A former vice chairman of the East African business council has been elected chairman during the council’s annual general meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya. The new chair, Econie Nijembere, who is also the chairman of Burundi federal chamber of commerce and industry, will now oversee the council’s general activities for one year, taking over from Rwandan Dennis Kerera who was chair over the 2015/2016 period. During the annual general meeting, the new chairman announced the increment of membership services by 20% as one of his key agendas. Source: Standard Media

The Malaba-Kampala section of the standard gauge railway will take a while longer to be completed after China’s Export Import Bank set new loan preconditions for Uganda. A document prepared by officials from Uganda’s Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and seen by this paper shows that a key demand by the Chinese is that Uganda secure guarantees from Kenya that it is still interested in and will source financing for the Naivasha-Malaba section of the standard gauge railway (SGR). It also wants guarantees on compensation for those people affected by the project and a new feasibility and bankability study showing that construction of the SGR makes business sense. Kampala has now been forced to revise the completion date for the construction of the SGR from the Northern Corridor’s target of March 2018, to sometime around 2020, The EastAfrican has learnt. While the Ugandan government attributes the potential delay to China’s desire to take on a bigger portion of the financing responsibility in the wake of the agreement that the lender will run operations for 10 years in order to recoup its investment, sources say Beijing is concerned about Uganda’s ability to meet its repayment obligations. Minister of Works and Transport John Byabagambi confirmed in an interview in Kampala that there will be delays, setting the new expected date of completion of only the Malaba-Kampala section to 2020. The target set by the Presidents of Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda was for the first train to be flagged off from...

The East African Community has unveiled its budget with a 20.2 per cent reduction in donor dependency and 8.4 per cent cut in spending. In the $101.4 million budget estimates for the 2016/17 fiscal year, the bloc reduced expenditure by $9.3 million and slashed the donor aid target by $11.8 million. The budget for the year ending June 30, 2016 was $110.7 million. EAC Secretary-General Liberat Mfumukeko termed it the most efficient budget, reflecting the austerity measures ordered by the EAC Heads of State. But critics termed the cuts contradictory in the face of expanding regional programmes among the six member countries. “The EAC membership has expanded, meaning more expenditure in executing programmes and projects, but the budget reflects a sharp slash,” said East African Legislative Assembly member Abdullah Mwinyi of Tanzania. South Sudan was admitted into the EAC by the 17th EAC Summit and the signing of the Treaty of Accession on April 15. Juba is expected to submit the instruments of ratification to the Secretary General before the end of the year. The Secretariat has been tasked with putting in place mechanisms that will facilitate the follow-up on the ratification by South Sudan, and develop a roadmap for the subsequent processes that are required to integrate Juba fully into the EAC’s programmes, projects and processes. All these processes, understandably, will result in an increase in expenditure. Tabling the budget, Tanzania’s deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation Susan Kolimba said input from development partners would drop...

Our continent is undergoing an unprecedented and rapid transformation. Some of the world’s fastest growing economies are in Africa. Our cities and our populations are exploding. The “wild” side of Africa is changing as new infrastructure to accommodate this boon, as well as increased regional and global trade, are transforming urban and rural areas. In this, many are writing the first chapters of Africa’s rise. But are we seeing the full story? Climate change, population growth, increased water demand and environmental degradation are all putting pressure on our freshwater resources. In a number of African countries, demand for water outstrips available resources. More than half of Africa’s population still relies on forests for their livelihood yet the continent lost 3.4 million hectares of forest per year between 2000 and 2010 to human activities. For wildlife, the future doesn’t look much brighter. As trade routes between Africa and other parts of the world open and multiply, so do the opportunities for smuggling of our natural heritage. Each year, more than 20,000 elephants are killed by poachers for their tusks, and more than 1,300 rhinos were poached in 2015 in Africa. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPORTANCE And while Africa’s “lion economies” continue to grow, Africa's lions are in a state of serious decline. Clearly we are not undertaking a complete environmental accounting of our success. Last week, Nairobi hosted the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, the world’s highest-level governing body on the environment. Protecting the environment is not merely about saving elephants...

The decision by Uganda and Rwanda to ditch Kenya’s proposed oil pipeline in favour of Tanzania’s should ring alarm bells in terms of what this means, not just for the economy but for the viability of the standard gauge railway that is being touted by the government as a game changer. It may soon dawn on us that not only was the SGR a very bad idea, but that it will put the country in such serious debt that Kenya could soon be rushing to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout loan. Already the IMF has warned Kenya that the country’s debt burden and the huge loans from China can bring the country’s debt to unsustainable levels. By arrogantly excluding Tanzania from discussions and assuming that it could play big brother to its neighbours, Kenya shot itself in the foot and lost the goodwill that it took for granted. Kampala and Kigali probably realised that Kenyans had been taken for a ride and, therefore, put their heads together and decided that rather than rely on Kenya for its transport needs, it should turn to Magufuli’s Tanzania. At least Tanzania does not have the perennial conflicts that Kenya seems to have every election cycle and with less corruption, Ugandan and Rwandan goods will probably be safer and cheaper to export and import from there. The question we must ask now is whether the Chinese hoodwinked us into undertaking the SGR project knowing full well that it was not viable. A...

