Over the last year, all eyes have been on Africa’s technology sector. And for a very good reason: infrastructure growth is booming. Between 2010 and 2016, seven new undersea cables brought fast data connections to the continent, with two more already under development. Meanwhile, mobile providers have invested $13.6billion into getting 500,000,000 Africans online by 2020. But as necessary as infrastructure investment is, it alone won’t take African business global. So what technological development or product has the potential to make African businesses global players? Tech sector already outperforms expectations A common misconception is that raw materials are the big African growth story of the last decade. But according to research by Freshfields, since 2004 Africa’s technology companies have delivered 19% annualised returns, compared to just 11% in commodities. A clue to why the African tech sector is growing can be found in the East African mobile payments industry. In most of the world, mobile payments is a niche sector, because consumers have many other convenient ways to pay -bank cards, credit cards and banking transfers, for instance. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 34% of people have a bank account. This used to be a significant barrier to any transaction that wasn’t small-scale or local. Or, in plain English, it was a huge inconvenience. Change began in 2007, when local telco Safaricom teamed up with Vodafone to develop the mobile-payment system M-Pesa. Its creators expected M-Pesa to have 250,000 customers by the end of its third year. After just two...

East Africa is in the midst of an infrastructure projects surge due to low steel prices, regional economic strength and Chinese support for projects. The cost of steel, engineering and design services have all been low this year, as a result of weak international demand. In addition, contractors have more spare capacity than usual, so projects can be developed more quickly. A quarter of Chinese steel production capacity has been shut-in during the year to date and so Beijing has been keen to find outlets for Chinese output. This has helped drive the current boom in pipeline and railway projects in East Africa, including the new Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway line and Uganda’s planned oil export pipeline and railway to the northern Tanzanian port of Tanga, to name a few. Despite the rise in steel consumption in East Africa, other parts of the continent are unlikely to benefit from the same type of projects because of the economic downturn affecting many other countries. Weak Continental Demand The investment seen in East Africa is unlikely to be replicated in economies that rely on commodities, such as Zambia, Nigeria and Angola. Those African countries are facing extensive spending cuts, particularly where support from the IMF and other multilaterals is expected. With more emphasis on poverty reduction, the international lenders may not demand such deep spending cuts in return for loans as during previous downturns. Nevertheless, they are unlikely to countenance borrowing for big tickets infrastructural projects. Apart from anything else, the Mozambican...

A total of 286 construction projects were launched in Africa in the first half of this year worth a combined total of $324 billion, according to a new report. The Deloitte African Construction Trends report said each of the projects on which ground was broken up to 1 June was valued at $50m or more. However, the report said the number of projects qualifying for inclusion “fell by 5% year-on-year, while the value of included projects decreased by 14%, due in large part to the headwinds that countries are experiencing on account of a weak global macroeconomic environment and low commodity prices across the board”. In a preface to the report, Deloitte Africa infrastructure and capital projects leader Jean-Pierre Labuschagne said: “Africa has seen a downturn in both the number and value of projects included this year, in contrast to previous years... many governments and the low number of projects highlighted that the private sector is struggling to maintain their spending on infrastructure and capital projects.” “New pressure or factors such as drought, security concerns and rapid urbanisation coupled with falling government revenues is making it difficult to maintain the spending in infrastructure required by many countries,” Labuschagne said. To qualify for inclusion in its 2016 report, Deloitte said infrastructure construction projects had to be valued at over $50m and must have broken ground, but not yet been commissioned, as of 1 June. In regional terms, West Africa had the most number of projects (92) this year, which amounted to...

