The financial cost of meeting Africa's infrastructure needs is estimated at $93 billion annually until 2020 to close the infrastructure gap, states Giovanie Biha, deputy executive secretary at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Speaking at the 23rd inter-governmental committee of experts of Southern Africa last week, Biha expressed concern that the financial cost of meeting the continent’s infrastructure needs are substantial. “According to the African Development Bank, it is estimated that Africa needs about $93 billion annually until 2020 to close the infrastructure gap. Africa must look inwards in financing its infrastructure development and dismantling obstacles to intra-Africa trade and the movement of persons across the continent. "We need to prioritise and sequence the implementation of our infrastructure needs,” she stressed. Infrastructure deficit stumbling block for trade According to Biha, the continent’s road freight cost was about four times more than other regions of the world. Specifically, the intra-SADC cost of export is $1,904 per container and to import is $2,428 per container. Whereas the equivalent figures for intra-Association of South-East Asian Nations trade were $743.5 and $787.5, respectively. “Other RECs (regional economic communities) in Africa register even higher figures. Up north of the continent, a truck transporting millet/sorghum on the Koutiala–Dakar corridor has to pass through almost 100 checkpoints and border posts, and the driver can expect to pay bribes of about $437,” she said. As such, the infrastructure deficit is a major contributing challenge to trade facilitation, intra-regional trade and economic development and transformation in Africa. Energy...

Regional business leaders and experts have called for harmonised Information Communication Technology (ICT) and e-commerce policies, saying this would help fast-track socio-economic development in East Africa. Lilian Awinja, the East African Business Council (EABC) chief executive, noted that ICT is a key business enabler for sectors like trade, tourism, education and agriculture, finance and transport, among others. She added that many components of the ICT sector are cross-cutting and cross-border, hence the need for a harmonised legal and regulatory framework. The official added that the region must improve its e-commerce systems to boost trade and related services, among others. “The EAC region needs improved cross-border ICT infrastructure development to facilitate interoperability, and increased connectivity and digitalisation of government processes to reduce transaction cost of operations and ensure efficient and quality public services delivery,” said the EABC chief executive last week in a statement. Awinja was speaking ahead of the second East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition, scheduled for November 14 to 16 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. EABC is the apex advocacy body of business associations of the private sector and corporate firms from East African Community (EAC) bloc. Lack of regional financial interoperability platform Robert Ford, the Northern Corridor Technology Alliance chief coordinator, said different ICT laws have hampered growth of regional e-commerce sector as they affect transactions. He said, without uniform policies, growth of services like mobile money and other money transfer services is limited due to lack of a regional financial interoperability platform. “So, we...

Deputy Minister for Trade, Industries and Investment, Engineer Stella Manyanya told parliament yesterday that Bagamoyo Port is expected to boost the country’s economy and attract major investments to the country. Construction of the port is being carried out through a collaboration of China and Oman. Also to be constructed around Bagamoyo area are over 190 industries, including the manure processing industry that will be put up by the government of Oman. When fully developed, the Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone will attract about 700 industries to become a strategic investment zone in East Africa. The Bagamoyo port and its affiliate industrial zone is meant to address congestion at the old port and support Tanzania to become East Africa’s leading shipping and logistics centre. The port is located about 75 kilometres from Dar es Salaam and 10 kilometres from Bagamoyo town. Mooted in 2013 by retired president Jakaya Kikwete, construction of the port has been hit by delays mainly associated with issued to do with funding. Compensation Issues to do with compensating landowners who were to be displaced also affected the project take off. But that has been solved with China Merchants Holdings International (CMHI), a port management firm agreeing to raise money for compensation. CMHI managing director Hu Jianhua said in a statement in a recent interview that the company would run Bagamoyo portvas one of its overseas ports. It is these financial constraints that have forced Tanzania to miss out on ownership of the $10 billion Bagamoyo Port and Special Economic Zone...

