Tanzania has joined Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda in fast tracking the movement of goods along the main corridors (Northern and Central) under the Customs seals in the Comesa region. This follows the signing of an inter-surety agreement by Tanzania’s National Insurance Corporation (NICT) to join Comesa Regional Transit Guarantee (RCTG) scheme thereby allow the country to issue regional Customs bond guarantees. The RCTG Scheme is a Customs transit regime designed for the ease of movement of goods under Customs seals in the Comesa region and to provide the required Customs security and guarantee to the transit countries. The scheme ensures that Customs in a transit country receive proper payment for dues and duties for any goods in transit. Bonds or guarantees are given by the owner of goods or their agents to the benefit of the Customs of the country of transit. “This will now enable the NICT to issue regional Customs transit bonds as part of the national chain of sureties that are signatories to the Inter Surety Agreement,” said NICT acting managing director Sam Kamanga. Tanzania Revenue Authority has already configured its national IT system. Last year, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda started using the Comesa Customs bonds scheme after the rollout of the EAC Single Customs Territory. The rolling out of the RCTG on the Northern Corridor from Mombasa to Kampala and Kigali has reduced transit time from an average of 21 days to four days. Trucks with RCTG spend about 30 minutes on both sides of the...

The East African Community member states are delaying implementation of the EAC Common Market Protocol, thus denying the bloc full integration, says the East African Legislative Assembly. “The biggest challenge is delays and commitment in harmonising national laws to fit with the requirements of the protocol,” said Peter Mathuki, Kenyan member of EALA and chair of the Committee on Legal, Rules and Privileges. “Partner states must co-operate on harmonising policies; they must also share information and experiences on how to regulate markets,” he added. Mr Mathuki said that, over the past seven years, reforms in the EAC have focused on simplifying regulatory processes. The establishment of the EAC Common Market Protocol is in line with the provisions of the EAC Treaty. It provides for “Four Freedoms:” The free movement of goods, labour, services, and capital. The plan is to implement the protocol established in 2010 progressively until December 31. According to a report by EALA, 63 measures out of 500 key sectoral laws and regulations of partner states have been identified by the committee as inconsistent with the Common Market Protocol. Seventy-three per cent of these are exclusively related to professional services. In terms of movement of capital, only two — external borrowing and repatriation of proceeds from sale of assets — out of 20 capital operations are free of restrictions in all partner states. Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) chairman Vimal Shah said that only when the protocol is fully implemented, the larger integrated market encourage more investment. According...

THE Chairman of the East African Community (EAC) regional Council of Ministers, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, is on Thursday expected to table 201bn/- EAC budget for 2015/16 fiscal year. Members of the East African Legislative Assembly, who have just started their session here, will be debating and expected to approve the East African Budget for the next fiscal year. The EAC will this year table a regional budget estimated at 110 million USD, nearly 204bn/-, to cover the fiscal year 2015-2016, which starts next month. An official report from the Arusha-based EAC Secretariat as relayed by Mr Richard Owora Othieno, stated that the new budget estimates were agreed during the just-ended 31st Extraordinary meeting of the regional Council of Ministers’ meeting, which was recently held in Burundi. The meeting considered and adopted the fiscal year budget estimates amounting to 110,660,098 US dollars to fund the Secretariat, East African Legislative Assembly, East African Court of Justice and the Lake Victoria Basin Commission. The new budget is also to cater for the East African Science and Technology Commission, the East African Kiswahili Commission, the East African Health Research Commission, the East African Competition Authority, the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), and the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation (LVFO). Each of the five EAC Partner State is to contribute 8,378,107.60 US dollars towards the proposed EAC budget and each Partner State is to contribute 824,445.60 US Dollars towards the IUCEA Budget for 2015/2016. The council directed the Secretariat to fund the budget increase amounting...

