Arusha — ANOTHER submarine telecommunications system is set to link the East African region with South Africa, Asia and Europe. A statement from China's Huawei Marine, now made available here, reveals that HM was completing a 'desktop study' for a new subsea cable system, dubbed the 'Peace Subsea Cable' whose first phase is meant to connect South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia and Pakistan (Gwadar and Karachi). Peace is short for 'Pakistan East Africa Cable Express' and the system has been designed by Chinese firm, Tropic Science, to provide a new information expressway for interconnection among Asia, Africa and Europe - through existing land and subsea cables The report further explains that Huawei Marine would begin a marine survey on January 15, with the Peace system expected to be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2019. The first phase will span some 6,200km and would link Pakistan (Gwadar and Karachi), Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya. The second phase would provide an "extended option" to South Africa and Europe with a total length of about 13,000km, all based on 200G dense wave-division multiplexing technology on a design capacity of 60Tbit/s. "The Peace system will provide a new information expressway for interconnection among Asia, Africa and Europe by connecting with existing land and subsea cables," Huawei Marine and Tropic Science said in a joint statement. Tropic Science chairman He Liehui said the system will become "an important infrastructure for Asian, African and European intercontinental communications and promote economic development of the regions"....

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli caused heads to roll a few days ago by temporarily closing the country’s ship registry and ordering a review of 470 ships that fly the Dar flag. Two ships had just been arrested in the international waters.  On January 8, Tanzania-flagged Andromeda was allegedly found with a load of explosives on its way to Libya.  Days earlier, Zanzibar-registered oil tanker Kaluba was intercepted off the Dominican Republic, reportedly with 1,570kg of cocaine in its hold. Somehow, Dr Magufuli had to send out an unequivocal message to vessels “that tarnish the name of our country”. In a continent where investors dangling loads of hard currencies are used to being handled with kid gloves, there are some people who would see such a policy move as rather un-African. But to the maritime world, the action came as a no surprise. While the arrest of ships flying its flags has not been as frequent as the DRC-registered ones, Tanzania has for some time been on the spot. Its ships, especially the Zanzibar-registered ones, have been in the news for all the wrong reasons including allegation of violating UN sanctions on Iraq and North Korea. Here is the general dilemma for Africa. Owning and operating a ship is a an expensive affair that the continent’s private sector has avoided like the plague. Apart from Ethiopia’s State-owned merchant ships, majority of Eastern Africa including Kenya that receives one million containers every year do not own merchant ships. Africa’s claim on ships...

Three decades after the plan for open skies in Africa was mooted, 23 countries on the continent this week launched the Single African Air Transport Market in Ethiopia. Driving the single air market is the dream that Africans will be able to fly across the continent seamlessly and cheaper than the prices that the current protective markets will allow. Despite the celebratory mood, however, the launch of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) does not mean travellers will automatically crisscross the continent. On the runway to take-off are a number of significant steps that signatories have to take in realising this dream. “We are not ready to start today. It will take a bit more time to achieve the vision,” said the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) director-general Gilbert Kibe. Mr Kibe said that it would be at least a decade before the full dream of the single market was realised. Under the umbrella of the Single Market, cross-border flights will be treated as domestic flights for taxation and regulatory purposes. Airlines will also be granted fifth freedom rights, meaning a flight from Johannesburg can stop by Nairobi and pick up passengers on its way to Cairo. This will all serve to drive ticket prices down and increase connectivity on the continent. While the African Union aims to erase the tedious bilateral service agreements in favour of a multilateral protocol to govern SAATM, Mr Kibe says that countries in the region are still far from it. Initially, countries will...

More than 10,000 small-scale women traders engaged in cross-border business in the East African Community have been trained on laws governing trade among the member countries. The women drawn from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda Ethiopia and Eritrea have been trained on various areas including taxation laws and common market protocol. Speaking at Green Park Hotel in Taveta, Taita Taveta County on Monday, Eastern African Sub Regional Support Initiative For Advancement of Women (EASSI) project coordinator Ms Ruth Warutere said the women were also being sensitised on using official border posts while crossing the border. “Some of them were using illegal routes to escape custom charges. They did not know that it is cheaper than using these escape routes,” Ms Warutere said. Goods stolen She said some businesswomen at the border had complained that their goods were being stolen by rogue bodaboda operators and thieves along the border. “Some women did not know that it would be more expensive to use these routes because they pay more transport charges that when they use the border points,” she said. She said the organisation also helps the women traders get a certificate of origin, which exempts them from paying taxes of goods worth 2000 dollars. “Some traders don’t know about this and other opportunities. We normally train them on such opportunities and laws governing each trade,” she said. On the other hand, the organisation’s project officer, Manisurah Aheebwa, urged the East African member states to harmonise laws which don’t favour women in...

