Kenya’s move to adopt a regional electronic passport is on track after the government announced that electronic passports would be rolled out from September. The new generation passports are aimed at easing travel for East African residents. Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda are also set to roll out the electronic passports. They will feature a microchip containing details of the owner and will allow information contained in it to be verified with information displayed on the passport. One of the major hurdles to the integration of East African Community member states has been failure to ease travel, which hampers movement of goods and people as a result. According to the Immigration Department, the current passports in use will be phased out over two years. The electronic passport has been touted as a great step in curbing fraud and easing clearance at international passports. The new look passport will also curb counterfeit travel documents and tampering. Eradicating trade barriers is the only way that the EAC member states can help foster business in the region. The adoption of the electronic passport by the EAC member states will hasten the free flow of goods from one point to another and attract investment. Among the major hurdles to regional trade are bureaucracy and corruption. While trade in the bloc has increased exponentially after the launch of the Common Market Protocol in 2010, there is still a lot more that needs to be done. For the economies of East African Community member states to grow, there...

The East African Community (EAC) has declined to establish another institution, citing financial constraints. Proposals to upgrade the EA Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EACREEE) into a full-fledged body under the Community hit a wall after the technocrats said it was short of funds for the purpose. "The original plan of the Community was to have EACREEE as an EAC institution. However, due to financial constraints other innovative ways were devised", said the deputy secretary general (Productive and Social Sectors) Christophe Bazivamo. He said instead the College of Engineering,Design, Art and Technology (Cedat) of the Makerere University in Uganda was selected to host the renewable energy facility as one of its centres of excellence. Mr Bazivamo revealed this last weekend when he was addressed the board meeting of the centre whose creation received support from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido) and the Austrian Development Agency (Ada). The principal of Cedat Prof Henry Alinaitwe informed the meeting held in Kampala that efforts were underway to formally register EACREEE as a semi-autonomous legal entity so that it can function smoothly. However, the meeting concurred that while the regional energy centre would continue to be hosted at the Makerere University, a road map should be drawn to make it a full-fledged body of the EAC. "Since its inauguration, Cedat has been working with several stakeholders to advance the centre's activities", said the Cedat principal Prof Alinaitwe. Despite failure to register the renewable energy centre as an additional institution under...

At their recent summit in July, African presidents reiterated their determination to launch the Continental Free-Trade Area (CFTA) by December. Modalities for negotiating goods and services have been agreed and adopted and a draft text for the CFTA Agreement has been put on the table for negotiation. Some believe the job is more or less done and two or three negotiation sessions are needed before the CFTA can be launched at the end of the year. The stakes are high. If it is not launched in 2017, Africa will be the laughing stock of the world for failing to meet the deadline that was set in 2012. There is a sense of pride and duty. The agreement must cover the essential elements — establishment, principles and objectives, nondiscrimination, tariff elimination, customs and trade facilitation, standards, transparency and notification, institutions, disputes and the usual final provisions. Outstanding work such as details of trade remedies can be continued afterwards. A good strategy for quick progress is to construct the CFTA Agreement using the provisions already available in the agreements of the African regional economic communities that countries have been using over the years. To supplement this, instruments on customs and trade facilitation and health and technical standards can be constructed on good practice from the World Customs Organisation and global standards-setting bodies. African administrations and regulatory agencies happily use instruments and documents from these organisations. There are areas of difference among regional economic communities, such as the settlement of trade disputes. This...

The conference and exhibition is expected to draw participants from high level decision makers, investors and business leaders. The three-day event will deliberate on investments, entrepreneurship and trade opportunities in the East Africa Community (EAC) and beyond. The East Africa Business Community (EABC) Chief Executive Officers Ms Lilian Awinja said the conference offers a platform to promote the bloc as one investment destination. “…And present to investors many opportunities in the region as well as a large consolidated market.” said Ms Awinja. Aacording to organizer—EABC, this year, the sector highlights are quite diverse to attract a unique in order to encourage an innovative exchange of experiences to inspire participants to think out of the box. In addition, the East African Diaspora will be strongly engaged to amplify investment into the region. Source: Daily News

Local banks are on the front row in enhancing inter-regional trade through pan African banking, a report by PwC shows. The Global Economic Watch, released early this month, shows that the total shares of exports to sub-Saharan Africa across four economies including Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Togo increased from 12 per cent in 2007 to 23 per cent in 2016. The increase is an equivalent of $11.7 billion (Sh1.21 trillion). Locally-grown banks Equity and Kenya Commercial Bank dominate the large cross-border banking group in terms of size and subsidiaries with each having a presence in six and seven countrys respectively. This growth has made Kenya the largest beneficiary of the share of SSA trade, having the highest percentage of 35 per cent. A large part of this portion is from trade within the East Africa Community. The two banks have largely leveraged their expertise in agent and mobile banking services to expand to other countries by targeting the underbanked in the East African Community. Other banks with a bigger presence in terms of cross border banking include Standard Bank and Ecobank. While the number of crossborder subsidiaries of African banks has almost tripled since 2002, there are now 10 Pan African Banks with a presence in at least 10 SSA countries, and one with a presence in over 30 SSA countries. PwC’s economist James Loughridge attributes the fast growth to expansion of SSA markets between countries, that has seen banks follow corporate client abroad, and secondly to the global...