PORT service stakeholders have described the decision by Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS) to apply for tariff reviews as not welcoming. Speaking during a stakeholders meeting to share views, organised by the Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA), Tanzania Truck Owners Association, CEO, Mr Elitunu Mallamia said the decision is cause for concern. Mr Mallamia said news of the application is worrying to truckers as they handle 98 per cent of the cargo that passes through the Port and that raising tariffs by 30 per cent will encourage truckers to divert to other ports. “We feel that the 30 per cent increase does not match the services offered. When people hear of the intended tariff reviews, the first question that will come to mind will surely be, what added value will one be getting?” He queried. SUMATRA Consumer Consultative Council, Executive Secretary, Dr Oscar Kikoyo, said that the Council feels that before an application is tendered TICTS should present evidence of improved services. Dr Kikoyo said that the council does not feel that the review is justifiable. “The investment of modern equipment in our view is not reason enough to warrant a review of tariffs. We feel an increment should be gradual and port services should be competitive against neighbouring ports,” he said. Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association, President, Mr Stephen Ngatunga, said he is totally against the review as it will automatically increase operational costs. Mr Ngatunga said that instead of increasing tariffs TICTS should reinvest with the...

MOSHI, Tanzania – TradeMark Africa (TMA) has announced the soft opening of the One Stop Border Post (OSBP) at Holili in Rombo, District, Kilimanjaro Region on Tanzania’s border with Kenya. Hopes are this will improve on wasted times for transit cargo clearance. TMA has supervised the completion of the state-of-art structure at Holili on the Tanzania’s side of the border with Kenya to facilitate implementation of the integrated border management systems at Holili and Taveta border posts. Dr. Josephat Kweka, the TradeMark Africa Country Director, in a press statement, confirmed last week that the Holili OSBP, in which USD 5.7 million was spent, would begin operations on May 18, 2015 on pilot basis after Tanzania and Kenya signed bilateral agreement to guide operations of the project. Tanzania and Kenya had opted for a bilateral agreement instead of a OSBP legislation passed by the East African Legislative Assembly in 2013 to speed up implementation of the project. The OSBP legislation would have required amendment of a number of EAC laws including the Customs Union Managements Act, so as to provide for changes in the way people will be crossing the borders under OSBP concept. At Taveta border post on the Kenyan side TMA has constructed another OSBP costing a whooping $ 6.7 million to serve as a one-stop-centre to clear cargo and revenue collection combined under one roof. Under the project activities of both countries’ border organisations and agencies are combined at either a single common location or at a single...

Fears are growing the development of the East African Community could be undermined by the crisis in Burundi. 40,000 people have fled the country as protests continue about President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term. Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have integrated Burundi into plans for projects, like a railway connecting the region with the port of Mombasa. The head of the United Nations refugee agency has expressed his deep concern. Speaking in Nairobi, Antonio Guterres said: "We are extremely worried. We have already more than 20,000 refugees in Rwanda. We have probably eight to ten thousand in Tanzania and probably four to five thousand in the Democratic Republic of Congo." Civil society groups say 13 people have died since protests began on April 26, although police give a lower number. On Monday the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said he was "deeply concerned" about president Nkurunziza's decision to stand for office again. East African foreign ministers, have announced a crisis summit for next week, in Dar es Salaam, the economic capital of Tanzania. Regional development The member states of the East African Community have forged ahead with plans to boost the region's economy, aiming to create a single market. Multi-billion dollar projects, such as new roads, building a 1,720 kilometre rail line through East Africa to the export hub of Mombasa, or constructing an oil pipeline across the region, underline just how serious the EAC is about developing the region's economy. The Burundian capital Bujumbura...

