The EAC Director of Trade, Alhaj Rashid Kibowa (right) in discussions with the Irish Ambassador to Tanzania and EAC, H.E. Paul Sherlock (second right), at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. Also in the photo are Mr. Kenneth Gitonga of the Irish Embassy in Nairobi and Ms. Monica Mihigo of the EAC Trade Directorate. East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, 12th March, 2019:  The Republic of Ireland has hailed the commitment of the six East African Community (EAC) Partner States to the EAC integration process. Ireland’s Ambassador to Tanzania and the EAC, H.E. Paul Sherlock, further disclosed that his country would continue to promote trade and development cooperation between his country and the EAC. Amb. Sherlock said that Ireland’s experience within the European Union was that every regional integration process has its challenges which can be surmounted through negotiations by the member countries. Amb. Sherlock said that Ireland would continue to provide support to EAC integration initiatives through TradeMark Africa, a not-for-profit company established in 2010 to support the growth of regional and international trade in East Africa.  The Irish envoy was speaking when he paid a courtesy call at the EAC Headquarters where he held discussions with senior officers from the EAC Directorates of Customs and Trade. At hand to receive the Ambassador was Alhaj Rashid Kibowa, the Director of Trade at the EAC Secretariat. In his remarks, Alhaj Kibowa informed the Amb. Sherlock that the Community was increasingly encouraging bilateral mechanisms among Partner States to resolve Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) to trade. Alhaj Kibowa said...

Rwanda on Thursday denied claims made by neighboring Uganda that it has imposed an embargo on bilateral trade with Uganda. Rwanda's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that recent statements by Uganda in relation to the alleged trade embargo are "diversionary" and do not address fundamental issues raised by Rwanda. Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa on Wednesday said the export of Ugandan goods to Rwanda and Rwandan goods to Uganda has been prohibited by Rwandan authorities. He said the Rwandan authorities are only allowing in trucks carrying transit goods headed for Rwanda or transiting through the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo and other places. The statement from the Rwandan Foreign Ministry on Thursday said the country's commitment to free movement of people, including Ugandans, goods and services within the region and on the continent is unquestionable. Rwanda also called upon the Ugandan government to address what it says were key issues between the two countries. The Rwandan Foreign Ministry said in the statement that hundreds of Rwandan people haven been "killed, arrested, incarcerated without consular access and tortured," and that close to 1,000 Rwandan people were "illegally deported" to Rwanda in inhumane conditions. The statement also said armed groups and terrorist organizations hostile to Rwanda are supported by "institutions and officials of the government of Uganda." It also said the key issues include "the targeting of ordinary Rwandan citizens involved in regular business and trade activities within the framework of the East African Community and the hampering of...

Vibrant sustainable economies require the full inclusion and participation of all citizens and especially women, a joint statement by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and TradeMark Africa (TMA) has said. This should be anchored on creating opportunities for decent work driven by innovation and infrastructure development. Revenue authorities, due to their strategic role in trade within countries, are best positioned to initiate and marshal women participation in trade. TMA and URA made the statement while signing an MOU on Wednesday afternoon, during TMA’s celebration of Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is celebrated globally on 8th March. According to a World Bank Group’s Women, Business and Law 2018 report, released last year in March, governments in 65 economies took steps to improve women’s economic inclusion, enacting 87 legal reforms in the past two years. However, women continue to face widespread barriers, entrenched in laws that keep them out of jobs and prevent them from owning a business by restricting their access to credit or control over marital property, says the biennial report, which now monitors 189 economies. The report finds that in 104 economies women are barred from working at night or in certain jobs in many areas, including manufacturing, construction, energy, agriculture, water and transportation. This negatively affects the choices of more than 2.7 billion women. “No economy can grow to its full potential unless women and men participate fully,” said World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva. “Yet in more than half the world women are still prevented from working in certain...

When the Africa Continental Free Trade Area is implemented this year, it will create a single market for goods and services for the first time in the continent’s history. The agreement will cover a geographic area with a combined GDP of $3.2-trillion and a population of 1.2 billion people. It has the potential to drastically accelerate economic growth and exceed the African Development Bank’s current estimates for GDP growth from $1.7-trillion in 2010 to more than $15-trillion by 2060. This has the potential to shift Africa from being an aid-dependent continent to becoming an investment-dependent continent. According to the Brookings Institute, African foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows accounted for only 2.9% of total global FDI inflows in 2017, compared to the 49.8% share for developed economies, and 10.6% for Latin America and the Caribbean. A continental super bloc has the potential of creating an attractive value proposition for investors who are dealing with the fallout from Brexit, a US-China tariff war and a global economy that is falling short of projected growth targets. For African governments, businesses and citizens, the prospect of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has prompted widespread excitement and optimism, especially among some of Africa’s leading business and political figures. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said: “Speaking with one voice as a continent will emerge as perhaps the most important provision of all for the success of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.” South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa publicly stated that “this is a free trade...