Among the piles and piles of used clothes for sale at the central market in Arusha, Tanzania, was a green sweatshirt bearing the logo of Cougar Robotics Team 1403 and just a last name printed on the back. CBC News tracked down the original owner of the garment in Skillman, New Jersey, where Mihir Nayak attended Montgomery High School and was a member of the robotics team. Like many people in Canada, the U.S. and other wealthy western countries, Nayak had donated his unwanted shirt to a charity. But some countries don't want our used clothing anymore. The East African Community (EAC), which represents Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda and makes up a significant chunk of the reuse market from North America, has proposed banning second-hand clothing imports. That's putting pressure on a lot of people who rely on the trade in Canada and overseas: from the charities who collect the goods to the recyclers, resellers and workers employed along the way. For Diabetes Canada, clothing donations sold to Value Village account for approximately one-quarter of their annual revenue. Why charities want your old, stained and ripped clothes "The trust which runs the textile diversion business is able to contribute over $10 million a year to our mission," Scott Ebenhardt, director of business development at National Diabetes Trust, said. "It's a massive revenue generator for us." Diabetes Canada, along with other Canadian charities, partner with for-profits like Value Village to sort, grade and resell the donations they receive. Value Village then sells them through their retail stores, and any excess clothing suitable for reuse...

East and southern Africa leads in intra-African trade with the highest share of between 18 and 19 percent, which reflects Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) effective agenda in consolidating trade and development in Africa. North Africa and Central Africa have the lowest share of intra-African trade of 5.3 and 2.1 percent, respectively. This information is contained in the Trade Finance in Africa Survey Report by the African Development Bank Group published in September 2017, which tracks the changes that have occurred in the trade finance market in Africa during the period 2013-2014. The report reveals that compared to other regions of the world, Africa’s trade is still dominated by international trade, where the European Union accounted for 63 percent of total trade, 50 percent for North America and 52 percent for Asia in 2014. Intra-African trade only accounted for 15 percent of overall trade in the same year. The report also reveals that significant challenges lie ahead in meeting the demand for trade finance by African firms, of which the majority is composed of SMEs. Trade finance is a relatively low-risk activity in Africa with an average default rate of 5 percent, while a high proportion (87 percent) of banks on the continent are engaged in trade finance activities. The survey disclosed that banks in West Africa have more significant exposure to trade finance with a 31 percent share of their total assets devoted to that activity, followed by Central and...

Theresa May has signalled there will be no transitional deal to prevent a “cliff-edge” Brexit unless the UK settles its final trading relationship with the EU next year, prompting warnings that businesses will start leaving the country before then. The prime minister surprised MPs when she told them in a Commons debate that there could be no “implementation period” unless the UK had settled its “future partnership” with the EU, which is unlikely to happen until next summer at the earliest and may fail to be agreed at all. Her remarks alarmed MPs fighting against a hard Brexit. Business groups have been intensively lobbying for the government to agree the terms of transition with the EU by Christmas, before companies make their financial plans for 2018. Labour warned that the delay in agreeing a transitional period was “a recipe for job losses, businesses disinvesting and an economic downturn”, while the backbench Tory MP Nicky Morgan called for more clarity for businesses. The prime minister was responding to a question asked by Iain Duncan Smith, a former party leader and a leading Tory Eurosceptic, to confirm that there could not be agreement on an implementation period until there was a final deal that could be worked towards. She replied: “I thank my right honourable friend because he is absolutely right. The point of the implementation period is to put in place the practical changes necessary to move to the future partnership and, in order to have that, you need to know what that...

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter THE Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) should be buttressed by a robust industrial and infrastructure development programme for the region to derive benefits from market liberalisation, an official said yesterday. TFTA is part of an overarching Pan-African project aimed at integrating all countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Sadc and the East African Community (EAC). Speaking during the Ad-hoc expert group meeting on the deepening of regional integration in Southern Africa in Bulawayo, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa director for Southern Africa office, Professor Said Adejumobi, said: “The innovative approach of the TFTA is to incorporate industrial and infrastructure development in the corpus of market integration. “Without production, trade and market liberalisation will be meaningless. “The industrial pillar seeks to boost the productive capacity of member-states, promote value addition and beneficiation and enhance economic diversification. “The infrastructure component aims to ease the challenge of doing business, open up the continent from Cape to Cairo and allow the free flow of goods and services.” He said the TFTA provides the architecture of development that would be crucial in realising the aspirations of Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030. “If well implemented, Prof Adejumobi said the TFTA has the capacity to promote trade, enhance productivity, spur economic competition thereby improving the quality of goods and services across the regions. The implementation of TFTA is also expected to assist in creation of jobs, reduce poverty as well as ensuring nobody is left behind...

