East African countries are leading in implementing Africa's agricultural transformation policies. According to a report on the Malabo declaration, Southern Africa comes second. The declaration is a set of agricultural goals that Heads of State attending the African Union Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in June 2014 adopted, to be attained by 2025. The Africa Agricultural Transformation Scorecard tracks progress in commitments made by governments. East Africa managed an average score of 4.20, which indicates it is on track to meeting its commitments when assessed against the 3.94 benchmark for 2017, with five out of the eight regional countries that submitted their progress to the AU, managing the minimum 3.92 score. Rwanda was ranked the best agriculturally transformed country in Africa with a score of 6.1, thanks to political and institutional reforms. Burundi scored 4.7, Ethiopia 5.3, Kenya 4.8 and Uganda 4.5, to cement the region's 4.2 score ahead of the Southern Africa region which scored 4.02, and Northern, Central and Western Africa which scored 3.83, 3.62 and 2.35 respectively. Speaking at the launch of the scorecard, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn asked the seven countries that did not submit their reports to do so in the next review in 2020. Source: All Africa

Kenya and Tanzania have agreed to put an end to trade dispute, preparing for an increase in intra-East Africa Community (EAC) trade. Both countries have had a bumpy trade relation in the last few years, dropping Kenya's exports to Tanzania by 60 percent in the first six months of last year. Chris Kiptoo, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Trade for Kenya and Elisante Ole Gabriel, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade for Tanzania said "We have agreed to resolve the none-tariff barriers." They also said: "The two Partner States recognized each other as significant trading partners and underscored the importance of ease of market access for each other's products and services." Source: Menafn

The UN specialized agency on civil aviation on Thursday hailed the East Africa Community (EAC)'s aviation safety record. Barry Kashambo, the regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) told an aviation forum in Nairobi that the high standards has been validated by the continued progress in the ICAO safety audits taken in the last four years. "Four out of the five audited EAC states are among the 12 that are above 60 percent effective implementation score in the Eastern and Southern Africa," Kashambo said. "This translates in 80 percent of the audited states being above the Abuja target of ensuring that Africa's aviation accident rate be in line with global average by end of 2015," he said during the occasion of the official opening of the fourth EAC Symposium on Aviation Safety. The two-day symposium was organized by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Safety Oversight Agency (CASSOA), the administrative agency of the East African Community (EAC) that focuses on safe and secure development of aviation in the region. The regional aviation conference brought over 300 delegates from East Africa and across the world to review ways to improve aviation safety in the EAC. Kashambo said ICAO shares the region's desire to build resilient state aviation oversight systems that will ensure protection of the lives of the traveling public. He noted that the target of improved safety can only be achieved if the region fulfills certain prerequisites...

Tanzania has rolled out the new electronic East African Community passports to replace the existing national documents, set to be phased out by January 2020. The launch on Wednesday was witnessed by President John Magufuli who said the e-passport would bring lasting solution to a number of challenges associated with immigration services in the country. The e-passport is embedded with a machine readable computer chip which contains the holder's biometric information on a tamper-proof page, and has been touted as a major step in curbing fraud and easing clearance at international airports where e-readers are installed. Tanzania becomes the second EAC member country to roll out the e-passports after Kenya which launched the documents in September last year, 17 years after discussions to develop the Community document began. The 35th EAC Council of Ministers meeting in last April directed member states to start issuing the regional e-passport by January 2018. The new technology to print the e-passport in Tanzania was installed by US-based HID company with support from the government of Ireland and cost about $58 million. "The implementation started in September 2017, with a view to have the first phase accomplished in January 2018," said the Commissioner General of Immigration (CGI) Dr Anna Makalala. The new travel document will cost Tsh150,000 ($67.5) and will be valid for 10 years. Source: All Africa

Back in 1999, under what is known as the Yamoussoukro Decision, African countries planned to free their skies for air travel. Last Sunday the African Union (AU) took its first big step towards this goal, launching the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). The landmark announcement unveiled by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the new chair of the AU, aims to transform intra-African air travel, lower prices and increase connectivity. The initiative has 23 signatories. There are 32 AU members still to come on board. Take off for African aviation Opening up the continent's skies could be a huge coup for African airlines, which would work under a common regulatory framework. It could also benefit intra-continental travelers who are often bound to illogical and time-consuming routes via Europe and the Middle East when flying between African countries. The agreement will also hope to increase the continent's global share of the aviation industry. The total population of Africa accounts for around 17% globally, but the continent's proportion of air travel passengers varies between 2-4%. In a statement, Rapahel Kuuchi, Vice President for Africa at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said: "Greater connectivity will lead to greater prosperity." "An IATA survey suggest that if just 12 key African countries opened their markets and increased connectivity an extra 155,000 jobs and US$1.3 billion in annual GDP would be created in those countries." The approach follows in the footsteps of similar single market aviation agreements such as theEU's Internal Market for Aviation, which are generally recognized to...

