Reading the history of Africa, you can never miss the scramble for its acreage and the resources, leading to the illogical, politically instigated birth of countries as defined by the borders we now know. Communities and commerce were disrupted as traditional trade routes and peoples’ movements were choked. The rise of additional barriers to trade can be traced to this. Fast forward to present times; technology is getting deployed to address some of our most pressing needs as caused or exacerbated by colonial actions. Earlier this year we saw the fintech space grab headlines with an influx of venture funding. This did not come as a surprise, as in retrospect the movement of funds had been curtailed by the scramble for Africa, which in essence is one part of what underpins commerce. Money is now able to traverse the continent in a split second applied towards the exchange of value. The battle for that turf remains; whoever can move the bits and bytes faster and cheaper will win. The second part of the commerce equation is commodities. The medium of exchange can cross borders fluidly but the product side doesn’t enjoy such benefits, at least not yet. To move products, one requires infrastructure and inventory; both of which are a hodge podge of varied grade deployments in Africa. Infrastructure covers roads, railways, airports, ports, warehouses, holding docks among others. Inventory covers trucks, airplanes, wagons, and various motorised plus non-motorised transports with carriage capacity; all available in plenty but lacking a...

Africa’s leaders, along with everyone else interested in US-Africa relations, have waited eight months for US President Donald Trump’s administration to explain its Africa policy. We aren’t there yet. But in recent weeks Trump has indicated the level and extent of his interest. And, senior African affairs officials at the State and Defence Departments are at last attempting publicly to outline US goals and objectives toward Africa. This, apparently without much guidance from their president. Trump’s inaugural address to the UN General Assembly said little about Africa – barely one paragraph towards the end. One sentence praised African Union and UN-led peacekeeping missions for “invaluable contributions in stabilising conflicts in Africa.” A second praised America, which continues to lead the world in humanitarian assistance, including famine prevention and relief in South Sudan, Somalia and northern Nigeria and Yemen. The next day Trump hosted a luncheon for leaders of nine African countries –Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa. Only his welcoming remarks have been published but they are nearly devoid of policy content or guidance. His opening gambit reminded me of a 19th century colonialist hoping to become rich, as he proclaimed: Africa has tremendous business potential, I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they’re spending a lot of money….It’s really become a place they have to go, that they want to go. Trump called on African companies to invest in the US. Then, shifting to security cooperation,...

52 skilled youths graduated from an expanded East African SAP Skills for Africa program this week in Kenya. The graduation ceremony took place at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi. All 52 graduates have already been placed at partner and customer organisations in the region. Head of SAP Skills for Africa, Meena Confait, said, “This year marked our first expanded East Africa program, with candidates from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia completing their training in key SAP solutions. In line with our commitment to diversity, we are also proud to announce that 40% of graduates are female. We wish all graduates well as they enter the regional workforce and apply their hard-earned digital expertise.” SAP Skills for Africa is a skills development initiative between SAP Africa, its customers, and various public and private sector partners, and focuses on training and certifying graduates in a broad spectrum of SAP software and business solutions. Since its inception in 2012, it has provided training and industry job placement opportunities for more than 400 consultants, with more than a third of them assimilated through the partnership with the ICT Authority. Valuable partner and customer ecosystem Considering the importance of SMEs in driving job creation and economic growth on the African continent, this year also saw the introduction of SAP Business One to the curriculum, which already supports more than 55 000 SMEs globally. “By focusing on developing practical digital skills related to actual market needs, SAP Skills for Africa graduates are able to...

