at State House on Monday, President John Magufuli appreciated Zambia as the leading country with high volume of cargo through the Dar es Salaam Port, hinting that in 2015 alone, 1.9 million tonnes were cleared at the port amid business boom between the two countries from 89.2bn/- in 2010 to 152.2bn/- in 2015. "President Magufuli and I have close friendship and our countries have a long history, but let me come out clearly that Zambians are not using this port simply because of our friendship, but because of efficiency and fasttracking of cargo clearance from the port," said the visiting presidnet. He said Zambians were dodging other ports due to inefficiency, reminding the Dar es Salaam port management to maintain efficiency. "I want to challenge you...

From support for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence to supporting forestry programmes, Finnish aid to Tanzania cannot be overstated. It is imperative that we remember how effectively Finland has aligned its assistance funding with Tanzania's development needs vis-à-vis the National Five Year Development Plan 2016/17-2020/21 and Vision 2025. Despite a reduction in development aid from the Finnish government to countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia and Nepal, Finland still maintains a huge assistance programme. It is worth noting that in its development aid strategy, Finland aims to ensure that its cooperation with Tanzania moves from aid to trade, economic cooperation, research and culture. The recent visit to Kenya and Tanzania by the Nordic country's minister for International Trade and Development, Mr Kai Mykkänen, was instructive, bearing in mind that Finland's foreign relations are premised on trade.  Mr Mykkänen led a delegation that included representatives of over 20 private companies specialising in energy, water and sanitation, technology, agriculture value addition and education. Tanzania one of the largest recipients of Finnish aid, and it goes without saying that Finnish aid to Tanzania has generally produced desirable results. Besides, Tanzania is the fastest developing economy in East Africa. The country's economic growth has generally been steady over the last decade, averaging between five and seven per cent. Projected growth for 2016 is about seven per cent. Not surprisingly, Tanzania has attracted enviable quantities of foreign direct investment in recent years, thanks to its rapidly developing industrial sector. In 2015...

Cargo owners have up to midnight to furnish the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) with verified gross mass details of a packed container. Among the basic information required are the equipment location, standardisation certificate and business registration certificate. The rule to verify gross mass of a packed container took effect on July 1, and is one of the requirements introduced after amendments were made to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) by International Maritime Organisation (IMO) members. “This information must be provided to the master or the master’s representative sufficiently in advance of loading for proper stowage and safe carriage of the cargo. Any packed container received at the port without the verified gross mass shall not be loaded on to a ship,” KMA’s acting director general Comas Cherop said in a statement. The SOLAS amendments provide that there are two methods shippers may use to determine the container weight once the container packing process has taken place. This requirement is applying globally, and IMO directed that shippers, freight forwarders, vessel operators, and terminal operators must establish policies and procedures to ensure the implementation of this regulatory change. Under the SOLAS amendments, there are two accepted methods for weighing. Method one requires weighing the container after it has been packed. The second one requires weighing all the cargo and contents of the container and adding those weights to the container’s tare weight as indicated on the door of the container. “Weighing of all packages and cargo...

President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) to assist the business community overcome trade barriers in order to actualise free trade across the East African Community (EAC). He said obstacles such as long clearing procedures, road blocks and changes in regulations negatively impacted business expansion. In a speech delivered by Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro on Tuesday, Mr Kenyatta said Eala and the EAC partner states are duty-bound to support the business community address challenges they face. “Our business community has been a keen partner and driver of our integration process. We are, therefore, duty-bound to support them in addressing the challenges they face in conducting and expanding their businesses,” he said. The Eala recently passed a binding legislation to eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTB) to trade among the EAC Partner states. NTBs come in various forms and often limit market access, changing the quantities of goods traded or increasing the prices of the goods. Mr Kenyatta noted the bringing into force of the EAC NTB Act 2015 was laudable and a critical area that requires concerted efforts from all, to bring a long-lasting and sustainable solution to the NTB problem. He said there is a need to do more in ensuring industrialisation flourishes and agriculture is given priority. “While keeping up our focus on infrastructural developments, we need to ensure that the goods that are carried on these roads and on the railway are made in East Africa,” he said. In his address to the Assembly in...

Nairobi — Kenya is set to host a group of investors from Jordan as the two countries seek to strengthen their political, social and economic ties. The 100-strong delegation of investors and business representatives will be in the country in mid December to meet traders in tea, coffee, hides and skins, aviation, food and beverages and the hospitality industry. Other sectors that will be represented include medical, health and the construction industry. Principal Secretary for the State Department of Trade in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Co-operatives, Chris Kiptoo said that the visit is a welcome development following the recent call on the state by King Abdulla of Jordan. "As a regional economic power house and with the number of incentives that we give to any investors the Jordanian delegation will find plenty of opportunities to partner with local investor," said Dr Kiptoo. "Investors in Jordan are taking heed of their Head of State to explore trading opportunities in East Africa and Kenya in particular. Jordan has some of the best specialty hospitals in the world, is renowned globally for their aviation prowess and well developed cosmetics industry. The country is also known for their dealings in oil, refrigeration/cooling and heavy importation of tea coffee, meat and leather products. The visit will involve an exhibition at the KICC, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) meetings as well as industry, plant and farm visits. Source: All Africa