Twenty officers drawn from the Customs Division of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and the Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) are undergoing a five-day Tanzania- China supported training in a bid to tighten port security. The five-day programme is meant to sharpen their understandings and capacity to handle container scanners currently installed at the Dar es Salaam port. A statement issued by TPA said that the officers taking part in the training in sharpening their knowledge and skills come from Dar es Salaam and Tanga. "I praise the governments of China and Tanzania for embarking on this programme. We expect this training will increase capacity to the custom officers to undertake their duties more efficiently and thus increase revenue collections," TPA Director General Kakoko said. He said the trainees would also be able to verify details contained in the container and relate with the Bill of Lading documents. He said it was vital for the officers to verify government trophies, illegal arms, illicit drugs, and other products prohibited to be shipped through the ports.  He, however, challenged the officers to also take part in the repair of facilities by at least 50 per cent in case of they don't function. The training is being conducted by Nuctech Limited engineers. The company had already installed the scanners at Tanga and Dar es Salaam ports. Project Manager Zhang Sheng said the project was complete and currently they were undertaking training on how to operate the new scanners to allow the facility to be operated...

A lot has been done by the region to foster trade across the East African Community (EAC) bloc. The number of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) has been reduced to just a handful and traders can also now clear merchandise once, at the point of entry. On top of that, there are now very few roadblocks and weighbridges across the bloc. It is efforts like these that have led to a significant reduction in cost of transporting containers from Mombasa to Kigali; from $6,500 in 2011 to about $4,800 currently. This has saved the country about $7 million and boosted trade within the region. However, despite the gains, more needs to be done to further facilitate intra-regional trade and movement of people. According to a new report by the TradeMark Africa, EAC governments must address the remaining NTBs, including technical issues like standards, logistics and police roadblocks, red tape and lack of automation in intra-regional trade processes, to spur trade. The Rwanda Trade Programme Evaluation report, released on Monday, also faults inefficiencies along transport routes, especially at sea ports and border posts for the high transport and freight costs in EAC. These bottlenecks affect intra-EAC trade that is currently at just 17 per cent, a small figure considering the bloc boasts of a 160 million people market. Therefore, to further enhance trade in the region, Rwanda and other EAC countries should make targeted investments and policy reforms to help eliminate the remaining trade barriers. Already, Rwanda has announced it will undertake more...

The United Kingdom is backing the construction of internationally agreed port infrastructure at the Mombasa Port in the far east of Kenya. The port is being improved to meet the fast demand for port clearances by East Africa Community member countries that are landlocked and depend on Kenya’s biggest port for imports and exports business. Mombasa port serves more than 200 million people in EAC including Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. UK’s will construct bigger viable roads and expand docking points for ships to increase the efficiency of the port’s carrier activities which is an engine for the regional social-economic bloc. UK through the Trademark East Africa will not leave out the for the Dar-es-Salaam port modernization which is a trade outlet for the whole inner South Central markets and the EAC itself. After the signing of the trade partnership with UK in 2009, international trade on the two main EAC ports has increased both in turn over and pace, the clearing days reducing from 15 days to 4 days today. “ This has led to the reduction of freight and transport costs, increased competitiveness of goods exported by East African countries, and led to job creation,” TMA notes. UK aid now supports TMA with £95m for next 4 years to increase Kenya’s trade by £1.3b and create  700,000 by 2020 new jobs and generate an additional $1.2b in revenues. If the trend goes as planned then Kenya will be home to   British investors and thus delivering value for money for...

Three government and private tourism agencies have unveiled four Uganda tourism products, costing Shs231 billion to boost the countries tourism capacity. Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) and Uganda Tourism Association (UTA) in collaboration with Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) unveiled the new products, including Namugongo Shrine Faith Based Tourism, Uganda National Museum Indigenous Dinner, Uganda Rwenzori Cultural Trail, and Interpretation Capacity Building for Birding on Wednesday at a tourism review workshop in Kampala. The money will be raised through partnership with local and tourism companies from neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Rwanda, among others, with UTB, UTA and TMA contributing the biggest percentage. According to Mr Richard Kawere, UTA's technical coordinator, the funds will be used to construct accommodation structures, cultural museums and marketing of the new products. "This is just an estimate of the costs that would be incurred in establishment and marketing of new tourism products. The final budget will be established after consultation meetings and site visits," Mr Kawere said. Mr Wanjiku Kimamo, the TMA senior programmer, whose organisation has supported the project with Shs1.1b, and Mr Stephen Asiimwe, the chief executive officer, UTB, said the new products will, among other things, enhance tourism institutional capacity and sustainability through building national tourist apex associations; encourage private public dialogue; as well as improve competitiveness and marketability of Uganda tourism products. "Our partnership is to increase trade for prosperity in the EAC region. We are looking at increasing tourism and export capability of EA countries," Mr Kimamo said. Mr...