PREMIER Mizengo Pinda has urged business people to stop importing unnecessary goods to the country instead they should consolidate and establish local manufacturing industries to meet the demand. He said that there are various unnecessary goods which locals have ability to produce them, as the country has all the required resources and raw materials. Mr Pinda told reporters at the opening of Syrian Exhibition in Dar es Salaam yesterday that he had observed that there were products which could be produced locally, but unfortunately Tanzanians were obsessed with importing culture. “I asked the exhibitors what material they use and told me they use cotton, something which we also produce in our country that means we also have that ability to produce our own clothes,” he said. There are traders who have enough capital to establish industries or consolidate the existing ones, but they are focusing on importing alone, he said, noting it was high time the country focused on using cotton produced within the country for production instead of exporting it. Expounding further, the premier said that the government of Syria was ready to share its expertise to Tanzanians who were ready to learn from them, adding they were planning to take few willing people to learn from them. The Head of Commission in the Embassy of the Syria Arab representative in Dar es Salaam, Mr Abdulmonem Aman, said that the objective of exhibition was to promote foreign products but at the same time to benefit Tanzanians economically. “We have...

BUJUMBURA, Burundi – A Kenyan official says ministers from the East African Community have travelled to Burundi to help seek a solution for the political unrest caused by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's second re-election bid. In the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, roads were barricaded Wednesday with tree stumps as protests by those opposed to the president's attempt to seek a third term continued for the second week. In Kinondo area of Bujumbura, police fired shots into the air to disperse demonstrators who had been staging a sit in. Edwin Limo, a spokesman of the Kenya's foreign ministry, said ministers from Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda travelled to Burundi to try to end the crisis. Vladimir Monteriro, a U.N press officer in Bujumbura, said a U.N.-facilitated meeting between government, opposition and civil society started Tuesday. Source: Fox News

We are sometimes poor students of the lessons history teaches us. By the time the East African Community (EAC) collapsed in 1977, it had become clear that the political and economic philosophies of its member nations had become unsustainably divergent. This held back countries like Kenya that had chosen to implement market-led economic policies while Tanzania placed considerably more importance on a state-led socialist model of development. It had also become clear that the 'Community' was a club of presidents and not necessarily a genuine community of the peoples of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It was thus that a good idea was often undermined by differences between leaders that were some utterly irrelevant to their citizenry. Over the past few years, we have seen a renewed drive at regional integration in East Africa. The underlying rationales, for example, of uniting the region's peoples into a larger market and doing away with the impediments to trade and commerce are entirely laudable. However, we seem determined to make some of the mistakes that brought us to grief in the 1970s. For East African unity to succeed, we need to learn the lessons of our own history but also make an effort to appreciate the kind of painful economic problems the more mature democracies and markets of the European Union is facing even as we speak. They have been in crisis management mode since the housing market crashed in 2007. The idea of a single currency is particularly premature. Indeed, experience shows that...

As part of their overall push to better integrate the region and ease trade barriers, East African leaders are spearheading a campaign for heavy transportation infrastructure investment into the region. Yet ambitious projects like the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR)— proposed to link up Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi with Kenya’s Mombasa port—chug along slowly, particularly after controversy surrounding the project’s procurement contract has halted the rail’s progress into Uganda. The results of the Ugandan Government’s probe into the technical capacity of the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and China Harbour and Engineering Corporation (CHEC) are expected to be released soon, after a committee visited the contractors in China themselves and examined similar rail projects in Ethiopia. Awkwardly for the project’s progress, Kenyan Government officials reportedly refused Uganda’s request for a similar examination—despite the Standard Gauge Railway project starting in Mombasa. Meanwhile, a series of highway renewal projects in the region have picked up momentum, perhaps for their relative simplicity compared to the construction of a brand new railway. Speaking at a recent event in Dar es Salaam as part of the Central Corridor Initiative, Rwandan President Paul Kagame delivered an appealing sales pitch to roughly 350 investors. “East Africa is a good bet for investors who have come to appreciate the good prospects before everyone else does,” Kagame said. The initiative is a multi-modal trade and transport pathway through Rwanda, Tanzania, DRC, Burundi and Uganda. Though he noted that “no investment is risk-free, all the positive trends and...