A Partner in Arms – TPSF Supports Govt. Efforts to Mitigate Impact of Covid-19
Tanzania has largely adopted a liberal stance to the fight against the novel virus (The country did not effect border closures and bans on large gatherings like most of her neighbours), there is little doubt that the pandemic has not spared its economy and trade. In the ensuing debate on how best to protect public […]
Technology reduces lurking danger for truck drivers and goods
“Armed men broke his windscreen and started hitting him with an iron bar. They stole the goods he was carrying and left him for dead. By the time help came, it was too late. He had died from excessive bleeding,”-Patrick Mutinda, former Truck driver. East Africa’s Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking system (RECTS) has many benefits some of which include safety of […]
COVID-19 Testing for Truck Drivers Helps Open Trade in IOM-TMA Partnership
Nairobi – IOM, the International Organization for Migration, is providing COVID-19 testing to thousands of truck drivers on Kenya’s borders. It’s part of a regional and national effort to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic and reopen trade across the East and Horn of Africa. Over 4,500 truck drivers and crews are being tested for the […]
The Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Trade: Recent Evidence from East Africa
This paper uses Kenyan trade data published up through May 2020 to provide a preliminary evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on regional trade in the East African Community (EAC). Paradoxically, given the prevailing pessimism surrounding the prospects for global trade, Kenya actually experienced a significant improvement in exports in the first quarter […]
LOOKING INWARDS Coronavirus: The pandemic doesn’t mean AfCFTA is on lockdown
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the greatest examples of Pan-Africanism since the creation of the African Union (AU). The agreement has acquired the signatures of 54 of the AU’s 55 member-states, bringing together an impressive domestic market of more than 1.2 billion people with a collective GDP of $2.6tn. The […]
FEAFFA lobby for joined logistics approach and cost-effective measures to tackle Covid-19 pandemic
Logistics industry stakeholders in the East African Community (EAC) have renewed push to contain further spread of the novel coronavirus by adopting containment measures, while ensuring that the region continues to get vital supplies and inputs through the Central and Northern transport corridors. This follows emerging data that revealed that long distance truck drivers are […]
How to Make Trade Safe in Africa
Frank Matsaert and Erastus Mwencha On February 27th, 2020 Nigeria confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, the COVID-19 virus has spread to all corners of the Continent with the number of infections increasing exponentially, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti. Even before the […]
COVID-19 accelerates greater trade coordination in East Africa
It took a traffic jam of a couple thousand trucks at the Malaba border between Kenya and Uganda to fully visualize both the health and trade issues at stake when borders operate at optimum.The COVID-19 crisis has revealed both hairline fractures along borders in East Africa and the potential to solve them through better regional […]
Great benefits when Africa becomes a single market
Africa took a giant stride along the path of increased economic co-operation, with the launch of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in March 2018. The move was widely hailed as a major milestone towards the long-standing goal of creating a unified continental market. AfCFTA is hailed as one of the most exciting new […]
E-commerce for green trade in Africa
On 23rd January 2020, over one hundred delegates convened in Nairobi for the Second two-day Epower Forum aimed at driving the E-commerce agenda in Africa. Through funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, TradeMark Africa (TMA) partnered with Amari Consulting to convene women traders who shared their experiences on cross border trading and how […]