Modernisation of Tanzania’s main airport is back on course after more than a year’s delay, a project likely to reduce Dar es Salaam’s reliance on Nairobi for transit flights by some of European airlines. Authorities in Tanzania have announced the construction of the new passenger terminal at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) will be completed in June 2019. The $300 million (Sh30.27 billion) project had been delayed over a funding stand-off after President John Magufuli questioned its costs and implementation timeframes in February 2017. The airport’s terminal 3 – which includes construction of 24 parking lots, access roads and a taxiway — is designed for expected growth in international traffic. The capacity of the airport is set to more than double to six million annual passengers from the present 2.5 million once the project is completed, Reuters reported, quoting a statement from Prime Minister’s office. Emirates, KLM, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and Swiss International Airlines are some of major international airports that fly to Dar’s main airport. Tanzania, however, still relies on Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to get some of its international guests, largely tourists, because some of the major airlines such as British Airways do not fly Tanzania. Tanzania’s reliance on Nairobi for some of its tourists came to the fore following an outcry from tour operators when Nairobi banned Tanzanian-registered vans from accessing the JKIA for 25 days from December 22, 2014. The move was in retaliation to a similar decision by Tanzanian authorities to deny...

Kenya Airways is staring at a possible loss of its regional market share following the planned revival of national carriers in Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. Kenya Airways, popularly known by the code KQ, has been enjoying a big presence in these countries capitalising on lack of national airlines. Air Tanzania is welcoming a new aircraft- Bombardier Q-400, which is the third since President John Magufuli rose to power, in an effort to revive the ailing airline. The airline has also lined up three more jet aircraft, including two Bombardier C300s and one Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to arrive in the country before the end of this year. Uganda is also in the process of reviving its national airline before the end of the year after the cabinet approved the plan. This will cut the 15 years dominance that KQ has been enjoying at Entebbe which might result in revenue loss as Uganda seeks to claw back regional routes to kick-start an ambitious global outreach. Kenya’s Transport Principal Secretary Paul Maringa, however, says the move will not affect KQ’s earnings as part of the efforts to revive the local airline are aimed at making it competitive in the regional market. “There will be increased competition obviously, but this does not mean it will affect the operations of KQ. We are banking our strength on the services that we offer, which will keep us going even in the presence of stiff competition,” said the PS. Prof Maringa said there is nothing wrong with...

Cross-border traders are blaming Customs officials for harassment, high taxes, and inspection of their products by the customs authorities at the border points. According to the traders, the officials lack information on the Customs Union and the Common Market Protocol. The traders were speaking at the recently concluded 20-year anniversary celebrations of the East African Business Council in Nairobi. “Most of these officers do not understand what the Common Market Protocol entails. You will be charged taxes at the border on every product even when you try to explain that you are East African and it is not right,” said Charity Githinji, the managing director of Tandaza Tanzania Ltd. She said that although the one stop border posts have helped ease the cost and time of doing business, not all the Customs officers understand how they work. “If, for example, I am crossing the border from Tanzania to Kenya, I am subjected to checks on both sides instead of just one side,” said Ms Githinji. She cited the single tourist visa as one of the boosts for business in the region, even though only Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have signed it. Hajjat Nakasujja, the chief executive of Aloesha Organic Natural Health Products, said there was a need to sensitise Customs officials on what free trade under the EAC entails. “New rules, regulations and agreements are passed but the information does not reach the border officials. This is where the challenge is,” said Ms Nakasujja. EABC chairman, Jim Kabeho recommended implementation of...

