TMA is supporting SEATINI in Uganda to build capacity for export trade, specifically for maize and sesame, two key Uganda staples. The project is recording wins: hundreds of Farmers in Uganda’s Nakaseke district are now earning UGX 700 from 400 UGX for graded and sorted maize, according to an independent evaluation.   As Kamya Kirubira leads us through a syrup-coloured maize field in his home district of Nakaseke in Central Uganda, the hard leaves scratch gently against our skin, assuring us the crop is as dry as it looks. Juxtaposed against a powder blue sky, the rows of maize are an idyllic scene that could have come straight from the front of a well-branded breakfast cereal box. This is Nakaseke today. Maize is in high demand in East Africa. It is the foundation of every staple food, in every country in the region. Every morning, afternoon and evening, middle class families sit down to eat maize, whether in the form of a roasted maize cob, a bowl of ugali (maize porridge), a fried chapatti, or an intoxicating local brew. Kenya is opening up to Ugandan maize and other markets will surely follow, but only if the maize makes the grade. In fact, the demand for this cereal crop far outweighs its production in East Africa. Yet, by Kamya’s own accounts, he wasn’t always the 40-acre owning commercial farmer he is now, and Nakaseke wasn’t always hailed as a model district for maize growing. In fact in 2013, when the World...

Waziri Hussein, 38, growls as he shifts gears to inch his 40ft container Scania semi-trailer forward in the truck traffic emerging from Gate No 5, the international container terminal of the Dar es Salaam Port. The peak Friday exit traffic meant he had been queuing for at least an hour to get this far. Under a permanent cloud of dust in the blazing afternoon sun, Hussein’s three-member crew prepared to embark upon its 2,300km journey to Kisangani, the Democratic Republic of Congo. “In another two maybe three hours, we may reach Ubungo intersection,” says Hussein, frowning as he looks ahead over the traffic from his elevated vantage position. “What is annoying is that after enduring the long wait inside the gate, there are still about three checkpoints on just this 2km Bandari stretch, which only worsen the congestion, and then we still have to get across Mandela road to Ubungo.” Without a substantive, functioning railway system, trucks such as Hussein’s remain the main connector between the Port of Dar es Salaam and its clientele in seven countries, including Tanzania. This also means they are the landside manifestation of a critical set of challenges including clearing systems and seaside infrastructure, which together have contributed to the bothersome reputation for congestion that the Port of Dar es Salaam is currently battling to quash through concerted efforts. “It is a complex mix of challenges,” says Hebel Mhanga, the acting Port Manager. “We have a narrow and shallow entrance channel which can’t receive bigger...

From her small metal fabrication workshop in Kitwe, a Kampala suburb on Entebbe Road, Annie Nakizibu Mirembe has multinational ambitions. Her small business employs a workforce of Ugandans and Kenyans to make metal furniture, which she ships locally and into neighbouring Rwanda. Her steel is Ugandan and the sisal fibre she uses for cushions comes from Kenya. Mirembe now has her sights set on expanding across the border into Burundi after capturing the markets in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda—capitalising on the opening up of regional markets resulting from the political and economic integration of the East African Community (EAC). The EAC’s Common Market Protocol allows for the free movement of goods and services, labour and capital across the borders of the region’s states. Despite the efforts at the political level to reduce friction for traders seeking to expand regionally, barriers still remain—not least a lack of knowledge amongst the population. Studies show awareness of the existence and benefits of a regional market are low in Uganda. In fact, small scale businesses like Mirembe's find it difficult to access information that would inform them of how to access and conduct themselves in neighbouring countries markets. “The first time I received a worthwhile order from Kigali—the Rwandan capital—I was nervous but also extremely excited. At that point, I did not know how to export steel products to neighbouring country, so I had to take time to research,” she says. Mirembe’s experience mirrors the challenge most citizens face across the EAC states in recent years. It is a need that...

