Danish shipping giant Maersk is set to implement a new supply chain management technology that was partly developed by the IBM Research lab in East Africa. Maersk and IBM last week said they would begin using blockchain technology to manage and truck paper trail of shipping containers as they crisscross the oceans. Blockchain is best known as the technology that underpins the world’s most successful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. The simplest way to understand blockchain is to view it as the next iteration of that mainstay of bookkeeping— the ledger. Blockchain digitises the ledger. It also distributes it. This means that a single data entry on the ledger is simultaneously stored in thousands, if not millions, of computers in a specific network. Due to the distributed nature of information storage, blockchain has particularly been touted as a technology that will increase transparency and reduce corruption in various transactions. Recently, companies in the logistics and financial sectors have been exploring the use of blockchain for applications beyond cryptocurrencies. “The solution is designed to help reduce fraud and errors, reduce time products spend in the transit and shipping process, improve inventory management and ultimately reduce waste and cost,” said IBM in a statement. The blockchain supply management system will be accessible to a network of shippers, freight forwarders, ocean carriers, and customs authorities dealing with Maersk cargo. IBM says that each participant in the supply chain will be able to view the progress of goods in real time. Once data is entered into the...

On July 1, the East African Community will be marking 12 years of the implementation of the Customs Union Protocol. This Protocol, the first pillar of EAC integration, is defined under Article 75 of the Treaty establishing the EAC. It came into effect in 2005 having been signed by the three East African Heads of State on March 2, 2004 in Arusha, Tanzania. The Republic of Rwanda and Burundi joined the Customs Union in 2008 and started applying its instruments in July 2009. In the theory of economic integration, a Customs Union is supposed to be the third stage after a Preferential Trade Area and a Free Trade Area. However, the 1999 Treaty establishing the EAC provides that a Custom Union shall be the first stage in the process of economic integration. This is basically because even before the signing of the treaty, there were strong partnerships already between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. For instance on November 30, 1993 the trio had signed the Agreement for the Establishment of the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation. The Custom Union has allowed East Africa to operate as a free trade area where partner states have reduced or eliminated taxes on goods originating from within the community and have a Common External Tariff (CET) on goods imported from other countries. For the last 12 years, the CET has been based on three bands of 25 per cent for finished goods, 10 per cent for intermediate goods and 0 per cent for...

Kenya has delayed the planned April 3 rollout of an electronic passport to allow other East African Community (EAC) member countries to simultaneously launch the document in September. In a statement, Immigration Department Director Gordon Kihalangwa yesterday said Kenya and its EAC partners, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi will jointly launch the EAC e-passports on September 1. He had earlier indicated that Kenya was ready to launch e-passports on April 3 after having trained its staff and acquired the necessary e-passport machinery for the rollout at its Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa offices. The new e-passports will have a computer chip-embedded on one of the pages where a holder’s biometric information will be captured in a tamper-proof document. Only e-passport machine-readers owned by immigration departments across the world will access the read-only information. Besides the security features, e-passport holders’ travel itinerary will be automatically updated at every airport or border point they pass through in real time through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) online portal. The ICAO management system integrates all e-passport information into its global public key directory, making it impossible for anyone to use a stolen passport or forge one for use in inter-country travel. Roll-out of the e-passports with a 10- year validity period will see the paper-based (analogue) passports gradually phased out with East African countries, joining another 60 other countries across the world that use e-passports. The decision to launch an EAC e-passport started in 2004 when the Council of Ministers sanctioned formation...