The governments of Kenya and Tanzania have downplayed reports that there is bad blood between the two on trade. There are reports that Tanzanians have been tough on Kenyan traders with the most recent incident being that of Tanzania authorities burning live chicken imported into their country from Kenya. There is also an incident where over 10,000 head of cattle belonging to Kenyans were auctioned by President John Magufuli’s administration. PS for International Trade Chris Kiptoo and Tanzania trade Permanent Secretary Prof Elisante Ole Gabriel jointly agreed there are no trade barriers between the two nations. Kiptoo however said there has been a decline in business between Kenya and Tanzania since 2012. Kenya was making over Sh46 billion in trade with Tanzania, while the Tanzania was making over Sh20 billion trading with Kenya. “Last year, Kenya made Sh34 billion and Tanzania made Sh13 billion in trade between the two countries. The business was in favour of Kenya, but as you can see it has been on a decline since 2012,” said Kiptoo. “This is why we are here today to discuss some of the trade barriers.” Tanzania is Kenya’s number two in trade after Uganda, but non-tariff trade barriers have been affecting business. “It is the responsibility of the political leadership in the respective countries to make a favourable environment for trade and investments. That is why we are here to engage,” said Gabriel. He said they have agreed that there be no sudden changes to trade laws and regulations...

A trade initiative is helping mid-size businesses tap opportunities there. A Kerala-based spices company recently started growing chillies in Rwanda, which is estimated to have increased the income of farmers there six-fold. A leather company from Tamil Nadu has set up a plant in Uganda producing one million pairs of shoes annually and is generating new jobs in both countries. And, 300 Ethiopian artists are getting handloom and handicrafts training in Bengaluru. These are just a few of the success stories that have been spun over the past two-three years by Geneva-based development agency International Trade Centre’s initiative — ‘Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa’ (SITA). “We are looking at mid-sized companies which have less of a natural inclination to look abroad. Through the SITA initiative we are building bridges between India and East Africa by taking Indian companies to these countries to see with their own eyes what the opportunities are,” said ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez, in a telephonic interview with BusinessLine. Investment flows worth $71 million and additional trade flows of $26.5 million have so far been generated between India and East Africa (with an additional $10 million in the pipeline) as part of the six-year project (2014-2020) funded by the UK’s Department of International Development. Gonzalez will be in India later this week and visit Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru to take stock of the progress made so far and prepare the ground for more partnerships. Multiple sectors The sectors being promoted include leather, spices, pulses, textile...

In a world looking increasingly inwards, Africa will need to make its own opportunities, writes Kingsley Makhubela. Changes in the global landscape require emerging markets to consider how they must shape their future. Many countries in the developed world have focused their efforts and resources inwards as a result of challenging economic times. There is a danger that a shift away from emerging markets will negatively affect the global economy’s ability to grow. This would not bode well for Africa, given its growing integration into the global economy in recent years. To mitigate this, Africa must take steps to secure its own share of global economic growth and African citizens must sustain the economic growth of the continent. The greatest opportunity to realise its growth potential is often overlooked — Africa’s ability to trade and do business with itself. What is required is an inward and outward strategy acting in tandem — outwardly cementing Africa’s place in the global economy through foreign investment and improved trading links while internally driving the integration of regional trade. It is no coincidence that Africa’s recent growth, epitomised by the label "Africa rising", was in part realised due to increased levels of foreign direct investment. Improvements in fiscal policies, governance and regulatory frameworks, along with a move to diversify away from commodities, presented greater opportunities to investors. If Africa is going to capitalise on this base, it needs to collaborate on a shared future. Africa’s development must be underpinned by further regional integration and...

Rwanda and Tanzania Finance ministers on Monday met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to consider the finance matters regarding accomplishment of the two countries’ joint 521 kilometre Isaka-Kigali Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project, which is estimated to cost $2.5 billion. The Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Amb. Claver Gatete and his delegation including the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Caleb Rwamuganza, met with his Tanzanian counterpart, Dr. Philip Mpango and his team as a follow up to the meeting held January 20 by the countries’ Ministers for Infrastructure on the same project. Gatete on Tuesday told The New Times That: “Yes we met but it is all work in progress and we continue to look at matters such as structure [of financing], possible partnerships, and the progress of the project. “We are on the right track as our meeting was a follow up to that held recently by the ministers for infrastructure of Rwanda and Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. We shall continue to discuss the possible options, including partnership with the private sector and any other partners.” Sources say the latest meeting, among others, agreed that some critical issues including feasibility studies impacting on cost be re-examined so that both countries have a clearer picture on the financial implications before charting the way forward as regards mobilising funds. The project’s estimated total cost of $2.5 billion was made in 2015 and it is possible that there could be changes that need to be well factored in...

Expansion of the Kimara-Kiluvya section of Morogoro Road is expected to start any time next month, thanks to completion of demolition of structures, which were erected on the road reserve. The construction is meant to expand the highway to six lanes on the 16-kilometre stretch between Kiluvya and the Bus Rapid Transit Terminal at Kimara from the current two lanes, the Tanzania National Roads Agency (Tanroads) said yesterday. "The main goal is to reduce traffic jams on this road which serves more than 35,000 cars out of which 40 per cent are trucks, which convey goods from Port of Dar es Salaam to landlocked countries," the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication Mr Joseph Nyamhanga said yesterday. He said the government has already allocated Sh38 billion for the project. Speaking during his tour of the project site in Dar es Salaam, he said the government was only waiting for the signing of a contract with Tanroads before it hands over the money to the latter. "We will hand over the money to Tanroads after seeing their procurement document that shows the amount needed in the project, but the government has already set aside Sh38 billion," he said. The funds for the project, he said, will be sourced by the government by 100 per cent. The Tanroads manager for Dar es Salaam region, Mr Julius Ndyamukama said the total cost for the project will be determined after they decide on what pavement design will be applied. "Costs...