Kampala. Uganda is considered a cheaper cargo route for goods bound to South Sudan, than the direct route to from Mombasa to Juba. This was revealed by Mr Richard Kamajugo, the senior director for trade development at TradeMark Africa while giving a keynote speech at the opening of the joint oil and gas convention and regional logistics expo at the Kampala Serena Hotel on Tuesday. He said this was an opportunity for Uganda to leverage if it was to be a hub for logistics within East Africa. “When I looked at the numbers, I saw something which I think we need to build on and grow. That the cost of transport from Mombasa to Juba direct was higher than Mombasa-Kampala and then Kampala-Juba. There is already an opportunity here for us to pick on,” he added. This is part of efficiencies that give Uganda the potential of being a regional logistics hub with centres in Mbarara, Gulu, Kampala and Tororo. Despite the weak infrastructure, Uganda is ranked 58 out of 168 countries, according to the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) for 2016. It was the 5th country in Africa and top performing low-income country ahead of Tanzania, Rwanda and Cambodia among others. The report highlights that being landlocked is no-longer unfortunate. “For the first time in the history of the Connecting to Compete reports, landlocked countries are no longer automatically the most unfortunate ones, as evidenced by, for instance, the performance of Rwanda and Uganda,” the report reads, inpart....

A visit to Busia County tells a story of ongoing transformation in cross-border trade. The Kenya-Uganda trade, for a long time known for lengthy procedures, expensive processes, a lot of paperwork and middlemen, has changed considerably. Customs and other border control agencies from two states now sit under one roof to facilitate trade and collect revenues with ease. That is the concept of one-stop border post (OSBP). Kenya has since made the OSBP a reality in seven of its border crossing points in a bid to remove the barrier to cross-border trade. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) says custom collections have tripled and clearance time cut from three days to just under one hour since it began implementing the OSBP in June last year. KRA western regional coordinator Kevin Safari says the simplified procedures have attracted traders into the cross-border business as well as reduced smuggling, increasing revenue collections. “With a faster and a simpler process, traders have had no incentive to use illegal channels to bring in goods into the country as they are assured of a faster and a more transparent process. “We have also reduced the time they would take to cross the border, meaning they can trade more volumes which is also a revenue boost for us,” said Safari said during a tour of the Busia border point. National economy At the Busia border point, which is major entry and exit point between Kenya and Uganda, past delays forced trucks ferrying goods between the two countries...

Intra-Africa trade took 40 per cent of the exports worth Sh234.1 billion indicating a need to ease movement of goods and services. The Economic Survey 2017 shows the East African Community that brings together Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi continued to provide Kenya with a ready market that accounted for 51.9 per cent of the intra-Africa trade. The bloc, which is pursuing integration at economic and political levels, has also provided a ready market for Kenyan investments in manufacturing, banking and provision of professional services. Somalia that is slowly returning to normalcy provided Kenya with the largest gains as export volumes of fresh and processed products doubled. Exports in 2016 stood at Sh17.9 billion, an indication that a stable Mogadishu means good business for Kenya. Uganda remained the biggest market for Kenyan goods where Sh62 billion worth was sold with Rwanda receiving goods valued at Sh17.5 billion, Burundi Sh7.2 billion and Tanzania recorded Sh34.8 billion up from 2015 Sh33.7 billion. European Union came second accounting for 24 per cent of the exports worth Sh141.5 billion while the US imported goods worth Sh52.9 billion. Source: Business Daily

