An increasing drive to promote domestic textile manufacturing in East Africa is threatening the trade in used clothing to the region, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has been told. The warning was delivered at a session on the global trade in used clothing and textiles at the BIR’s annual Convention and Exhibition in Berlin last week (31 May – 1 June), where delegates disagreed on the status of the used clothing trade. While some  consider used clothing to be a product generated through sorting operations and recognised market specifications, others notably the East African Community (EAC), continued to regard used clothing as a waste and a threat to new clothing production. This view has given rise to calls in some parts of the world for a ban on used clothing imports. At a meeting on an EAC proposal to phase out imports of used textiles and footwear by 2019, BIR Textiles Division president, Mehdi Zerroug, of Framimex in France, said: “Second-hand clothing is a product and new clothing is a product – this needs to be understood.” EAC The EAC comprises six countries, namely: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Guest speaker Jalia Nabukalu Packwood, business development officer at Bangor University’s Sustainability Lab in the UK, explained that used textiles traders number in the many tens of thousands in places such as Uganda and Kenya. The convention heard that more than 80% of all clothing purchases in Uganda were used clothes, while Kenya collected US$ 54 million...

The Kenyan port of Mombasa and Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port are the traditional competitors but the Kenyan government is now planning a huge new port at Lamu, while Tanzania is developing Bagamoyo. Both ports will be larger than any other port in sub-Saharan Africa if completed as planned. They will also be at the centre of much bigger developments, with industrial zones being laid out and intensive farming being proposed. The Tanzanian authorities hope Bagamoyo will handle 20 million containers a year, that is 25 times larger than the port at Dar es Salaam. Kenya's planned Lamu port is expected to be just as big. However, these are the proposed, long term figures, which will be achieved over decades rather than years. Construction will take place in phases as and when required. The scale of the initial phases has not been determined but will be much more modest. One hurdle that is delaying the development of both projects is the question of compensation. In the case of Bagamoyo, 2,000 people have lost their homes or farmland to the project and associated industrial zone. The Tanzanian government says that it will pay a total of $20.9m (£14.4m). But the figure would be much higher if there was a plan to enlarge the Dar es Salaam port as it is already surrounded by urban development and has limited room for expansion. Apart from serving their own domestic markets, the Tanzanian and Kenyan ports will also be competing for a wider prize,...

As a Kenyan, I am happy to hear that Rwanda is not walking away from Northern Corridor SGR, but working on a plan that will concurrently rely on its good relations with both Kenya and Tanzania to advance not only its interests but also the collective interests of the whole region through the railroads. However, I would urge the Rwandan Government to broadcast this position much more loudly to the world. The reason is because media outlets from various parts of the world, based on the earlier misreporting on the topic, are spreading all sorts of innuendo about the impact of the decision by Rwanda to use the Tanzanian route on the existing cordial relations among the members of the East African Community. In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to urge the peoples of East Africa not to lose sight of the vision and mission that originally created the East African Community that is currently powering the economic renaissance of the region. Let us hold hands and march forward together in unity and fraternity. We stand to gain more from collaboratively confronting our problems than from working separately. Who knows? In the future, we could evolve into a super state out of our collaboration. We could come up with something really ingenious with which to represent ourselves to the world – something like “The United Republic of Swahili Speakers”. Imagine how incredibly beautiful that would be. We would have everything within our borders – oil, coal, diamonds,...

This was revealed by the Chairman of Board of Directors Ali Mufuruki who said EAC still needs the support of his organisation especially when it comes to Infrastructure development. He said without well-developed infrastructure the EAC may fail to attract more international investors. “We are committed to raise the funds from our development partner’s because 80% of them are willing to offer their support after we proved capacity in effectively utilising the little resources they have given us,” said Mukuruki. This was during the TMA -2014/2015   Annual performing report release in Kampala. The $1billion will be used to support identified projects in the EAC countries Namely Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and the newly incorporated South Sudan. Without naming the projects TMA will finance in the upcoming five years, Mufuruki said the projects will be developed by the member’s states and must be in line with supporting trade and improving social services in the region. Some of the development partner’s TMA hopes to raise the $1billion funds to finance the projects in the EAC Economic block includes   Sweden Embassies, United Kingdom’s DFID, Canada and USIAD among other financiers. The above mentioned partners have been Influential in supporting TMA in the last five years.  “The results  are  truly  impressive .TMA,s support  for the Modernisation  of ports  in Mombasa and Dare Salam  and its  one stop  border posts  are  transforming  trade  and  driving  integration across the region. The time it takes to move goods from Mombasa to Kampala has been...