ADDIS ABABA (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the African Union (AU) has underlined the need for AU member states to act quickly to move forward the agenda of realizing continental free trade (CFTA) in Africa. Fatima Haram Acyl, AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry, made the remark on Monday during the opening of the First Ministerial Meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee on Trade, Industry and Minerals at the headquarters of the pan-African bloc in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. The two-day meeting, which was preceded by session of experts, has been organized under the theme, “Promoting regional integration through trade and inclusive and sustainable industrial development in Africa.” Recalling that the AU summit in June 2015 launched the CFTA negotiations in commitment to the realization of CFTA by 2017, the AU Commissioner called for speedy action to ensure the ambitious agenda of the continent on CFTA. “We have an ambitious agenda before us. It is therefore incumbent on us to ensure the effective delivery of this target. We should therefore be prepared to provide the necessary guidance bearing in mind the overall goal of One Africa, One Market, in line with the aim and objectives of the Abuja Treaty,” she said. “As a result of the foregoing, we can agree that it’s time for us to act and act quickly. It’s time to move forward our Agenda,” she added. In his statement made through a representative, Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA),...

Growth in contributions to Aid for Trade levelled off in 2014 from a year ago according to Frans Lammersen, of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  Support for energy generation and productive capacity building in developing countries continue to attract increased levels of funding  but commitments for trade facilitation programmes and for least developed countries (LDCs) fell between 2013 and 2014, he said. “I think we can be relatively confident that overall Aid-for-Trade flows will remain relatively stable,” Mr Lammersen said, noting that the aggregate aid commitments decreased by only 2% to USD 55 billion in 2014 and may have even slightly increased in 2015. Actual disbursements of total aid commitments, meanwhile, have seen continued growth every year of 5-10%. Aid commitments for private sector development, in particular, rose in 2014 and this is likely to continue in light of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which encourage partnerships with the private sector, he added. “But there is a decline in aid for trade policy and regulations in the commitments and to a lesser extent in the disbursements,” he said, with commitments for trade facilitation support dropping from USD 613 million in 2013 to USD 362 million in 2014. “That is a drop of 41%.” Australia said this could be addressed by having aid recipients work with donors on identifying their Category C commitments under the Trade Facilitation Agreement — that is, the areas of trade facilitation where they will need capacity building and assistance. This way, donors...

Despite the untapped opportunities that exist on the continent, trade between various African countries is still largely restricted. Joining CNBC Africa to talk about the some of the critical barriers and possibly provide us with solutions to improve intra-Africa trade is Matthew Conroy, Trade Manager of Maersk Line South Africa. Source: CNBC Africa

Green industrialisation is the direction Africa should be following right now, a green economy approach to economic transformation as the continent catches up to the rest of the world industrially, the continent might as well implement the policies pre-emptively, is the crux of what Giovanie Biha, Deputy Secretary, Economic Commission for Africa explained to CNBC Africa. This comes after the Economic Comission for Africa launched a report yesterday on the green industry. "We believe there is not going to be a long and sustainable development unless Africa industrialises, we are one of the continents, if not the continent that is lagging behind in industrialisation. Green industrialisation is a timely subject Biha says because of the COP21 agreement, the sustainable development goals and the Addis Ababa consensus with the financing for development. It’s timely she says not only because of the agreements on climate but also a number of African countries are putting in place policy frameworks for industrialisation and trade. “Because we are late comers, we can start in the right way, we can start industrialisation based on resource efficiency, we are basically saying that we have seen in the last few years in many countries that economic growth was based on export of raw commodities and now with the falling prices a number of countries are really vulnerable, so we are basically saying if we are starting to industrialise, let’s start in the right way.” Biha says if we do not do it now, a few years from now...

The East Africa Community registered six private equity deals in March, signalling a rising popularity with investors. The bloc said the private equity deals were mainly in infrastructure, manufacturing and real estate. Also witnessed was a diminishing interest in banks as sources of credit, as the rates charged had turned out to be expensive at above 18 per cent, compared with private equity deals which usually attract seven to eight per cent interest rate per year. Another strong point is the repayment period, which can be negotiated in case of a slowdown in business. Investors and multinational executives attending this year’s East Africa Trade and Commodity Finance Conference convened by the Global Trade Review in Nairobi said banks should rethink their traditional loan offerings to remain relevant. The forum heard that the current lending practices do not support growth but hinders uptake, forcing many businesses to rely on cheap funds from pension schemes, private equity and foreign investors. The panellists included Nakumatt Holdings financial controller Vijay Kumar, R.H Devani’s business development general manager Geoffrey Okora and UK Association of Corporate Treasurers development director James Lockyer. They warned that while traders continued to patronise local banks, the future portends a change of offering where banks have to come up with products that address direct business challenges or risk losing their core segment to incoming venture capitalists and private equity firms. Mr Okora said the prohibitive interest rates charged by local banks were fuelled by increased government borrowing which saw many banks buy...