March 21 in Kigali, Rwanda, saw African leaders launch the biggest free trade agreement since the establishment of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization 23 years ago. The African Continental Free Trade Area is a culmination of an agreement reached in 2012 and the intense negotiations of African heads of government that started in earnest in 2015. Initially the accord was to be signed by 55 member states. Only 44 signed the document after Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, absconded. Whichever way you look at it, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, also the African Union chairman, rightly put it: "Some horses decided to drink the water. Others have excuses and they end up dying of thirst." The new free trade area brings together an estimated 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of more than $2 trillion. The draft agreement commits countries to removing tariffs on 90 percent of goods, with 10 percent of what they referred to as "sensitive items" to be phased in later. Crucially, the covenant liberalizes services and aims to address the perpetual problem of non-tariff barriers, which have become the biggest headache in intra-African trade. Such barriers come in the form of government laws, regulations, policies, conditions, restrictions or specific requirements or prohibitions that protect domestic industries from foreign competition. Once the bottlenecks are done away with, African states look forward to a situation where there will be free movement of labor and the establishment of a single currency like the eurozone monetary union of 19...

Delta Air Lines has said it added a second non-stop route from Lagos to the United States (U.S.), with the aim of boosting trade and commerce between both nations put at $9 billion as at 2016. The airline also affirmed that the move came as Nigeria opens up greater investment opportunities, as well as to provide business travellers more opportunities to reunite with families and friends.Records have shown that the U.S. is Nigeria’s largest foreign investor and the airline carried more than 89,000 passengers between Lagos and the country in 2017, while the new strategy is expected to increase the indices. Unveiling the new commercial schedules to newsmen last week, in Lagos, alongside the Commercial Director, West and East Africa, Bobby Bryan, the company’s Senior Vice President, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, Corneel Koster, said the Lagos to New York-JFK route is planned to connect both financial headquarters. Launched on March 25, 2018, as the first ever direct operations on the route, he disclosed that the flights depart Lagos at 11.30p.m (23:30hrs) on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday to arrive New York-JFK at 5.30a.m (05:30hrs), while in-bound flights arrive Lagos Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. According to Koster, the new arrangement will afford customers flying to Delta’s New York-JFK hub the benefit of over 20 connections across the U.S. to destinations including Washington D.C., Baltimore and Chicago, while also complementing the existing Lagos-Atlanta route with more travel options to and from the U.S. “With the U.S. the largest foreign investor in...

The East African Community (EAC) stands to benefit from the recently unveiled African free trade area if it consolidates its internal market, according to the East African Business Council (EABC). “Failure to remove trade impediments means that our bloc will remain weakened,” EABC executive director Lillian Awinja said last week. She told regional press that the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) unveiled in Kigali last week could pull some EAC states into the new pact at the expense of their trade relations. “This means the benefits going elsewhere...to the rest of African market instead of our internal market,” she said on the sidelines of a regional workshop on trade between EAC and the outside world. CFTA was launched by leaders of the African Union (AU) member states in Kigali on March 21, and the continental body hopes that it will be the world’s largest single market with a cumulative GDP of $3.4 trillion. Leaders from some 44 African countries out of 55 signed up for the trade deal while more others committed to the deal through assenting to the Kigali Declaration. The milestone agreement is seen as a key part of AU’s long-term development plan, Agenda 2063, which calls for easing of trade and travel across the continent. The pact came in the wake of advanced talks on a tripartite trade area comprising the EAC, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and South African Development Community (Sadc), constituting more than 60 per cent of Africa’s GDP and...

AS people continue to complain over substandard and fake goods, the Zanzibar Foods and Drugs Agency (ZFDA) has been urged to ensure that all the consumable products imported to the Islands are safe for its people. The call was made here by the Deputy Minister for Health, Ms Harusi Said Suleiman (pictured), at the launching of the ZFDA Information Management System or 'ZFDA e-portal' as par the 'East African Community Medicine Regulatory Harmonisation' (EAC-MRH). "With this support, you have to ensure that food and drugs in Zanzibar are safe for the people," said Ms Suleiman as she thanked Trade-Mark East Africa (TMA) for the support as she appealed to the agency officers to work hard to meet their goal. TMA funded the design and roll out of the e-portal with a grant of US 150,000 dollars. It is expected that the e-portal will ease trade document verifications and improve health safety inspections, along with administration and management of regulatory services and documents issued by ZFDA. Dr Burhan Simai, the Executive Director of ZFDA, said its agency "Prides itself in joining the ranks of 4 other countries in EAC who have rolled out e-portals for their pharmaceutical regulatory bodies. It is a reassurance to citizens that food and drugs in the market are of good quality." TMA Tanzania Country Director, Mr John Ulanga, said that supporting the portal is in line with the organisation's commitment to working with EAC institutions to reduce barriers to trade, "Easing the importation and transiting of...