Melkior Kilenga, second on the left in the picture, has been farming for more than thirty years, but has only been a resident of Mbingu village since 2008. A subsistence farmer before 2008, he has always grown plantain, rice, cocoa, fruits and vegetables, but since acquiring his two plots totalling 4.5 acres in Mbingu he has increasingly specialised in cocoa as a commercial crop. Before Kokoa Kamili’s arrival in Mbingu, Kilenga sold his cocoa to ‘Olam’ – an agri-business operating from seed to shelf. While Melkior’s relationship with Olam was largely trouble-free, the pre-Kokoa Kamili price seemed to be dictated by a small cartel of buyers from Iringa and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) with little discrimination made in terms of farmers’ harvested products and product quality. Before Kokoa Kamili’s arrival in Mbingu there was no real market price, however their arrival quickly led to the introduction of a quality and pricing tier that resulted in better quality grades of cocoa being rewarded with a significantly higher price per kilo sold. Additionally, while Olam received their purchases at collection points, which came with an additional transport cost, Kokoa Kamili offered what was then an innovative collection service for the ‘wet’ cocoa at no extra charge. When Kokoa Kamili are not buying up harvested stock from the local producers, Melkior then sells to Olam, but on the basis of a substantially reduced purchase price to that offered by Kokoa Kamili’s in-season offer (less than 15%-25% per kilo).   Melkior continues to grow...

Assiimwe Allan is a 22-year-old student in his second year at the Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda. He is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree, taking statistics as his major and mathematics as his minor. In August 2015, Allan teamed up with five fellow hardworking students to form a transformation movement project called Coffee Max which will be operationalized through the registration of a business company at the Makerere University. The Coffee Max project intends to develop a new generation of young people to embrace and enjoy coffee in its full diversity. As a result, this will increase domestic coffee consumption amongst the young people and integrate them more along activities in the coffee value chain. Allan began this project with the aim to popularize coffee as a trendy beverage amongst university students which, in turn, would reduce alcoholism. He and his team participated in the annual Uganda coffee festival that was hosted in November 2015 and organized by NUCAFE in conjunction with the Uganda Coffee Developed Authority (UCDA). In addition, Allan developed a strong passion to boost his fellow young people, especially his fellow university students with entrepreneurial skills to assist them to be self-employed which in turn will reduce the overwhelming youth unemployment rate in Uganda. The project will start with the purchase of automated coffee vending machines that will offer a wider variety of coffee beverage. This will be followed with a vigorous coffee club at the Makerere University and accompanied by trendy promotional materials for awareness...

Coffee and tea are Rwanda’s largest agricultural exports, but while most tea is grown on large plantations, coffee is produced by thousands of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on their crop. Coffee exports, therefore, can really make a difference to the lives of Rwandan farmers Connecting business to business and boosting Rwanda’s exports “We love Rwandan coffee,” a Rwandan newspaper quoted a Starbucks vice-president as saying when he visited the country in May 2015. The executive and his team, apparently there to negotiate an increased order, had just paid a courtesy call to President Paul Kagame - a hint perhaps of the importance of coffee exports to the Rwandan economy. Coffee and tea are Rwanda’s largest agricultural exports, but while most tea is grown on large plantations, coffee is produced by thousands of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on their crop. Coffee exports, therefore, can really make a difference to the lives of Rwandan farmers. According to Rwanda’s National Agriculture and Export Development Board (NAEB), in 2014 Rwanda’s green (unroasted) coffee exports were worth almost US$60 million, up on the previous year and buoyed by good global prices. Buyers generally prefer green coffee, allowing them to roast and blend to their own specifications. However, while a container of green beans is sold for about US$8,000, a container of roasted, ground and packaged coffee is worth 12 times that amount. No wonder then, that the coffee sector, in its export strategy, has prioritised value addition activities, such as roasting and packaging...

Environmental degradation is bad for trade and business growth especially when it directly affects the health and productivity of workers and neighbouring communities. The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) with technical and financial assistance from TradeMark Africa (TMA) has initiated an elaborate Green Port Policy that will transform the port of Mombasa into a premier port of ‘clean fuels’ in Africa. Locals call it the ‘river of death’. In its thick foam, it gushes through the rocks and with a mournful murmur spills over a cliff into the sea turning the water below into a smelly gel. Another hot stream with an offensive smell flows gently through the Port of Mombasa. Along its long winding journey, the small stream picks up domestic and industrial effluents before spewing its load of putrid waste into the vast ocean. Similar ‘rivers of death’ spring from different parts of the City of Mombasa, pouring their deadly cargo into the Indian Ocean. Children, oblivious of the dangers posed and inured to the stench swim and play in the ocean waves breaking over the shore close to the point of discharge. Abdi Hassan, a fisherman from Likoni knows all too well the impact these rivers have on his trade. He walks the beach picking up sticks, which he hurls into the sea as if to deflect his thoughts from the reality he faces: “Many times we find dead fish floating in the water. They are normally bloated and smelly having died from the poisons of the industrial...