TANZANIA Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) yesterday launched a freight and logistics platform in Dar es Salaam, calling upon the government and other key players to engage amicably in business to enhance the services in the country. Inaugurating the launch that drew in many stakeholders which form TPSF in its voice of the representing different private businesses owners which attended the occasion, Angelina Ngalula thanked the government for setting aside 2.18 trilion/- in its 2016/17 budget for the growth of the sector in the country. She named some of the business owners as Transporters Association of Tanzania (TAT), Tanzania Truck Owners Association (TATOA), to Tanzania Shipping Agents Association (TASAAA), among others. She said they collectively require strategic thinking and planning to improve economy that is not a one-man affair, adding that the private sector must marry with the government to revolutionise and improve the business climate currently prevailing in the country. She asked the government on behalf of the other key players in TPSF to address barriers in the market which create obstacles in their businesses, singling one as “consumers who must be protected in their rights and only served with standardised quality goods. ” Promising to conduct a survey to improve the business climate in the country, the chairperson of TPSF said that Dar es Salaam port and railway should be under one umbrella as in South Africa where the merge is doing well as they save time to consult one another as one body in business. She also mentioned...

Over the last year, all eyes have been on Africa’s technology sector. And for a very good reason: infrastructure growth is booming. Between 2010 and 2016, seven new undersea cables brought fast data connections to the continent, with two more already under development. Meanwhile, mobile providers have invested $13.6billion into getting 500,000,000 Africans online by 2020. But as necessary as infrastructure investment is, it alone won’t take African business global. So what technological development or product has the potential to make African businesses global players? Tech sector already outperforms expectations A common misconception is that raw materials are the big African growth story of the last decade. But according to research by Freshfields, since 2004 Africa’s technology companies have delivered 19% annualised returns, compared to just 11% in commodities. A clue to why the African tech sector is growing can be found in the East African mobile payments industry. In most of the world, mobile payments is a niche sector, because consumers have many other convenient ways to pay -bank cards, credit cards and banking transfers, for instance. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 34% of people have a bank account. This used to be a significant barrier to any transaction that wasn’t small-scale or local. Or, in plain English, it was a huge inconvenience. Change began in 2007, when local telco Safaricom teamed up with Vodafone to develop the mobile-payment system M-Pesa. Its creators expected M-Pesa to have 250,000 customers by the end of its third year. After just two...

TANZANIA Private Sector Foundation will receive a $400,000 grant from TradeMark Africa to support operations of a national platform launched in Dar es Salaam over the weekend to bring together policy makers and industry stakeholders to collectively tackle the challenges of the logistics and freight industry. Speaking during the launch of the platform, TMA Country Director, John Ulanga said the grant would support activities of the platform which is hosted by TPSF which is intended to foster best practices and play a critical role in the logistics sector. Currently East Africa’s trade corridors are characterised by long transit times and high costs. Freight costs per kilometre are more than 50 per cent higher than costs in the United States and Europe, and for the landlocked countries, transport costs can be as high as 45 per cent of the value of exports. "This platform is aimed at addressing these challenges and improving the region’s competitiveness,” he said. The national platform is expected to allow players to innovate, add value and strategise in order to realize the common objective of making the logistics and freight industry more efficient, sustainable, and innovative and ultimately increase the country’s competitiveness in order to secure economic growth and alleviate poverty. The Platform is also expected to deal with logistics inefficiencies, delays in the movement of goods and services, challenges in implementation of national and regional logistics policies, and harmonisation of documentation requirements by customs in the country. Other challenges the platform will address are related to...

East Africa is in the midst of an infrastructure projects surge due to low steel prices, regional economic strength and Chinese support for projects. The cost of steel, engineering and design services have all been low this year, as a result of weak international demand. In addition, contractors have more spare capacity than usual, so projects can be developed more quickly. A quarter of Chinese steel production capacity has been shut-in during the year to date and so Beijing has been keen to find outlets for Chinese output. This has helped drive the current boom in pipeline and railway projects in East Africa, including the new Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway line and Uganda’s planned oil export pipeline and railway to the northern Tanzanian port of Tanga, to name a few. Despite the rise in steel consumption in East Africa, other parts of the continent are unlikely to benefit from the same type of projects because of the economic downturn affecting many other countries. Weak Continental Demand The investment seen in East Africa is unlikely to be replicated in economies that rely on commodities, such as Zambia, Nigeria and Angola. Those African countries are facing extensive spending cuts, particularly where support from the IMF and other multilaterals is expected. With more emphasis on poverty reduction, the international lenders may not demand such deep spending cuts in return for loans as during previous downturns. Nevertheless, they are unlikely to countenance borrowing for big tickets infrastructural projects. Apart from anything else, the Mozambican...