A free trade agreement across Africa is "great in principle," Matthew Parks, parliamentary deputy co-ordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), told CNBC via telephone Tuesday. COSATU represents more than 2 million workers in South Africa. Attending a summit in Kigali, Rwanda, last week, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa did not immediately sign the African Union's proposed free trade agreement. The agreement posits a free trade area between its 55 member states. Safeguarding jobs and cheap Chinese goods flooding the market are hurdles the South African government must clear before it signs up to a pan-African free trade agreement, the country's largest trade union group told CNBC. A free trade agreement across Africa is "great in principle," Matthew Parks, parliamentary deputy co-ordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), told CNBC via telephone Tuesday. COSATU represents more than 2 million workers in South Africa. But, "we need to see some kind of plan," he added. Attending a summit in Kigali, Rwanda, last week, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa did not immediately sign the African Union's proposed free trade agreement, which posits a free trade area between its 55 member states. Ramaphosa instead signed the Kigali Declaration, a precursor to the deal. "We are part of this process of opening up Africa for trade. All that is holding us back from signing the actual agreement is our own consultation process," Ramaphosa was quoted as saying by South African broadcaster eNCA. Forty-four African nations signed on to...

The East African Community is set for logo change in a move aimed at accommodating new members and creating harmony among various organs within the body. The exercise which is expected to conclude in November saw youths from member states invited to submit different designs for consideration. It got 485 different designs from the youths aged between 18-35 years. “We have narrowed down to ten applicants and expect to forward the top three to the council of ministers for approval in an exercise we expect to come to conclude before the end of this year,” said Jesca Eriyo, EAC deputy secretary general. “Rebranding is important to enable the East Africa Community have a simple logo that can also be easily adopted in other organs of the body,” she said noting that the current logo has so many colours that needs to be replaced to also accommodate new entrants in the union. The East African Community launched the rebranding competition in 2017 targeting to change its visual brand identity for eleven Organs and Institutions including the regional parliament and the court. The council of ministers will consider the report of the top entrants in April 2018, where 438 proposed designs have been considered by regional brand experts. The Rebranding process targets to resolve among others the lack of a unique common identifier among the EAC Organs and Institutions, too many colours being used for the flag and logos, the EAC logo not being adaptable to the expansion of the community, two...

African leaders have just signed a framework establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, the largest free trade agreement since the creation of the World Trade Organisation. The free trade area aims to create a single market for goods and services in Africa. By 2030 the market size is expected to include 1.7 billion people with over USD$ 6.7 trillion of cumulative consumer and business spending – that’s if all African countries have joined the free trade area by then. Ten countries, including Nigeria, have yet to sign up. The goal is to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments. The agreement has the potential to deliver a great deal for countries on the continent. The hope is that the trade deal will trigger a virtuous cycle of more intra African trade, which in turn will drive the structural transformation of economies – the transition from low productivity and labour intensive activities to higher productivity and skills intensive industrial and service activities – which in turn will produce better paid jobs and make an impact on poverty. But signing the agreement is only the beginning. For it to come into force, 22 countries must ratify it. Their national legislative bodies must approve and sanction the framework formally, showing full commitment to its implementation. Niger President Issoufou Mahamadou, who has been championing the process, aims to have the ratification process completed by January 2019. Cause and effect Some studies have shown...