For years the yard resembled a dilapidated city abandoned to destruction. Large swamps inhabited by rodents and other creatures covered this muddy section of the port of Mombasa known as Yard Five. In the rainy season, the place would be extremely muddy and too soggy to be used by heavy container moving machines. In the dry season, the earth would crack and burst into loose soil emitting mountains of dust and creating a visibility challenge. In all weather, Yard 5 was a health hazard and unfit for human utilisation. However, the intervention of TradeMark Africa (TMA) has seen the Yard rehabilitated, paved and modernised. The dust is gone and so is the mud, replaced by a modern all-weather container yard. “For close to a 100 years, Yard 5 was an abandoned area. We could not use it for more than two weeks in a row in any given month,” says Kennedy Nyaga, Senior Project Engineer at KPA. The rehabilitation of Yard 5 has tremendously improved the business space at the port: “We are now able to stack the 293 20-foot containers at a height of four per slot in an average of four days.” The additional capacity created per year is 77,800 20-foot equivalent units (TEUS) at the KPA yard. This brings about an annual capacity of 1.32 million TEUs. “No wonder in 2014 we broke through the 1 million TEUs mark!” remarks Engineer Nyaga. The Editor of Our Ports Magazine, a publication of the Port Management Association of Eastern...

It’s a busy lunchtime at the Grand Legacy Hotel in Kigali and Vincent Safari, Technical Adviser with TradeMark Africa (TMA) in Rwanda, is attending a meeting of Central Corridor member states. The Central Corridor is a transport highway used by trucks to carry goods between the port of Dar es Salaam and the states of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Vincent Safari is attending the meeting not only as a TMA technical advisor, but also as coordinator of the Rwandan National Monitoring Committee on non-tariff barriers, a group made up of representatives from the government, private sector and civil society and chaired by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Safari explains that although Rwanda has had a National Monitoring Committee since 2008, it was not effective because there was no national strategy in place to eliminate non-tariffs barrier (NTBs) and no full-time coordinator. In 2011 TMA became involved, assisting the Ministry of Trade and Industry to revamp the National Monitoring Committee so that it could become a driving force to eliminate NTBs at both national and regional level. “Before TMA got involved it used to take about 15 to 17 days to get to Kigali from either Dar es Salaam or Mombasa,” explains Safari. “Now from Dar it is between three and six days. And from Mombasa between five and seven days.” This significant reduction was achieved through a series of major interventions that emanated from partnerships between TMA and East Africa’s governments, including Rwanda....

It was the launching of the modern Ipatagwa irrigation scheme in 1999 that spurred Jeremiah Mwasanyila to go into rice farming in 2000.  He had two acres of land on which he was growing assorted vegetables but decided to devote it all to rice instead. His first harvest later that year yielded 16 bags and he felt he could keep at it. Later, in 2006, when Mwasanyila and fellow villagers around Ipatagwa, were introduced to the idea of using fertilizer to improve their yields, he collected 24 bags from the same plot. In 2013, with a total of five acres under rice cultivation, Mwasanyila was expecting a yield of 70 bags from that year’s harvest. “But in the end I got only 48 bags,” he says. “The fertilizer brand that I bought turned out to be fake and it caused me a lot of problems.” However, as the harvest season got underway in June, Mwasanyila and many of his peers soon realized all was not well. Not only was the buyer traffic into Ilongo lighter than usual, but also the few buyers arriving were not offering attractive prices. “Where are all the buyers, everyone was wondering,” says Mwasanyila. “The few we got were offering as little as Sh60,000 for a 150kg bag and they wouldn’t budge. At such a price it’s as if you worked for nothing, but you are also under pressure to settle your debts now that you have harvested. I opted to try looking for my own...