Regional inflation rates could spike in the medium term following the sustained rebound of the price of crude oil in the international market, where it has risen from a low of $29 early this year to the current $47 per barrel. Rwanda recorded a rise in its April inflation rate to 4.6 per cent, up from 4.1 per cent a month earlier, which it blamed on rising energy and transport costs. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have also recorded an increase in fuel prices in the past month. The three countries saw their inflation drop in April, with Kenya’s year-on-year inflation dropping to 5.27 per cent in April, from 6.45 per cent a month earlier. Uganda’s inflation dropped to 5.1 per cent in April from 6.2 per cent in March, while Tanzania saw its April inflation decrease to 5.1 per cent from 5.4 per cent a month earlier. Rwanda’s central bank (BNR) said the country’s inflation levels experienced pressure as a result of increased transport prices after the recovery in global oil prices. Rwanda’s monthly inflation rate rose by 0.8 per cent in April, while its food prices rose by 5.6 per cent. The annual inflation rate for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 3.9 per cent while that for transport rose by 7.6 per cent. Last week, Rwanda’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced an increase in the petrol pump price from Rwf826 ($1.05) to Rwf860 ($1.09) per litre, making it the highest in the region. “The...

A trade forum between Rwanda and Tanzania is set to kick off Friday in Kigali, Rwanda, as the two East African nations look to strengthen bilateral ties in a new chapter of warming diplomatic relations. The joint summit, dubbed “Tanzania-Rwanda Trade Forum 2016,” is the first of its kind and is expected to draw hundreds of key business players and government officials from both countries, according to Rwandan newspaper the New Times. Tanzania’s relations with Rwanda soured in 2013 following a disagreement between the two administrations. Tanzania’s then-President Jakaya Kikwete had urged Rwandan President Paul Kagame to hold talks with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda in an effort to bring peace to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The comment drew fierce criticism from Rwanda, where negotiation with the Congo-based Hutu rebel group is seen as forbidden, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, trade between the two countries has reportedly fallen from $105 million in 2013 to $68 million last year. "Our relations appear to have been shaken following my advice to the Rwandan government to seek dialogue with their enemies," Kikwete reportedly said at the time. "I would like to assure our brothers and sisters in Rwanda that nothing has changed nor diminished from us in our relations and cooperation.” But since the November inauguration of Tanzanian President John Magufuli, the two governments have made significant steps toward improving bilateral relations. Kagame attended the swearing-in ceremony in Dar es Salaam port, and Magufuli returned the favor by visiting Kigali last...

Innovators and entrepreneurs in the logistics and transport sector across the East African Community have a chance to acquire part of $16 million grant-based fund under the second phase of the logistics Innovation for Trade (LIFT) Challenge Fund. The TradeMark Africa initiative will provide grants ranging from $150,000 to $1 million to winning proposals from innovators across the world, whose project ideas will be implemented in East Africa. The organisation has already called for entries from qualifying sector player. The LIFT initiative is managed by Nathan Associates through a fund management team based in Nairobi, and is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It seeks to trigger and introduce innovative approaches to tackling freight and transport costs in the East African Community (EAC). TradeMark Africa chief executive Officer Frank Matsaert urged innovators to apply for funding, saying the challenge had enabled stakeholders to test new ideas that should reduce the cost and transport time in the EAC. "It is our hope that the entrepreneurs and innovators of the East African Community 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 favourably in the increasingly global economy," said Matsaert. Businesses in the transport and logistics sector, or those that provide services to actors within it, are now being invited to submit their innovative concepts to LIFT for possible funding. The LIFT Challenge Fund is open to businesses...