Efforts aimed at deepening trade among African countries have been boosted by the launch of a new trade facilitation tool. Launched yesterday, the One-Stop Border Post Sourcebook is tipped to help governments improve cross-border and intra-regional trade across Africa and enhance the continent’s competitiveness. Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) chief executive officer, said the trade facilitation tool seeks to promote a co-ordinated and integrated approach towards easing trade, the movement of people, and consolidating security. Mayaki said: “One-stop border posts (OSBPs) are crucial in facilitating trade on the continent because they remove the need for travellers and goods to stop twice to undertake border crossing formalities. “It also calls for the application of joint controls to minimise routine activities and duplication.” “Therefore, it is envisaged that the OSBP project will help reduce the cost and time transporters take to ferry goods across borders,” he added. Mayaki was speaking at a regional domestication workshop for the OSBP sourcebook yesterday. The workshop, which started yesterday, ends on March 16. He said NEPAD is committed to supporting initiatives that promote trade on the continent, urging governments to and key stakeholders to fully utilise the sourcebook to help them determine the best way to develop OSBPs in each region. The development of the second edition of the sourcebook was supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), NEPAD, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)....

Needless charges and regulations as well as closed skies are bottlenecks to cross-border business in East Africa, a lobby has said. The East African Business Council (EABC) now wants the regional parliament to fast-track the removal of these barriers to boost trade. The council executive director Lilian Awinja said the slow pace of opening up the borders exposes local traders and professionals to cutthroat competition from importers and consultants servicing individual markets directly. “The private sector is concerned that despite the commitments of the EAC partner States at the international level as evidenced by concerted efforts to integrate East Africa into a single market, domestic air transport remains over-protected, thus translating into less accessible and unaffordable for potential local users,” she said in a statement. Commuter air services within the East Africa Community comprising Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, face hurdles as some routes remain unserved. Most travellers from one country to another have to fly to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to catch a connecting flight. For example, East Africa Legislative Assembly Speaker Daniel Kidega’s endured a 10-hour flight from Arusha in Tanzania to Kigali in Rwanda. “As I came here from my home in Arusha, I took a flight to Zanzibar, then to Nairobi, from there to Bujumbura and then on to Kigali. It took me close to 10 hours from Arusha to Kigali. That is an unacceptable way to do business,” he said. Reciprocal flights Ms Awinja said despite Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South...

The Gender Equality and Development Act was passed by East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) on Women’s Day. The law aims to advance gender equality and equity among EAC member states in economic, political, socio-economic and cultural aspects. PIC:Christine Mbonyingingo (middle) and Commissioner Ministry of East African Community, Ronah Serwadda (right) looks on during a press conference at the East African Sub- regional support Initiative, (EASSI) on 10/3/17. PHOTO BY JULIET KASIRYE Women organizations in East Africa have asked regional heads of state to ratify a new law that seeks to provide guarantees for gender equality and protection of women from all forms of violence. The Gender Equality and Development Act was passed by East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) on Women’s Day. The law aims to advance gender equality and equity among EAC member states in economic, political, socio-economic and cultural aspects. The Act mandates member states to uphold the right of every woman and man to life, personal dignity and integrity, and security of a person at all levels in their public and private lives. Women organisations through their umbrella body, the East Africa Sub Regional Support Initiative, (EASSI), at a press briefing on Friday, implored the heads of state of the five EAC states to assent to the new law to protect women. “Although the Act was passed, if it is not domesticated by Uganda and the member states-Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi and South Sudan, it will not help us,” Marren Akatsa, the EASSI executive director said. According to...

The East African Community (EAC) is, at last, seeing light at the end of the tunnel after a long era of gender angst. But achieving gender equality will be an uphill task as old habits die hard. However, a recent endorsement of the Gender Equality and Development Bill, 2016 by the East African Legislative Assembly last week to improve the rights of women and girls is encouraging. We urge EAC heads of state to assent to the document for the bloc to reach gender equality, protection and development. The envisaged law stipulates the right of a child to quality education and can address other issues such as land rights, marginalised groups and gender-based violence. Indeed, forced marriage has been the nemesis of girls, condemning them to illiteracy, poverty and servitude. Teenage marriage and female genital mutilation are not only anachronistic, but also used as tools of female subjugation. That runs counter Article 6 of the EAC Treaty, which strongly opposes discrimination against any person on grounds of sex or gender. EAC governments will have to review marriage and inheritance pieces of legislation that are repressive to women and increase their representation in decision-making bodies. Last year, Tanzania's High Court ruled that sections 13 and 17 of the Law of Marriage Act, 1971, which allow a girl aged below 18, to marry were unconstitutional. That came after Children's Rights Organisation director Rebecca Gyumi filed a petition to strike out all provisions in the Law of Marriage Act, 1971, which allow a...

