Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been challanged to step up their potentials and tap into the East African Community (EAC) where majority of products are imported from overseas. The East African Community market has an assured boasts of 159 million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of over 100bn/-, Felix Mosha, former East African Business Council Chairman said over the weekend in Dar es Salaam. He was speaking during an award winning ceremony of the 2015/16 Top 100 mid-sized companies sponsored by Bank M Tanzania. The event saw Softnet Technologies Ltd announced victorious in this year’s statewide survey. According to Mosha, the country has small and medium industries but they mostly focus on the domestic market. “SMEs need to develop strategies on how to target where there is hot demand for the products,” he urged. Ketan Shah, KPMG Tanzania Partner announced this year’s top five companies as Softnet Technologies Ltd, Morogoro Plastics Ltd, Kays Logistics Ltd, Abacus Pharma Ltd and Techno Brain Tanzania Ltd. “The annual survey covers a broad range of factors including high level of growth in term of business turnover, profitability, operating costs, return on assets, creation of employment and compliance to business regulations including payment of government taxes." “These awards have created vast opportunities for the participants, and majority of the companies have gradually succeeded in growing their market share through public awareness of their products and services,” he concluded. Bank M, Deputy CEO Jacqueline Woiso expressed the Bank’s satisfaction in the partnership with...

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - The Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) and the African Media Initiative (AMI) have agreed to work together to raise awareness on the maritime economy through media related activities. The agreement was made following a visit by PMAESA Secretary General Ms Nozipho Mdawe and Head of Communications Mr. George Sunguh to the AMI headquarters in Nairobi recently. The PMAESA delegation met the AMI management team including Eric Chinje Chief Executive Officer, Wagethi Mwangi, Senior Advicer and Meredith Beal Technology Advisor. The meeting discussed possible areas of synergy between the two organizations in raising the profile of the maritime economy and related activities on the continent. Knowledge of the sector remains extremely low in Africa and the dissemination of information on the maritime sector has been a challenge as few journalists understand the sector. AMI and PMAESA will work to bring together leaders in the media industry and the maritime sector in Africa to discuss how the media can best inform citizens on opportunities present in the maritime economy. The African maritime sector remains under reported despite its enormous potential for transforming the continent’s economy hence by creating better linkages between the media and maritime economy stakeholders, AMI and PMAESA hope to spur improvements in the governance of the sector and to encourage a harmonized vision for an African maritime economy through a sharing of knowledge. Speaking during the courtesy call, Chinje said the maritime sector has deep significance for African populations in...

East African economies are looking to benefit from increased trade with the rest of the world following the extension of the 146-year-old Suez Canal in Egypt. The regional bloc has been receiving growing volumes of cargo — from 3.28 million tonnes in 2004 to 4.36 million tonnes in 2014 —through the canal. Official data from the Suez Canal Authority shows that the highest volumes were in 2006 (5.12 million tonnes) and 2008 (5.91 million tonnes). This cargo originates from countries in Europe, the UK, America, through the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. The volume of cargo from the EAC to these countries through the canal however declined by 617 per cent from 14.83 million tonnes to 2.06 million tonnes in the same period. Products passing through the canal include petroleum and related products such as crude oil, gasoline, gas oil and diesel oil, fuel oils and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Other goods are cereals, fertiliser, fabricated metals, chemicals, coal and coke, foodstuffs, machinery and parts, ores and metals, oil seeds and vegetable oils. From January to June, the volume of cargo passing through the canal to East Africa increased 80 per cent to 458,000 tonnes from 254, 000 tonnes. On June 10, Cairo hosted 26 heads of state representing the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), the EAC and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) at the official launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA). The TFTA is expected to increase trade in an...

The Kenya Revenue Authority has reversed a directive compelling Kenyan traders to declare shipments to the east African market through its Simba system, ending a month of uncertainty. The withdrawal of a directive issued to exporters and clearing agents last month took effect on Friday. “All such goods will now be declared under the Single Customs Territory procedures only”, Mr Julius Musyoki, KRA’s acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Control, said on Friday. The taxman on July 2 ordered traders servicing the EAC markets to declare their exports on the Simba cargo clearance system amid concern over a backlog of tax refunds claims, which have remained a thorny issue for KRA and the Treasury with traders pushing for reimbursement of money owed to them. Delayed payment of tax refunds has forced some businesses to borrow from banks in order to meet their cash flow needs, adding to the high cost of doing business in Kenya. “In order to facilitate VAT refunds pertaining to exports destined to East African Community (EAC) partner states, all exporters or clearing agents will now be required to declare their exports through the Simba system while importers in the country of destination will continue lodging import entries in the ASCYUDA/TACTIS system,” KRA said in a notice to traders and agents on July 2. As at December last year the government owed traders about Sh30 billion in VAT refunds accumulated over the years partly due to lack of a reliable system to capture and audit claims by...

After missing the 2010 deadline, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will now negotiate a new target date for the transformation of the organisation into a Customs Union (CU), during the 2015 Ordinary Summit. A CU is where a group of countries that have established a free trade area agree on common external tariffs and a common external trade policy, in a bid to drive increased trade and economic development in the region. Originally scheduled for 2010, the formation of CU is seen as key to deepening regional integration before the region incrementally moved towards a common market and a monetary union. Briefing the media on standing committee meetings being held in Gaborone ahead of next week’s Summit, SADC Director of Policy, Planning and Resource Mobilisation, Dr Angelo Mondlane said although the original target was not met, significant progress has been made towards regional integration efforts with all but two of the SADC members now part of a Free Trade Area (FTA). “We have not set a new deadline for transforming into a customs union. It is one of the items to be discussed here as we realised that operating without a target is not very helpful,” he said. The Heads of State and Government Summit will take place in Gaborone from August 17-18, 2015. According to Mondlane, there are numerous reasons why the original target was not met, which include overlapping membership with some SADC countries belonging to multiple organisations such as East African Community (EAC) and Comesa. Under...