The implementation of the East African multi-entry single tourist visa is being hampered by the differences in national visa policies and regimes in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. Speaking at a recent stakeholder forum in Kigali, a senior tourism development officer from Uganda Anne Awori, said that member states are forcing tourists holding the pass to pay extra upon entry into their countries. “We have come across many cases of officials asking tourists who have obtained the single entry visa from Uganda to pay entry fees in Rwanda or Kenya,” said Ms Awori. “A recent case is when Rwanda charged a 13-year-old tourist who was issued a regional visa from Uganda an additional $60.” Earlier, Uganda had blamed Kenya and Rwanda for breaching the visa agreement by issuing their own local visas to tourists instead of the single EAC tourist visa. At one time, Ugandan tourism officials were quoted by the local media as threatening to pull out from the visa project. “A visa is supposed to be issued by the first country of entry. For a Congolese for instance, Rwanda is their first entry country. But when we issue the visa, Uganda raises questions and makes them pay again for the pass,” said a Rwandan official. The heads of state from the three countries launched the single tourism visa in February 2014 under the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects. The idea is to allow tourists to move freely within Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda without applying or paying for another visa. Tourism...

Africado Ltd was established in the Kilimanjaro Region of Northern Tanzania in 2007 as the first grower in Tanzania of the Hass cultivar. Africado is Tanzania’s largest grower and exporter of avocados. In 2009, Africado successfully raised business growth capital from the Norwegian Development Finance Institution (NorFund) to complete the development of its avocado nucleus plantation farm (Kifufu Estate). The farm has planted 137 hectares of orchards to Hass and employs 140 full-time staff, and an additional 200 seasonal workers. Over 2,000 out-growers (farmers who supply avocados to Africado for export) are now engaged in the production of Hass. The farm was originally a long-abandoned coffee plantation that is now in its rehabilitated state producing 2,600 tonnes of Hass avocados a year. In December 2012, Africado Ltd, with their partner Westfalia Ltd of Tzaneen, South Africa, was awarded a grant by the TradeMark Africa Challenge Fund (TRAC) to assist with the construction of a state-of-the-art processing, cold-chain and packaging facility to export avocados grown and packed on site to EU and the Middle East-based customers via Mombasa port. By raising the competitiveness of Tanzanian agricultural products and being able to better access export markets for Tanzania produce, Africado has also increased the returns to its farmer suppliers by providing value-added services such as training and agricultural product quality assurance. Africado’s interest in establishing the packaging, cold-chain and export facility was to enable local producers like itself to gain direct access to export markets. Prior to the establishment of the facility,...

KILOSA, Tanzania (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The huge stock of maize Jumanne Masele put aside last year was enough to spare his family from hunger and earn him cash to repay his debts - or so he thought. A short while after Masele had finished stuffing the grain into a traditional storage cocoon, he realized much of it had been infested by fungus as ground moisture from heavy rain seeped in through the bottom of his store made of dried soil, sticks and grass. “There was nothing I could do to salvage my grains - it was a total loss,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Despite a bumper harvest, the farmer, 44, from Mbumi village in the east Tanzania district of Kilosa lost most of his crops, threatening his family’s food supply.  “I still don’t know how to store my harvests - traditional techniques are no longer effective as the grain easily rots when we get unexpected extra rains,” Masele said. Agriculture is the backbone of Tanzania’s economy, providing work for more than four fifths of the population. The rural sector accounts for over half the country’s gross domestic product and export earnings, according to national statistics. Yet as Tanzanian farmers struggle to market their crops, nearly 40 percent of grains are lost to poor storage and extreme weather, costing the nation $332 million every year, the government says. Efforts are underway to curb these losses. Since 2013, smallholder farmers in nine African countries have been getting help to...