SOUTHERN African Railways Association (SARA) says regional railway operators are keen to develop the Dar es Salaam corridor into a preferred route as it offers the shortest path to the Far East. The National Railways of Congo (SNCC), Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) and Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL) are members of the Dar es Salaam Corridor Management Group, which is a committee of SARA, while the corridor links the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. SARA committee chairman Francis Lwanga, who is also ZRL director of marketing, said there is need for integration among the three railway operators to make improvement and address various challenges faced by users. Recently, the three railway firms conferred with their customers in Dar es Salaam under SARA and expressed happiness at the improvements in railway operations. “SNCC, TAZARA and ZRL met last week to discuss ways of improving and growing business on the Dar es Salaam Corridor using railways to and from the Port of Dar. “The Dar es Salaam corridor is one of the safest and shortest routes for many customers especially those with business interests in the Far East, so we must continuously interact and strive to make improvements so that we can expeditiously address all emerging concerns,” Mr Lwanga said in a statement released by TAZARA head of public relations Conrad Simuchile on Monday. Most railway users have commended the operators for improving the operations, especially by shortening of the transit time between Zambia and Tanzania, which is now between...

Are you curious what the most economically developed countries in Africa are? You don’t need to search on the internet because Insider Monkey has investigated it for you and published an article about this topic. When talking about certain countries and their development, it is of enormous importance to discuss their economy in order to get to know the overall picture.  In African case, this is even more important, because it will also help us to break the wrong picture of this amazing continent. n order to get the relevant data related to the economic development, the gross domestic product (GDP) is the most important indicator to look at.  In very simple words, this stands for the overall dollar value of everything that is produced in a certain period, and it is usually expressed in comparison to the previous period, making it easier to follow the potential development or possible decline. Later in the same article that explains what GDP actually is, there is also the explanation on how it is actually measured. Apparently, and if I may say, quite logically, this can be done only by economists, taking into consideration two aspects; what everyone earned in a year and what everyone spent. This is called income approach and expenditure method. Now without a further ado let’s see what Insider Monkey has investigated for us. We have picked two counties from their list. Tanzania is the first now. Nominal GDP is $45.899 billion. This country has been through a lot in the past...

The EAC Industrial Competitiveness Report 2017states that these growth rates, as measured by the Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) and manufacturing trade growth rates, fall short of some of the targets set in the EAC industrialisation policy. They are also below similar regional economic communities in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ecowas. Discounting by population size, the report shows that the EAC is still registering a low level of industrial production. And, based on the current growth rate, the region would only attain an MVA per capita level of about $87 in 2032, which is well below the goal of $258 set in the EAC Industrialisation Policy, and would not allow it to reach SADC’s production capacity of 2015. The report comes as the EAC Industrialisation Action Plan (2012-2017) comes to an end. It shows that MVA growth has slowed down in recent years, from 5.3 per cent between 2005 and 2010, to 4.6 per cent between 2010 and 2015, thus falling short of the 10-15 per cent annual growth rate projected in the EAC Industrialisation Policy and Strategy and below the sub-Saharan Africa average. Missed opportunities Analysis of the cotton and leather sub-sectors shows missed opportunities at the level of high value-added products in the value chain, such as for cotton apparel and leather footwear. Meanwhile, the analysis of industrial drivers has pointed to a number of key constraints to industrial competitiveness. Nonetheless, although EAC’s exports of the top regionally demanded products generally grew since 2010, it did not happen at the pace...

The longstanding trade dispute between Kenya and Tanzania is derailing business between the two neighbours to the detriment of entrepreneurs who depend on it. For a long time, Tanzania has been Kenya’s second largest export market after Uganda, underlining its importance as a trading partner. The dispute has put in jeopardy the production of some goods in Kenya, as businesspeople cannot continue normally until they have found other markets to replace the seemingly unreliable Tanzanian one. The situation is therefore dire for those whose jobs that are dependent on selling goods to Tanzania. In the first five months of this year, Kenya’s exports to Tanzania fell by 34 per cent to stand at Sh8.2 billion compared to a similar period last year. That means more than a third of the value derived from selling products such as palm oil, soap, medical drugs, cooking fat, iron sheets, sugar confectionery and margarine to Tanzania was lost. It is for this reason that cancellation of a meeting intended to iron out the differences between the two countries is unfortunate. There can be no doubt that traders on both sides of the common border need a quick settlement of the impasse in order to resume normal production and keep employees at work. The long-running market access battles with Tanzania have become worse in the past few months after Kenya blocked importation of Tanzanian gas through the Namanga border post over quality concerns. Clearly, both countries have issues with products coming from one another’s territory....

Tanzanian officials have put off a meeting intended to iron out outstanding trade disputes with Kenya amid concerns Dar es Salaam was maintaining a hardline stance in the spat. Representatives of the two countries, including officials from cross-border trade agencies, were expected to meet from tomorrow in Tanzania, according to an agreement reached on August 3. But Kenya’s principal secretary for trade Chris Kiptoo, who was also scheduled to meet his Tanzania counterpart Adolf Mkenda on Friday, said the meeting was off following a note from Tanzania postponing the meeting. “I have just seen the note asking for a postponement to 9th September. We would review it and communicate the outcome. My technical team was ready including the private sector to begin these negotiations which had started on a positive note,” Mr Kiptoo said. The two trade bosses led a meeting in Namanga where both countries agreed to lift some of the trade restrictions, including the one that barred milk and milk products from Kenya from entering Tanzania and the restrictions on wheat from Tanzania. The agreement resolved to allow some 26 trucks ferrying wheat from Tanzania that were stopped at the border to be allowed entry into Kenya and opened borders for Kenyan milk and milk products some of which had expired over the standoff, leading to unquantified losses. The Namanga agreement failed to reach a deal on a number of issues raised by Kenya, including a higher tax on cigarettes from Kenya which are treated like products coming...