Kenya has agreed to allow wheat and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) imports from Tanzania following bilateral talks. According to a joint communique issued by the Kenya’s Ministry of Trade, the Tanzanian products had been prevented from entering Kenya due to a number of administrative issues. “Tanzanian LPG and wheat should flow without restrictions to Kenya with immediate effect,” the ministry said on Friday. Following consultations between trade officials from Tanzania and Kenya, the two governments undertook a fact finding mission on Thursday at the Namanga border Post to further follow up the progress made on the decisions of the Heads of State of Kenya and Tanzania to unlock the trade impasse. Kenya’s Trade principal secretary Chris Kiptoo said that regarding LPG imports into Kenya, the delay in the implementation of the directive issued on July 28 to allow free flow of LPG from Tanzania was due to an administrative challenge. He added that Tanzanian wheat imports were restricted from entering Kenya due to an existing East African Community legal provision. “Therefore, the 26 trucks currently stopped at the border should be released immediately since the legal lacuna has been resolved,” Kiptoo said. The statement added that a meeting of key stakeholders including wheat millers and farmers association should be held during the next bilateral meeting to agree on how to support wheat farming in the two countries. Source: New Times

Dar es Salaam. The government reaffirmed yesterday that it will speed up the process of repossessing the factories that were privatised 20 years ago to investors who violated the terms of contracts under which the industries were bought. This was said by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments, Dr Adelhelm Meru, told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday. He said after repossession, the factories will be handed to investors who would be ready to inject new capital and technology into the facilities to revive them. “The privatization exercise was done between 1990 and 1995. In other words 20 years have gone since that exercise was carried out. Some of the owners have done nothing to develop them despite buying them at throw-away prices. This cannot go unnoticed,” he said. Dr Meru’s statement comes only three days after the Opposition Chadema issued a statement, indicating that the fifth phase government was turning Tanzania into an unpredictable country to foreign and local investors. He said contrary to some political assumptions, the government has worked hard to ensure that the privatized firms were running while at the same time, it is attracting investors who establish new factories across the country. Some of the factories established during Dr John Magufulis presidency include Pipeline Industries, Global Packaging, Masasi Food Industries and Cata Mining. Source: The Citizen

President Museveni and his Tanzanian counterpart John Pombe Magufuli, last Saturday laid the first foundation stone for construction of the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), as a gesture for joint political will, for the development of the multi-billion dollar project within the stated timeframe. The event that attracted hundreds of residents at Chongoleani, in the northerly seaport city of Tanga in Tanzania, also symbolised the start of the construction of the $3.5b (about Shs12.6 trillion) pipeline. It will run from Hoima in mid-western Uganda to Tanga port at the Indian Ocean. Actual construction is expected to start early next year and to be completed by 2020, if all goes according to plan, including timely securing of financing from the international lenders. The two head of states assured that the project will not be held back by the customary profuse bureaucracy, which in Uganda has imperiled nearly all large infrastructure projects as government officials scheme for kickbacks. President Magufuli, known for his unorthodox work methods of cracking whip on incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats, said three years are enough to start and complete construction of the 1,445 km pipeline. “Three years are too long and you can finish before that time if you work day and night,” he said in his speech at Tanga. Last year in April, government settled for the Tanga route as destination for Uganda to export its crude oil to the international market, ditching the Kenyan route on grounds of being expensive despite being shorter route...

Work on the pipeline that will take Uganda's crude oil to export markets begins after Tanzanian President John Magufuli and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni laid the foundation stone at Chongoleani, in the port city of Tanga Saturday. President Museveni arrived in Tanzania on Friday evening for a two-day state visit. The pipeline, estimated to cost Sh355 billion ($3.55 billion), will transport Uganda's crude oil from Kabaale, in the western Hoima district, to Chongoleani peninsula, near the Tanga port in Tanzania. Construction of the 1,445km line is expected to start at different points. After the ceremony in Tanga, the two leaders are expected to also launch the building project in Hoima at a later date. According to the project report, the 24-inch diameter pipeline will move 216,000 barrels of oil per day at a cost of about Sh1300 ($12.2) per barrel. The pipeline will be pre-heated and covers 1.2 metres underground. There will be temporal facilities such as coating plants and pipe storage yards, access roads, burrow pits, hydro-test dams, a marine terminal and a jetty. The pipeline is expected to be completed by 2020.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics figures show that Kenya’s exports to Tanzania went down by 34 per cent in the first five months of the year, perhaps reflecting the negative effects of a trade war between them. Exports to the neighbouring country plunged by a huge Sh4.35 billion to Sh8.2 billion in the review period while Tanzania has been Kenya’s second biggest export market in the region after Uganda. A number of things are wrong in this whole standoff. One, the negotiations have been anything but transparent going by how one truce after another is ignored while senior officials in Nairobi report inability to reach their counterparts in the neighbouring country. But, two, and more important, the two countries ought to revisit the East African Community (EAC) integration ideals, which should be easy to pick out after many years of discussing the subject. While it’s expected that trade deals will be full of back and forth, such a longstanding disagreement is worrying for nations working on free  movement of goods, services, and people. Dar and Nairobi must sit at a table and iron out the differences, once and for all. We ask the two countries to dust themselves up and talk conclusively. Source: Business Daily