Chris Kaijuka, chairman of The Grain Council of Uganda (TGCU), featured speaker at the upcoming Agribusiness Congress East Africa in Namulonge in November said: "My vision for the agri-sector is a national grain sector that supplies the region and is the preferred source of high-quality grain. There are opportunities in agriculture with our two seasons (bimodal) and a fast-growing population - the highest in the world at 3% per annum." The TGCU is the official host partner of this leading regional farming event which returns to Uganda from 29-30 November as a fully-fledged conference and outdoor exhibition with its move to the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in Namulonge. Apart from the high-level conference with high-level expert speakers, Agribusiness Congress East Africa will this year also feature more than 45 exhibitors, free training workshops and agronomy consultations, roundtable discussions as well as live demonstrations and crop trials. According to Kaijuka, the TGCU is “currently pursuing affordable financing for infrastructure development and working capital for members. We look forward to the launch of the electronic trading on the Uganda National Commodity Exchange where we are shareholders.” He adds: “For us to truly grasp the opportunity for East Africa, and Uganda in particular, which has evolved into the new frontier for food and grain production and the continent’s food basket, we need to come together and take action to move the industry forward. We urge all industry players with a stake in agriculture to take advantage of this golden opportunity to...

THE revival of the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) will significantly reduce the cost of bulk transportation of goods locally and in the region thereby easing stress on the road infrastructure, a senior official has said. Last week, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Dr Joram Gumbo, said NRZ’s $400 million deal with a consortium led by the Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group (DIDG) and South Africa’s Transnet was back on the rails after Cabinet gave a nod to the proposed deal. Officially opening the Ad-hoc expert group meeting on Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) in Bulawayo yesterday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Willard Manungo, said the revival of NRZ would greatly impact on the entire regional transport system. “The envisaged resuscitation of NRZ will facilitate the less costly transport of bulky cargo and reduce the stress on the road infrastructure. “After the completion of such projects as the NRZ rehabilitation programme, there will be a significant reduction in the cost of transporting goods and services within the region, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Sadc, and the East African Community,” he said. The meeting runs under the theme: “Deepening regional integration in Southern Africa: The role, prospects and progress of TFTA”. Mr Manungo said deepening regional integration in Southern Africa was critical in opening of markets to member states to enhance the development of regional value chains, which would increase intra-trade, stimulate economic growth and lift people out of poverty. In this...

Textile industry players in the region have been challenged to start making garments that require low level technology and skills as the East African Community (EAC) countries prepare to phase-out imported used clothes. Lilian Awinja, the Executive Director of the East African Business Council (EABC), said the sector can manufacture apparels such as inner garments, ties, scarfs that require low level technology and skills. “It is a high time that EAC countries embarked on manufacturing apparels such as inner garments, ties, scarfs that require low level technology and skills as the region works on a phase out approach of imported second hand clothes,” said Awinja. In 2016, the five EAC members - Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania – agreed on phased plan and eventual ban on the importation of used clothes and leather products by 2018 to support industrialisation and job-creation in the region. Awinja was speaking ahead of the second East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition scheduled for November 14 to 16 in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. The event is meant to provide a platform to create synergies and linkages between the local cotton and textile industries with local suppliers and the fashion and design industry. The meeting is also expected to devise an action plan outlining the policies and modalities to promote the sector performance, productivity and quality, according to a statement from organisers. According to EABC, cotton production, processing and trade is highly influenced by policies of major producing countries through price support, tariff...