East African Community Secretariat; Nairobi, Kenya; 12 April 2017: The Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko paid a courtesy call on the Trademark East Africa (TMA) CEO, Mr. Frank Matsaert on Tuesday, 11th April, 2017, at the Trade Mark East Africa Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The two officials had a lengthy discussion on a number of issues including the support to the East African Community by TMA and the importance of Partnership between the two parties. The Secretary General briefed Mr. Frank Matsaert on the reforms being undertaken at the EAC and that EAC was now ISO certified. He disclosed to the TMA CEO that the impact of reforms had led to cost reduction in the way EAC does business and emphasized that the reform agenda will continue to ensure efficiency in the use of available resources. On management of different projects at the EAC Secretariat, Amb. Mfumukeko informed Mr. Matsaert that the Projects Coordination Unit will be fully functional by July 2017. On his part, Mr. Frank Matsaert emphasized that TMA takes EAC partnership seriously, and congratulated the EAC for passing the EU Fiduciary Risk Assessment, which TMA supported. Mr. Matsaert informed the Secretary General that a commitment had been made to support the initial phase of operationalization of the Projects Coordination Unit at the EAC Secretariat. 'Already a consultant had been recruited by TMA to help in the finalization of the design of the unit'. The report will be finalized by end of...

Six maize ware houses under the Grain council of Uganda (TGCU) have signed a code of conduct which will govern their conduct in the way grain hubs handle grains right from the farm level until they get to the market. The self-regulatory code of conduct prescribes activities that ware house operators need to undertake while handling maize during storage, and also guides ware houses management practices that ensure that that their practices are in accordance with EAC quality standards. Some of the activities include quality checks at village level before the grain gets to the warehouse, checking the moisture content so that only grains with acceptable moisture content is stored, hygiene of the grain, level of chemical residues, broken kennels, stacking, packaging among others. This is according to the executive director of the TGCU, Henry Musisi, while witnessing the signing of the codes of conduct by grain hub processors at the Golf course hotel in Kampala on Wednesday. “Ugandan grain still has challenges despite the fact that Uganda is the only country in East Africa which perennially produces surplus grain to sell but this has been branded as the poorest in the region as such can only be fed on chickens,” he said. The six ware houses that signed include Joseph Initiatives in Masindi, Aponye Uganda Limited, Kamwenge Community Devt Limited,Nu AFGRI Uganda Limited (Nwoya) AFGRI KAI Uganda Limited Kiryandongo and Namunkekere Agro Processing Industries Limited in Nakaseke. Musisi added that Uganda maize grain now attracts lower prices compared to...

Iringa small scale farmers have asked the government and the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat to eliminate both the traditional and new challenges related to non-tariff barriers (NTBs), impact of climate change and low participation of farmers in the EAC agritrade policy making process. At a recent event held to review the region's agri-trade and business regime, the stakeholders found that majority of small farmers weren't aware of the requirements for undertaking agri-trade and business within the EAC and other regional economic blocs. The deliberations which were based on experiences of Iringa small-scale farmers pointed out challenges associated with systems which include lack of capacity on the part of small scale farmers to negotiate favorable terms. As a result, the Iringa Civil Society Organization (ICISO) supported by the Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) under the EAC CSO integration project in collaboration with Trademark East Africa (TMA) is working to establish how the small-scale farmers could effectively engage in, and benefit from, the region's agri-trade and business regime. A statement issued by the ICISO Executive Secretary, Mr. Raphael Mtitu noted that Iringa SSFs were failing to effectively engage and benefit from the EAC regional development cooperation and integration due to lack of information and facilitation on how to undertake trade and access markets within the bloc. Source: All Africa

Uganda has announced plans to start building a $2.3bn standard-gauge railway between its capital and the Kenyan border later this year, dropping an earlier demand that Kenya first complete its line between the border and the port of Mombasa. The 273km electrified track, which will link Kampala and the Kenyan border town of Malaba, will be built by China Harbour Engineering (CHEC) and is due to be completed in the middle of 2020. Kasingye Kyamugambi, the project’s coordinator, told Uganda’s New Vision website that land acquisition was 60% complete and efforts were being made to buy the remaining plots by end of February. As with Kenya’s standard gauge railway, the work is being funded by China’s Export–Import Bank. The size of the loan, and the terms on which it is being offered, have not been made public. However, it was reported in 2014 that $8bn would be sought. Uganda is seen as a good credit risk owing to the recent discovery of an oil field in the Lake Albert basin. It is estimated that this contains 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. According to Bloomberg, this will net the Ugandan government around $43bn over the next 25 years. It is predicted that the railway will have a dramatic impact on moving people and goods through the country. President Yoweri Museveni said the railway would halve the cost of getting a 32-tonne container to Mombasa, from $3,500 by road, to $1,650 by rail, and would cut the journey time from 21...