Kampala- The founding First Ladies of the East African Community (EAC) have called for fast-tracking of the integration plans by the member countries. This call was made during a special sitting of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) in Arusha, Tanzania, on Tuesday. Ms Ngina Kenyatta, the widow of Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta, and Ms Miria Obote, the widow of former president Milton Obote, reminisced over the memories of the first EAC and challenged Eala members to ensure the future of integration is both guaranteed and realised. Ms Maria Nyerere, widow of Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania, did not attend the function and was represented by Makongoro Nyerere, an Eala member. Ms Obote called for the prioritisation of economic investment projects, including oil refineries, the Standard Gauge Railway, agricultural research, food security and climate change. She urged the region to move faster to have an integrated syllabus and curriculum to stabilise the labour market within EAC. “For instance, a majority of Ugandans have never learnt proper Swahili. We are now learning proper Swahili in schools and in the public engagement. This is the best way towards integration,” she said. Ms Kenyatta informed the regional MPs that EAC’s founding fathers had “walked and worked tirelessly” in anticipation of unity of the region. “In 1967, all three of us were witnesses to the establishment of a community that spoke to that shared sentiment. The East African Community was built on the understanding that our nations and our people were...

The second round of Challenge Fund support for entrepreneurs working in the logistics and transport sector was launched recently with a financing mechanism in the range of $16m. The Logistics Innovation for Trade (LIFT) Challenge Fund, which is a $16 million (Tsh.35.2 billion) grant-based financial mechanism, supports innovators with good ideas for products or services that can reduce the costs of transport and logistics in East Africa. According to TradeMark Africa (TMA) which is a non-profit organization, LIFT will provide grants ranging from $ 150,000 to $ 1,000,000 (Tsh.330 million to Tsh.2.2billion respectively) to winning proposals from innovators from across the world whose project ideas will be implemented in the East African Community (EAC). East Africa is reported to have the highest freight and transport costs in the world. It is said that the freight costs are over 50% higher than those of the United States and Europe per kilometre. Successful LIFT projects will contribute to TMA’s objective of reducing transport time along the main East Africa transport corridors by 15% by the end of 2016. Dr. Josephat Kweka, Country Director Tanzania, TMA said it was their hope that the entrepreneurs and innovators of the EAC in partnership with their counterparts internationally will drive forward development through the adoption or introduction of ‘best practice’ technologies in the transport and logistics sector, enabling local businesses to compete favorably in the increasingly global economy. “LIFT is a valuable financial instrument that supports private sector ‘can-do’ to develop and test new ideas that...

The six East African States are set to replicate a new driving curriculum recently launched in Kenya as the region moves to harmonise its roads' instruction manual. East African Community (EAC) secretary-general Liberat Mfumukeko said Kenya's curriculum meets the standards of the proposed regional one that would be launched soon and adopted by all member states. The bloc's members include South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Mr Mfumukeko said EAC would use the syllabus to test the implementation of the regional training manual. "The curriculum that you have launched meets the requirements of the regional standards. We at the community will use the implementation modalities for the Kenyan curriculum to test the implementation of our manual guide," said Mr Mfumukeko. Last week, Kenya launched a new curriculum to replace the one that is currently on use as the country seeks to curb increasing cases of road accidents that have largely been attributed to human error. TradeMark Africa has developed the regional curriculum and training material for drivers of large commercial vehicles in EAC. The syllabus comprises the EAC standardised curriculum for drivers of large commercial vehicles for both passengers and freight. The curriculum was developed with input from Kenya's National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA). The country's Transport Cabinet secretary James Macharia said it is important for the region to harmonise the driving curriculum for the benefit of member states. "It is good to note that we are heading towards harmonisation of the regional curriculum for drivers, this...