Uganda will host the first East African Community manufacturing business summit and exhibition in early September. According to the organisers - the EAC secretariat and East African Business Council (EABC) - the summit aims to promote East Africa as an attractive and competitive hub for manufacturing hub. James Mutende, the minister of state for Industry, said the manufacturing business summit is a platform to show how the East African bloc can grow through a diversified manufacturing sector. "The manufacturing summit will be held at Speke Resort hotel, Munyonyo, and the exhibition will be graced by President Yoweri Museveni. We expect the presence of international and regional development partners and captains of industries in the region," Mutende told the press at the Media Centre recently. Jean Baptiste Havugimana, the director of products at the EAC secretariat, said the summit was expected to unveil new possibilities of manufacturing within the region and generate solutions and strategies to address any shortcomings within the sector. "The contributions of industries to the GDP in all the countries in the region is only 10 per cent, according to reports from International Monetary Fund and EAC data, but through such summits and discussions we want to see that the contribution increases to 25 per cent in the near future," Havugimana said. "Our strategic plan at the EAC secretariat is to ensure that the manufacturing sector is on the frontline in driving the economy..." Shem Bageine, Uganda's minister of state for EAC, said the two-day event would have...

Receives proposals for setting up two plants for processing of rice and beans in Rwanda, a sugar refinery in Tanzania, a pulses processing plant and a unit to process animal products. As many as five projects are under consideration now for investment in East African countries that will be facilitated under the Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) project. Govind Venuprasad, co-ordinator, SITA office for Asia and the Pacific, told The Hindu here on Tuesday that in the last four months, SITA had received proposals from mid-sized Indian companies for setting up two plants for processing of rice and beans in Rwanda, a sugar refinery in Tanzania, a pulses processing plant and a unit to process animal products. The approximate investment of these projects was expected to be $18 million. Earlier, speaking at a meeting organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, he said countries covered under the SITA project were India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. The implementation phase for the project started in April this year and would be on till March 2020, and the focus sectors include leather, cotton, textiles, apparel, coffee, spices, essential oils, IT and ITES, and pulses. The Exim Bank was keen and was open to supporting bankable projects, he said. Indian partners and companies can look at investment, export of products and capital equipment, and technology and knowledge transfer to these countries. Rajesh Aggarwal, chief of trade facilitation and policy for business, International Trade Centre,...

THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has conducted training workshops for stakeholders in transit trade in preparation for the implementation of regional trade facilitation instruments. The objective of the training is to prepare key stakeholders involved in transit trade in Zambia with knowledge and skills to implement the COMESA Virtual Trading Facilitation System (CVTFS). The CVTFS is a trade facilitation technology that provides a single electronic platform for processing various transit trade instruments, including transit bonds, cargo tracking, overload control and insurance, among others. COMESA secretariat public relations officer Mwangi Gakunga said the commission had in May this year conducted six training workshops for stakeholders in transit trade in preparation for the implementation of regional trade facilitation instruments. He was speaking in a statement released in Lusaka. Mr Gakunga said the training also covered the Regional Customs Transit Guarantee (RCTG) scheme, commonly known as the CARNET, which is a customs transit regime designed to facilitate the movement of goods under customs seals in the COMESA region and to provide the required customs security and guarantee to the transit countries. "The training was also triggered by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Zambia Revenue Authority and COMESA in May this year, for the implementation of the CVTFS," he said. Mr Gakunga has since refuted media reports that COMESA had been holding secret workshops to promote its trade facilitation instruments. He said the workshop addressed inherent fears among Clearing agents that the implementation of the systems, especially...

On June 10, 2015, at the 25th African Union Summit in Cairo, Egypt, African leaders signed the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA). Prior to its signing, the agreement had been in negotiations for seven years. Several bodies have existed in Africa to foster regional economic integration: the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA). TFTA intends to unite three of these existing blocks, SADC, EAC, and COMESA, into one unified region. In doing so, the agreement renews the long-standing dream of an economically-integrated entity stretching from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa. If ratified, the agreement will create the largest free trade zone in the continent’s history with a membership of over 26 African states, a population of 632 million, an area of 17.3 million square kilometers, total trade of US$1.2 trillion, and 60% of continental output. TFTA also establishes a framework to bring in the Central and West African nations that are currently excluded from the agreement at a later date, which would create an even larger free trade zone across the entire continent. Details of the TFTA TFTA seeks to fulfill three main pillars: market integration, infrastructure development and industrial development. In terms of intra-regional trade flows, Africa is the least...

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has described the East African Community (EAC) as a great African dream that is fast becoming a reality. Uhuru made the remarks, yesterday, while addressing the Ugandan parliament during his three-day state visit to the country. "It is the fastest integrating region in Africa, and one of the fastest in the world. Our Northern Corridor Integration projects have led the way," Kenyatta told the House. "One example is the Standard Gauge Railway, whose construction, starting in Mombasa, is progressing on schedule. Upon its completion, it will dramatically reduce cargo transport costs by 60 per cent, to the benefit of Ugandan businesses, farmers and consumers alike." The Northern Corridor is the transport network that links the landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Burundi to Kenya's Maritime Port of Mombasa. Kenyatta's visit was dominated by bilateral talks on trade, regional security and the ambitious infrastructural projects under the Northern Corridor that the two countries share. He said his country is expanding the port of Mombasa and taking steps to rapidly improve its efficiency. "We are also going ahead with the development of the LAPSSET project, which will offer the region yet another world-class outlet for its goods," he added. Source: All Africa