Business Reporter Infrastructure experts from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Member States are meeting in Zambia to review the status of domestication and implementation of programmes in transport and communications, energy and information technology in the region. Among the key programmes in focus are; the establishment of a navigational route between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea known as VICMED, the regional power interconnectors and the proposed establishment of cybercrime capacity building centre. This is the 10th meeting of the Comesa committee of infrastructure experts representing the 19 Member States. Noting that the estimated financing requirement to close Africa’s infrastructure deficit amounts to $93 billion annually until 2020, Assistant Secretary General for Comesa, Dr Kipyego Cheluget said the implementation of Africa’s Vision of an integrated continent free of poverty is inextricably linked to the existence of infrastructure. “The emphasis at regional and continental levels is on innovation and creativity, thinking outside the box to come up with feasible instruments to speed up the development of physical infrastructure,” he said, adding that the Comesa EAC-Sadc tripartite region requires US$50 billion,” said Dr Cheluget. During the session, a progress report on the implementation of Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya (ZTK) Power Interconnector was presented. The project is currently under implementation to interconnect the three countries thus creating a link between the Southern African Power Pool and the East African Power Pool. This will make it possible for transmission of power from Cape to Cairo. According to a market study conducted on the...

Also the regional local units were backed by agro-inflows and central banks’ monetary actions. Tanzania shilling Tanzanian shilling, the second biggest economy in the region, traded flat with modest demand from corporates. “We saw moderate demand from corporates on today’s trading session due to month end obligations,” NMB Bank said in a statement yesterday. The commercial banks quoted the shilling at 2230/2270 against the green back. Another bank, CRDB said the market experienced matching supply and demand for the pair but some pressure was still faced on the right hand side. “We expect this pressure to ease up due to central bank intervention and as well as the incoming cashew-nut season,” CRDB said. Ugandan shilling Ugandan shilling has inched up on flows from charities and helped by some typical end of month hard currency inflows from non-governmental organisations and coffee exporters. Last Friday, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 3,597/3,607, compared with Thursday’s close of 3,600/3,610. Kenyan shilling Kenyan shilling eased against the dollar last Friday due to dollar from some multinational companies, traders quoted saying. The shilling of the largest economy in the bloc was quoted by commercial banks at103.15/35 per dollar, compared with 103.20/40 at Thursday’s close. It was reported also that traders were assessing the level of hard currency demand from importers to figure out its potential direction. Rwandese franc The Rwandan franc relatively remained unchanged at 846.18 yesterday compared to a last Monday 845.45. The stability was attributed to Rwanda’s foreign exchange reserves that kept the...

Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi Insaat VE Sanayi has secured a $1.92bn contract to build a 422km high-speed electric railway line in Tanzania. The contract was awarded by Tanzanian state-run railway firm Reli Assets Holding Company (RAHCO). Yapi Merkezi is said to have fulfilled all the technical and financial requirements for the project, which received bids from a total of 15 contractors. The deal will see Yapi Merkezi Insaat VE Sanayi be responsible for designing and constructing the railway line. It also includes the replacement of the existing century-old narrow-gauge line between Morogoro and Makutupora with a new standard-gauge railway. The line will be able to transport 17 million tonnes of cargo per year following the overhaul. The company is expected to complete the project in 36 months, reported dailysabah.com. Yapi Merkezi previously won a $1.2bn contract to build a 300km-long rail line between Dar es Salaam and Morogoro in February, as part of a collaboration with Portugal-based Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construção África. RAHCO is expected to award three additional tenders for the construction of nearly 700km of lines across the country in the near future under its plan to modernise Tanzania's aging railway infrastructure. The Tanzanian Government intends to invest around $14.2bn over the next five years to construct a 2,561km standard-gauge railway network, which will connect its Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam to the other regions within the country. Source: Railway Technology

A business forum between Tanzanian and Burundi was held on 30 September 2017, to discuss a number of factors that can help to increase trade between the two countries. Burundi and Tanzania aim to improve trade opportunities between them. After a trade fair that was organized as a follow up to the meeting of the two Heads of State, a business forum has taken place this Saturday 30 September. Jean Bosco Ntunzwenimana, Minister of Transport, Public Works and Equipment, says Burundi is already gaining more from the improvement of the relationship between the two countries: “We were not allowed to use Dar es Salaam port ten years ago but now we are using it. There is a 40% reduction on the cost of goods imported while using road transport”. Ntunzwenimana says there are great projects that both Burundi and Tanzania are working on namely the construction of Uvinza-Musongati railway line and a multinational road: Bujumbura-Rumonge-Nyanza –Lac -Kasulu -Manyovu. He also says those projects are developing significantly. “About the Uvinza- Musongati railway project, experts from the two countries will meet in a workshop to validate its study in Kigoma this 13 October, 2017”, Ntunzwenimana says adding that they will provide the best way forward. This railway is part of the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTFA) project to build a standard-gauge railway connecting Uvinza, Kigoma and Musongati. The public transport minister says there will also be capacity building in the trade sector between the two countries so as to help...