Botswana on Tuesday signed a tripartite free trade area agreement which marked a milestone in the trade agenda of the African Union. The document was known as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Area (FTA) Agreement. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Botswana's minister for Investment, Trade and Industry Vincent Seretse said the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) will boost intra-African trade as a result of elimination and reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers as well as market expansion. Seretse said the TFTA is also expected to serve as one of the building blocks of an African Economic Community, thus facilitating deeper regional and continental integration in Africa. According to SADC Deputy Executive Secretary Thembinkosi Mhlongo, the tripartite agreement has the potential to boost trade in Africa and accelerate development by creating a huge single market of about 700 million people with an estimated gross domestic product of well over 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars. Source: Xinhua Net

On his second day in office as the new African Union Chairperson, President Paul Kagame, alongside his Togolese counterpart Faure Gnassingbé and AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki, launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative during the last day of the 30th AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday. The effort seeks to connect African countries and streamline transportation and trade on the continent. President Gnassingbé was appointed to champion the initiative. Monday’s launch follows about three years of efforts following its adoption at a previous AU summit. With 23 member states at the moment, the initiative is likely to have more countries come on board in the coming days. The initiative is aimed at creating a single unified air transport market in Africa and the liberalisation of civil aviation in Africa. This could reduce scenarios where travelers have often been forced to spend long hours or days in transit due to infrequent commercial flights between African countries. It’s common to come across cases where African travelers from East Africa had to travel to connect to West Africa through Europe and Asia due to lack of interregional connecting flights. The model is similar to that of developed markets such as Europe, where airlines from participating countries can fly to airports of fellow member states. Rwanda is part of the Ministerial Working Bureau as the Rapporteur. The government is upbeat about the development as it is likely to see RwandAir access more countries and markets across the continent. State minister...

President Paul Kagame has called for increased private sector collaboration in African Union’s key initiatives. Kagame was speaking at the closure of the 30th African Union summit yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Kagame, who on Sunday began his term as the AU Chairperson, told his counterparts that the private sector was eager to get involved as critical partners in creating opportunities and building prosperity. “As we go forward, I would encourage closer collaboration with Africa’s private sector on the Union’s key initiatives. The business community is always eager to get involved, and more importantly, they are critical partners in creating opportunities and building the prosperity our continent needs,” Kagame said. He also called on African countries to pay more attention to conservation, saying it would enable the continent to make the most of its assets and better management of sectors such as agriculture and tourism. “Africans need to take the lead, in partnership with like-minded global organisations, in conservation because it affects us directly. Driving conservation will allow us get the most out of our continent’s assets, contribute to better management of our agriculture and tourism sectors, and support efforts to mitigate climate change,” he said. Addressing questions by members of the press, the President said that the African Union reforms were picking up the pace as countries and their respective leaders were in support of the process. “Reforms need a lot of mindset change, change doesn’t come easy, it requires hard work and sometimes taking risks but the most...

Heightened demand for energy, a shift in policy and the emergence of viable entrepreneurial innovations are propelling transition to sustainable energy in the East African region. This emerged during a two-day conference organised by Kenya’s Strathmore University‘s Energy Research Centre (SERC) in partnership with Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa (RES4Africa) – an association that promotes the deployment of large-scale and decentralised renewable energy in sub-Saharan African countries. The meeting was held on in Nairobi. During the January 23-24 conference, which was convened here with support from the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) to discuss best practices for effective renewable energy deployment in the region, stakeholders explored issues facing the sector and possible solutions. Momentum has also been buoyed by strong regional agencies that enhance collaboration in the energy sector development. These include the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP), with a mandate to ensure optimum development of energy resources and ease access to electricity, and the East African Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EACREEE) which, among other roles, ensures policy harmonisation and awareness creation. Isaac Kiva, Director of Renewable Energy at the Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum said they are supporting the development of renewable energy. “Having a grid that can meet demand is important, and it is the reason Kenya has a renewable energy Master Plan,” he added. However, the journey for the growth of renewable energy is still fraught with challenges. Bernard Osawa, Vice Chair of the Energy Sector Board, at the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA),...

Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has implored Ghanaian businesses to take advantage of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) yet-to-be rolled out by the African Union (AU). She said the Agreement, targeted at creating a single continental market for goods and services, will open up the over one billion African market to Ghanaian businesses. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 30th Ordinary Session of the AU's Assembly of Heads of State and Governments, the Minister said the CFTA will bolster trade and ensure a "borderless Africa." “Already the protocol of free movement of goods and services through the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) works very well – the East African Economic Community (EACC) and also the South African Development Community (SADC) works perfectly as well," she said, making a case for uniform trade. Intra-continental trade in the year 2000 accounted for about 10 percent of Africa’s total trade, and only increased marginally to 11 percent in 2015. Trading among members of the European Union (EU), for example, amounted to 70 percent in 2015. Intra-African trade is still estimated at less than two percent (2%) of global trade. To improve trade among countries, Heads of State in Africa signed an agreement to implement the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), which negotiation started in June 2015. The CFTA, when implemented, will reduce the continent’s vulnerability to external shocks and expected to enhance the participation of Africa in global trade as a respectable partner. Ms Ayorkor Botchwey believes the CFTA will wean African countries off foreign aid. “So now the...

The Gates Foundation will contribute $50 million (€40.9 million) in financing, as well as an additional $12.5 million (€10.2 million) in technical assistance, to investment projects in the health sector in Africa through the EU’s framework to improve sustainable investments in Africa. This pooling of resources is designed to encourage additional private investment towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and will allow successful projects to be scaled up more rapidly.  The European Commission welcomes this strong support to its efforts towards sustainable development in Africa and will match this contribution with another €50 million. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “The EU accounts for a third of foreign direct investment into Africa – this is now helping create jobs and growth on both of our continents. But we must do more to improve the business environment and provide a platform for African innovators to grow. This requires the full involvement of the private and philanthropic sectors, and I am grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their much-needed engagement. This is an investment in our shared future. Europe’s partnership with Africa is one in which we support each other, help each other to prosper and make the world a safer, more stable and more sustainable place to live.” Bill Gates said: “Improving health outcomes allows a society to become more prosperous and productive. There has been a lot of progress in this area in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000, but we need to do more to incentivize research and...