By Agnes Nantaba Dr. Gudula Naiga Basaza is the chairperson of Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Limited (UWEAL). She spoke to The Independent's Agnes E. Nantaba about women entrepreneurship in Uganda. What are the key elements in your style as a manager? Our management style seeks to satisfy the interests of the different categories of members ranging from individual to cooperative members. As the chairperson of the Board, I make decisions guided by strategic plans. I have an oversight over management for implementation. What is your assessment of the performance of women entrepreneurship in Uganda? More women are getting involved in entrepreneurship legalising and professionalising their businesses with records. Women are no longer doing business as usual. More products by women are finding their way into supermarkets and other retail chains as women invest in branding and packaging. Looking at the history, most women were in agriculture but today more are taking up trade. We have diversification into construction and manufacturing. More women are also becoming information interested to keep up to date with market trends. They have taken up research and use it to improve on their products. What is your strategy to executing your mandate of promoting women entrepreneurs in Uganda? Women make up 52.5% of the labour force and are an important pool of potential talent to help Uganda meet its development goals, especially in entrepreneurship and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) growth. We created a platform where aspiring and women entrepreneurs come together to support each other....

The new products include Namugongo Shrine, National Museum indigenous dinner, among others In Summary Kimamo called upon EA governments to take tourism as one of the priority sectors because of its strong participation of enterprises, opportunities to create jobs, increase incomes and contribution to national economies. The sector’s total contribution to Gross Domestic Product in 2015 was 9.9 per cent at Shs6,395.4 billion compared to 7.9 per cent at Shs5,495 billion) in 2013 and 8.8 per cent in 2012 which was Shs4,993.6 billion. Kampala. Three government and private tourism agencies have unveiled four Uganda tourism products, costing Shs231 billion to boost the countries tourism capacity. Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) and Uganda Tourism Association (UTA) in collaboration with Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) unveiled the new products, including Namugongo Shrine Faith Based Tourism, Uganda National Museum Indigenous Dinner, Uganda Rwenzori Cultural Trail, and Interpretation Capacity Building for Birding on Wednesday at a tourism review workshop in Kampala. The money will be raised through partnership with local and tourism companies from neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Rwanda, among others, with UTB, UTA and TMA contributing the biggest percentage. According to Mr Richard Kawere, UTA’s technical coordinator, the funds will be used to construct accommodation structures, cultural museums and marketing of the new products. “This is just an estimate of the costs that would be incurred in establishment and marketing of new tourism products. The final budget will be established after consultation meetings and site visits,” Mr Kawere said. Mr Wanjiku Kimamo,...

News that the East African Community has been hit by a severe funding crisis is a grim warning that hopes of a regional trading bloc could be farther from reality. The East African Legislative Assembly, the legislative arm of the community, says the financial crunch is so grave that Parliament and other institutions have had to cancel important activities. Staff salaries and payments to suppliers have been delayed. If basic financial needs cannot be met, how is the community ever going to achieve its lofty ideals of constructing a powerful and sustainable economic and political bloc? How is it going to meet the expectations of the region’s 150 million citizens, who are hoping for a seamless system that eases business, education, travel, and social integration across the borders? That the problem is a result of member states’ failure to meet their financial obligations to the community suggests that the countries do not have the commitment to drive the process. Unless members honour their financial obligations, citizens will lose faith in the whole process and the dream of regional integration will remain just that. A mere pipe dream. Source: Daily Nation