The recent scramble for the partition of the nine slots allotted to Uganda in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), has stirred concern among ordinary Ugandans. During the elections this month, the exercise became rowdy as MPs from the government nearly exchanged blows with their counterparts in the Opposition on the floor of Parliament. The scuffle started when Ingrid Turinawe, a candidate from the Opposition Forum for Democratic (Change) walked to the podium to solicit for votes in Parliament. But as she began to address the MPs, majority of the ruling party legislators opposed to her candidature stood up in protest and started shouting at her, paralyzing the Parliamentary proceedings. In the end FDC, which fronted two candidates, scoped no seat while smaller parties like the Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) posted a representative each. But the chaos that ensured in the house has left ordinary Ugandans wondering whether EAC is a job basket for politicians or is intended to benefit the common person. Each newly elected MP in EALA will receive at least $14,000 (Ugsh50m) in monthly salaries beginning July. At the signing of the treaty that established the community in 2000, the ordinary East African had been promised to benefit from the reunion. But so far EAC has remained majorly a “platform” for Presidents and regional Members of Parliament who receive huge salaries. “That’s why in Uganda the elections for the members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) make little sense to the ordinary...

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is consulting internally on how to proceed after business leaders requested for more time to allow for further consultations on the EAC Polythene Materials Control Bill, 2016, The New Times has learnt. The Bill was recently re-introduced for the second time during the August 2016 sitting in Arusha, Tanzania, by MP Patricia Hajabakiga (Rwanda) after it failed to be approved at the Heads of State summit in 2013. The Bill aims at providing a legal framework for the preservation of a clean and healthy environment through the prohibition of manufacturing, sale, importation and use of polythene materials in the East African Community (EAC). Ever since its reintroduction, businesses voiced concerns and they reiterated their call for more consultations during a dinner hosted by the East African Business Council (EABC) in Kigali on Tuesday. The EABC executive director, Lilian Awinja, said the Bill is a good initiative but since they have received concerns from members of the regional business community, the Assembly ought to consider allowing more time for “sufficient consultations.” “We kindly request that you allow us to undertake thorough private sector consultations and give input to EALA before the passing of this Bill,” Awinja told EALA Speaker Daniel Kidega and other lawmakers. The EABC has already officially written to the Speaker– and it will most likely take the Assembly to make a decision. During the dinner, Rwandan businessman Denis Karera, who is also the EABC Vice Chairperson, told lawmakers that the “sensitive Bill”...

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), on International Women’s Day yesterday, passed the East African Community (EAC) Gender Equality, Equity and Development Bill, 2016 after a lengthy debate. The Bill, moved by MP Nancy Abisai (Kenya), makes provision for gender equality, equity, protection and development in the Community and, after enactment, shall now await assent by the EAC Heads of State. “The Heads of State should assent to the Bill and pave way for its implementation. My hope is that once enacted, partner states will take it seriously,” Lilian Awinja, executive director of the East African Business Council (EABC) told The New Times. “The next partner state to appoint an EAC Secretariat General should appoint a woman in that office.” The Bill contends that whereas the partner states recognise the importance of gender equality and have developed programmes and enacted legislation in this pursuit, these efforts are at different levels and contain differences particular to each partner state. As a result, gender initiatives affect women, men and children differently across the Community. The passing of the Bill follows successful second and third readings after presentation of the Report of the Committee on General Purpose on public consultations held in the partner states. The committee chairperson, MP Odette Nyiramilimo (Rwanda), earlier told the Assembly that stakeholders in Kenya welcomed the Bill, saying it would give effect to the EAC Treaty and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In Uganda, she said, stakeholders called for broadening of the terms with...