Dodoma — The government yesterday tabled a Sh4.8 trillion grand plan to improve infrastructure during the 2016/17 fiscal year, of which Sh700 billion will go towards the purchase of new aircraft and improvement of airports. This is in accordance with the budget estimates tabled yesterday by the minister for Works, Transportation and Communication, Prof Makame Mbarawa. The amount, which the minister asked the Parliament to approve as development allocation for his ministry, is equivalent to 46 per cent of the national development budget for next financial year pegged at Sh10.5 trillion. Prof Mbarawa asked the money for, among other things, the construction and rehabilitation or roads, railways, airports, ports, bridges, ferries, buying of new aircrafts for Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL and improvement of institutions under the ministry. The money will also be used in projects to decongest Dar es Salaam City through building of ring roads as well as a number of flyovers and construction of a new commuter railway in the country's commercial capital. Prof Mbarawa told the Parliament that Sh500 billion has been set aside in the next financial year for the purchase of new aircraft for the troubled ATCL. However, the minister could not specify the amount and types of aircraft to be purchased, saying this will be known after a thorough analysis to be conducted later. Part of the money will also be used to decongest Dar es Salaam City. Some of projects outlined in the budget speech as part of that plan include construction...

Once hailed as one of the modern age’s most groundbreaking railway development, the TAZARA railway linking the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam with Zambia, has poor management, poor maintenance, corruption, and other inefficiencies over the past decades, impacting heavily on the company. Built by the Chinese government as a gift to both Tanzania and of course to support the Southern African liberation struggle, which saw Zambia at the time cut off from their regular import and export route via South African ports, hopes were initially high that the railway line could spur complimentary developments along the route. After a brief transition period, when the Chinese managed operations, the company was then handed over to both Zambia and Tanzania to be run by a locally-appointed team. Small trading posts which existed 40 years ago have since then grown into towns and municipalities, but the big breakthrough of economic prosperity along the rail line never happened. Struggling with funding from the two governments, and saddled with managers often seen as not up to their task, an agreement has apparently been reached in tripartite discussions that China assume the management of the railway while ensuring that line maintenance and maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock are vigorously pursued. A senior delegation from China reportedly was in both countries for talks and to identify an immediate action plan to turn the fortunes of TAZARA around, also, however, ensuring that before a Chinese state company steps in to manage TAZARA, both governments meet...

Dar es Salaam — Preparations towards the first Tanzania-Rwanda Business Forum have been completed, organisers have said. A forum manager from Tanzania, Mr Hurbert Kissasi, told The Citizen via email from Kigali yesterday that everything was well on track for the event that is slated for Friday this week. "So far, over 100 companies from both Tanzania and Rwanda have confirmed to take part in the event... .everything is going as earlier planned," he said. He said so far, over 50 companies from Tanzania and over 70 from Rwanda have confirmed their participation in the forum that goes with the theme of: "Strengthening Bilateral Trade & Investment Opportunities". The First Tanzania-Rwanda Trade Forum is organised jointly with the Rwanda Private Sector Federation, the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, the Tanzania Trade Development Authority and the Tanzania Truck owners Association. Participants will get a chance to engage in top quality business-to-business (B2B) discussions, a vital step towards improving trade ties between the countries. "This offers the most cost effective means of sourcing products, services and information about companies from the two countries," said Mr Kissasi. The event offers participants with access to a highly targeted audience of fellow industry professionals and thus helps members of the business community in Tanzania a direct personal access to stakeholders from Rwanda. New products, to be launched at the forum will be linked with conferences, exhibition and networking events. The presence of senior government officials from both countries also offers members of the...

Proper investments will also be used as a key driver of structural transformation through creating backward and forward linkages between agriculture production, industrialization and growth in services trade. The call was made by Ambassador Nathan Irumba from SEATIN Uganda, ahead of the regional investment climate meeting that takes place this Thursday and Friday at Lake Victoria hotel in Entebbe. The meeting is organized by SEATINI Uganda in partnership with Diakonia under the theme "Making investment work for the people of East African Community (EAC)". It's aimed at kick starting efforts towards "Promoting Investment policies and Agreements that support sustainable development and improved livelihoods within the region". The multi-stakeholder meeting will involve adoption of a multi-disciplinary approach to enhance stakeholders' awareness and capacity to understand and appreciate the imperative for investment policies and practices that are gender sensitive, protect human rights, promote environment sustainability and address the development needs of the EAC region. At the meeting, stakeholders will be able to appreciate the need for investment policies and practices that are gender sensitive; protect human rights; promote environment sustainability among others. Irumba added that investment can facilitate rural economic transformation through increased production and productivity as well as value addition. The East African Community region is characterized by mostly Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) due to the fact that deliberate effort has been made by governments to attract FDIs into their countries. Currently, the region has registered world FDI flows of up to US$ 7 billion in 2014. Besides this, the EAC...