The taxman recorded a revenue growth of 300 per cent at the Busia-Uganda border over the past three years and is looking to net more with establishment of the one stop border post. KRA Western Kenya coordinator Kevin Safari said the post, opened in June 2016, had cut transit costs and delays, fueling traders' confidence in the East Africa's busiest corridor. The one stop border post (OSBP), he said had cut down clearance procedures from 16 to about "three or four" clearing congestion that previously saw a fleet of trucks line up, some for a week, as they waited for clearance. "An average of 250 trucks pass through this border every day and the OSBP has reduced clearance time from two or three days to between 20 to 30 minutes. This means that transit time is greatly reduced and more traders can use the corridor efficiently," he said. A trader exporting goods to Uganda for example only needs to present the exit note and the cargo manifest to the customs desk for verification on the Ugandan side of the border. The desk has officers from Kenya and Uganda sitting side by side. The Kenyan official clears the goods for export and hands over to the Ugandan counterpart to clear them for import, a process that takes about 15 minutes. Previously, traders in the region were slowed by tedious clearance procedures at the two customs points, which required inspection at both sides of the border. This process created delays and congestion...

Uganda and South Sudan have agreed on a blueprint for redrawing their common border. The deal is expected to end the long-simmering border conflicts. A joint technical committee from the two countries on Friday concluded a three-day meeting for the “delimitation and demarcation” of the border in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a process facilitated and to be overseen by the African Union, the 55-member continental body. The meeting, according to Ms Margaret Kafeero, the head of public diplomacy in Uganda's ministry of Foreign Affairs, “discussed the technical, logistical and security requirements that will need to be availed before” the exercise to delineate the 470km boundary stretch commences. HomeNews NEWS Uganda and S. Sudan agree on border demarcation plan SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTRATING By FREDERIC MUSISI in Kampala Posted  Sunday, April 23   2017 at  18:53 Uganda and South Sudan have agreed on a blueprint for redrawing their common border. The deal is expected to end the long-simmering border conflicts. A joint technical committee from the two countries on Friday concluded a three-day meeting for the “delimitation and demarcation” of the border in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a process facilitated and to be overseen by the African Union, the 55-member continental body. The meeting, according to Ms Margaret Kafeero, the head of public diplomacy in Uganda's ministry of Foreign Affairs, “discussed the technical, logistical and security requirements that will need to be availed before” the exercise to delineate the 470km boundary stretch commences. Technical expertise “The African Union Border Programme experts provided technical expertise...

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) says it has tripled custom revenue collections in its seven border points after it began operating one-stop border posts in June 2016. The move, which put together bureaucrats involved in cross-border clearance processes under one roof, has also cut cargo clearance time from the previous three days to just under 1 hour, the agency said. KRA Western Regional Coordinator Kevin Safari said the simplified procedures have attracted traders into the cross order business as well as reduced smuggling hence the increased revenues. “With a faster and a simpler process, traders have had no incentive to use illegal channels to bring in goods into the country as they are assured of a faster and a more transparent process,” Mr Safari said during a tour at the Busia border point. “We have also reduced the time they would take to cross the border meaning they can trade more volumes which is also a revenue boost for us.” The Busia OSPB which is major entry and exit point between Kenya and Uganda has a one-stop clearance point for cargo and people, with various government agencies sitting in one office to fasten the clearance procedures. Kenya has 35 gazetted entry and exit points with four more being proposed in the Western border with Uganda. Source: Business Daily