The United Nations migration agency said on Tuesday that it has concluded a training program aimed at assisting East African states to strengthen migration governance and migrant protection capacities. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that in cooperation from the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), it organized the two-week program that covered topics such as labor migration and border management, international migration law, and migration and development. In a statement issued in Nairobi, the IOM said the training aimed to enhance migration governance and migrant protection in the IGAD region, which comprises Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. "The training provided us with an opportunity to learn about current developments in the IGAD region, and I believe that we gained very relevant knowledge especially now that IGAD member states are in the process of developing national policies on migration and border management," said Mary Mideva Kezzah, from Kenya's Ministry of the East Africa Community, Labor and Social Protection. Thirty-four attendees were selected from institutions belonging to the National Coordination Mechanisms. They include interior, foreign affairs, and labor ministry officials, lawmakers, and officers of immigration and police services from IGAD member states. The training sessions resulted in a set of recommendations including the development of a training roadmap to be developed by the African Capacity Building Center (ACBC). The first draft of the document will be launched at the next training for IGAD participants from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 in Tanzania. IOM Tanzania Chief of Mission...

Bujumbura. Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has described Tanzania’s trade exhibitions held for the first time in Bujumbura as a trade opportunity for the two countries that needs to be thoroughly implemented for the economic benefits of the two countries. Tanzania Trade Development Authority (Tantrade) in partnership with Tanzanian Embassy in Burundi and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), jointly organised the trade exhibitions which concluded at the weekend to explore available business and investment opportunities in Burundi President Nkurunziza admired the quality of Tanzanian products when he toured the displays and called for maximum utilisation of business and investment opportunities. The exhibitions which started on September 27 closed in Bujumbura today, October 1. He said the trade exhibition was an indication of strong bilateral ties between Tanzania and Burundi. “Our bilateral ties are growing from strength to strength. I believe the objective of integration by East African Community (EAC) is through the exhibition of this nature being thoroughly implemented. I promise to support efforts to ensure economic growth of the two countries,” he said. The move increases confidence among Tanzanian organisers of the event over the market availability. Speaking at the same occasion, Tantrade board chairman Mr Christopher Chiza said it was a positive and encouraging move towards expanding the market of Tanzania’s goods beyond the borders. “When we succeed to access the Burundi market, it means we are expanding our market in the region. We are also eying the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo because we have been told that they...

The Community’s Director of Customs and Trade, Mr Kenneth Bagamuhunda, said here that the committee would supervise the implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and trade facilitation plans. The director said that regional and national implementation plans for the WTO and TFA had since been finalised and adopted by the EAC policy organs. “Amendments of regional laws, regulations and procedures, development of project proposals for resource mobilisation and sensitisation of stakeholders is currently underway,” said Mr Bagamuhunda. He cited the Single Customs Territory (SCT) and the interconnectivity of customs systems among some of the key TFA components that have been implemented by the EAC. “The SCT provides for free circulation of goods, reduces cost of doing land’s Representative to the EAC, said that his country had since disbursed $3.5 million as part of its contribution to TFA trade facilitation support programme, a multi-donor window of the World Bank group’s trade and competitiveness global practice – which in turn provides support for countries seeking assistance in aligning their trade practices with the WTO. “Every country is eligible to receive support under the programme. Eligible countries are expected to have demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing trade facilitation reforms in the areas covered by the WTO/TFA. “Moreover, the support programme will prioritise assistance to countries with other limited access to other donor support,” said Amb. Mattli. He expressed dismay over bureaucratic delays and ‘red-tape’ which he said were an ‘unnecessary and expensive’ burden for traders moving goods across borders. ” However,...