Innovators and entrepreneurs in the logistics and transport sector across the East African Community have a chance to acquire part of $16 million grant-based fund under the second phase of the logistics Innovation for Trade (LIFT) Challenge Fund. The TradeMark Africa initiative will provide grants ranging from $150,000 to $1 million to winning proposals from innovators across the world, whose project ideas will be implemented in East Africa. The organisation has already called for entries from qualifying sector player. The LIFT initiative is managed by Nathan Associates through a fund management team based in Nairobi, and is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It seeks to trigger and introduce innovative approaches to tackling freight and transport costs in the East African Community (EAC). TradeMark Africa chief executive Officer Frank Matsaert urged innovators to apply for funding, saying the challenge had enabled stakeholders to test new ideas that should reduce the cost and transport time in the EAC. “It is our hope that the entrepreneurs and innovators of the East African Community 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 favourably in the increasingly global economy,” said Matsaert. Businesses in the transport and logistics sector, or those that provide services to actors within it, are now being invited to submit their innovative concepts to LIFT for possible funding. The LIFT Challenge Fund is open to businesses...

Kenya is losing its economic spark in the East African region, a new report has said. This is because of poor government policies that are not in line with those of the rest of the countries under the six-member East African Community. The Parliamentary Budget Office — the economists and fiscal analysts who advise MPs on the budget and the economy — said the country’s poor economic policies, plus some of the Government decisions had eroded confidence of the other East African countries in joint projects. “Kenya is slowly losing its comparative advantage of being a hub of the region. This is a result of policies that are not in tandem with its East African counterparts. As seen recently, Uganda has decided to build its crude-export pipeline through Tanzania,” said a PBO report on the 2016-17 budget. The verdict of the House economists is that the Jubilee administration has to shoulder the blame for the collapse of the multi-billion shilling oil pipeline partnership with Uganda. Uganda said the pipeline through Kenya was expensive. Rwanda too plans a diversion of the standard-gauge railway route to Tanzania citing cost challenges. Kenya was banking on a joint multi-trillion shilling pipeline and port project with Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia for the port of Lamu. Uganda has ten times the amount of crude oil found in Kenya and Kenya had hoped to entice Uganda to build a pipeline to the Lamu Port and use it to export its oil. The construction of the first three berths...

Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda consider ending imports of used garments by 2019 in order to increase domestic production. Five East African countries may ban sales of second-hand clothing from abroad – a staple of many residents’ wardrobes – in order to bolster domestic garment making. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda make up the East Africa Community (EAC), which directed its member countries to phase out textile and shoe imports by 2019. The heads of state of all five countries must agree before the limits could take effect. The proposal comes as many African countries seek to increase manufacturing and other industries to fuel economic growth. Charitable donations resold Second-hand clothing, mostly from Europe and North America, are a mainstay of local clothing markets in Africa, according to Dr. Andrew Brooks, author of Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-hand Clothes. In Uganda, for example, second-hand garments account for 81 percent of all clothing purchases, Brooks said. East Africa imported more than $150 million worth of second-hand clothing in 2015. Brooks noted that the used clothing is less expensive than locally produced garments or even inexpensive new imports. U.S., U.K. are largest exporters Most of the second-hand clothing sold around the world comes from charitable donations by European and North American residents who are unaware the clothing will be sold, Brooks said. The United States and the United Kingdom are by far the largest exporters of used clothing. The United States exported used garments worth more than...