Following the inauguration of the Hoima-Tanga pipeline project on August 5, an umbrella body of oil and gas service providers in Tanzania is mobilising its members to take advantage of the opportunities that will come with the $3 billion project. The Association of Tanzania Oil and Gas Service providers (Atogs) has called a meeting of stakeholders on September 11 and 12 in Dar es Salaam to strategise and communicate the required standards for various services related to the projects so that Tanzanians get a fair share of the multibillion dollar deal. Atogs vice chairman Abdulsamad Abdulrahim said that under the local content provisions in the Petroleum Act 2015, Tanzanians have an advantage in acquiring local contracts subject to capacity. Atogs will provide training, links to finance and standards requirements so that they can acquire contracts in construction, engineering services, procurement of materials, logistics insurance, security services, catering an emergency services. Pipeline The 1,145 km pipeline will be built by Total at a cost of $3.5 billion. Eight per cent of it will be in Tanzania, passing through Kigoma, Geita, Shinyanga, Tabora, Singida, Dodoma, Manyara and Tanga regions. “We have communicated to Total that we have the requirements for standards, which we will communicate to our members and give them any assistance they need,” Mr Abdulrahim said. It is estimated that the project will produce about 10,000 direct employees, and about 30,000 indirect ones. Director of National Economic Empowerment Council Edwin Chrisant told reporters that the government is prepared to make sure that...

A senior US trade official on Thursday urged three East African Community countries to “revisit” their collective ban on used-clothing imports. Arguments in support of the ban put forward by Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda “are not supported by data or research,” said Ms Constance Hamilton, acting assistant US trade representative for Africa. Ms Hamilton’s comments seemed to suggest that the Trump administration is siding with a US business association that claims the three countries are in violation of eligibility criteria for the preferential trade programme known as Agoa. The African Growth and Opportunities Act stipulates that participating countries must eliminate “barriers to US trade” or be making progress in that direction. The US-based Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (Smart) says the three-year phase out of used-clothing imports, commonly known as mitumba, amounts to such a barrier. Smart petitioned US trade officials in March to exclude Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda from the Agoa provision. The three-year phase-out of mitumba jeopardises 40,000 jobs in the US recycled-clothing industry, according to Smart. Ms Hamilton cited that figure during a press teleconference on Thursday, and added that many of the threatened jobs are with small firms that have only “three or four employees.” Kenya had initially agreed to implement the EAC ban on mitumba, but rescinded the decision. Source: Daily Nation

Addis ababa – Ethiopia is looking to promote its horticulture products in China and different other markets to increase export volumes and revenue, the Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association (EHPEA) has said. The association said various endeavours are already going on to help achieve this goal. Tewodros Zewdie, the EHPEA executive director, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the country’s export performance of the flower sector in the last few years has shown remarkable progress, but the fruits and vegetables sector is not growing that much compared to its potential. Tewodros added that the association is working with the public and private stakeholders to address the challenges related to logistics issues, among others. “We are aggressively promoting our products in Europe, and the feedback from the buyers is quite good. Some promotion activities are also going on in China. We can also benefit from the market opportunity in the Middle East,” he said. Ethiopia earned about $300 million from export of fruits and vegetables in the last year fiscal year. Source: New Times

The second edition of the annual Africa 2017, a high-level forum offering participants an unparalleled platform for promoting trade and investment within Africa, will take place on December 7-9, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the organisers announced yesterday. This year’s event will kick-off with a Young Entrepreneurs Day (YED), which will bring together emerging and established entrepreneurs, business mentors, start-up hubs, angel investors and venture capital firms to share ideas, network and help drive further the “business ideas of tomorrow”. According to the organisers, the Africa 2017 YED has partnered with top incubators, entrepreneurship programmes and venture capital firms. Organised by Egypt’s Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional Investment Agency, the three-day conference will discuss key issues like ploicy reforms to improve business and investment climate, among others. It will attract business leaders and policy-makers from across Africa and worldwide, including Heads of State, the statement said. The forum will be held under the patronage of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Dr Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, reiterated the African opportunity based on business-minded reforms taking place across the continent. “The forum seeks to stimulate investments into the continent, and especially cross-border investments. In Egypt, we have undertaken an ambitious economic reform programme, with improving the business environment and overall country competitiveness as the key ingredient,” Nasr said. This forum reinforces Egypt’s commitment to support and enhance the economic and cultural integration of Africa...

Dar es Salaam. Policy predictability is a crucial factor that can make local firms participate in large-scale projects such as the construction of the Tanga-Hoima oil pipeline in a more meaningful way, the private sector players have argued. Tanzania Private Sector Foundation’s (TPSF) executive director Godfrey Simbeye made this argument on Wednesday in the city. He was speaking at the occasion of mobilising local service providers in the oil and gas sector to use the emerging opportunities in the construction of Tanzania-Uganda crude oil export pipeline. Mr Simbeye argued that without some level of policy stability, it would be difficult for local entrepreneurs to compete against the well capitalised, high skilled foreign firms. President John Magufuli and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni will be in Tanga on Saturday to lay the foundation stone for the 1,400-km pipeline, whose construction is expected to start soon. Mr Simbeye advised that it would be crucial for the Tanzanian government to stick to the terms and conditions they agreed with Uganda during the whole process of the construction of the pipeline to guarantee returns for service providers. “We need huge investments like that of the Tanzania-Uganda crude oil export pipeline, if Tanzania is to attain the middle income economy status by 2025,” noted Mr Simbeye. He added: “To attract investors in these projects, the government should make its policies stable, so that investors would not be scared away.” Besides, he said, policy stability can also work better if the local content section in the...