President Emmanuel Macron visited Djibouti and Ethiopia on Tuesday, promising “respectful” partnerships in the face of growing regional indebtedness to China, which is fast expanding its foothold in the continent. Looking to strengthen economic, military and cultural ties in East Africa, Macron announced a new defence deal with Ethiopia and is expected to seal a major transport contract in Kenya on Wednesday. Macron described Djibouti, the last colony to gain independence from France — in 1977 — as a “historical partner and strategic ally”. Both Paris and Beijing — as well as Japan and the United States — have military bases in Djibouti due to its strategic location along a key shipping lane leading to the Suez Canal. Its geographic importance in the Horn of Africa region forms the foundation of Djibouti’s hopes of becoming a major trading hub. Two years ago, East Africa’s smallest country inaugurated its newest and biggest port — part of an infrastructure expansion, partly funded by China, that includes three other ports and a railroad to the capital of landlocked Ethiopia. Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh’s administration hopes to turn the country into a “new Dubai” competing for business with overcrowded African ports such as Mombasa in Kenya. Sandwiched between Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, tiny Djibouti is a crucial part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” global infrastructure initiative along what has been dubbed the “Maritime Silk Road”. It allows China to reach Africa and Europe via the Indian Ocean. The project has seen Beijing lend...

Macron seals deals worth $2.26 billion in Kenya French president Emmanuel Macron, who was travelling with a business delegation in Kenya, witnessed the signing of infrastructure contracts worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion) on Thursday. The deals include a 1.6 billion euro 30-year concession for a Vinci-led consortium to operate a highway between Nairobi and Mau Summit. Renewables firm Voltalia also sealed a 70 million euro contract for two solar power plants, while an Airbus-led consortium won a 200 million euro contract for coastal and maritime surveillance. The contracts were signed during a visit by President Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking to boost trade in the East Africa region. Kenya is east Africa’s most advanced economy with a liberal business environment and entrepreneurial culture. French businesses however account for just a 1.4 percent market share. French exports to Kenya in 2017 amounted to between $170 million and $225.80 million, while China, Kenya’s number one trading partner, exported goods worth $3.8 billion. “France has supported Kenya for several years in development projects … but we are not sufficiently economically and industrially,” Macron said on Wednesday night in a news conference with Kenyatta. Kenyatta tweets French, thanks to Macron Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta welcomed his counterpart, Emmanuel Macron with a tweet in French, to the amusement of his millions of followers on the popular social networking site. ‘‘Je suis ravi d’accueillir mon ami Son Excellence Président Emanuel Macron de la République de France à State House, Nairobi,’‘ read part of...

Deputy President William Ruto has said the East African Community (EAC) member states will intensify their push for more integration in the region. He said Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya have the capacity to trade and invest more among themselves. Addressing the press on the sidelines of the Africa Now Summit 2019 in Munyonyo, Uganda, on Wednesday, Dr Ruto said increased intra-EAC would offer massive opportunities to the region’s growing population, particularly the youths. “We have what it takes to resolve any issues arising between EAC member states that may hamper our coming together,” noted the Deputy President. He said leaders in East Africa will continue working hard “to ensure what we have achieved so far does not go to waste”. He added that the five-member states were working towards eliminating barriers to trade, and cross-border investments. “It is our desire that a Ugandan citizen would freely work in Rwanda, and a Tanzanian work in Kenya or even Burundi without blockades,” he said. Ruto argued that a stronger EAC would act as a critical foundation in the creation of a united Africa. He said African countries should draw lessons from Brexit, and forge a continent that would see expanded free movement of goods, services and labour. A united Africa, he noted, had the capacity to shape the global economic development. Earlier, the Deputy President held bilateral talks with President Yoweri Museveni, Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Tanzania Vice President Samia Suluhu. The leaders discussed issues of mutual interest....

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) could soon gather the minimum required ratifications to put it into effect. So far, 19 countries have ratified the agreement with three more expected to ratify by mid this year, effectively gathering the 22 ratifications that are needed to make the agreement operational. While this will not pave way for its immediate implementation, it will usher in another phase of negotiations among signatories on aspects of the agreement. The negotiations will involve multiple and complex issues which could take months and will cover aspects such as rules of origin, procurement processes, services protocols and tariff negotiations among others. Experts say that once the ratifications meet the required minimum, the AfCFTA secretariat will among other things have to prioritise negotiations to make way for implementation. The target for the implementation is mid-2020. Andrew Mold, the Acting Director of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa- Eastern Africa Sub-regional office said negotiations will lay out key aspects of implementation. “The complexity of the negotiation process is that there is a lot to be discussed; the devil is in the detail. It is not simply merchandised trade, we are talking services protocol, government procurement process, competition. There is a lot to be discussed to make the single market work,” Mold said in an interview. Considering multiple parties (countries) to be involved in the negotiations, there have been concerns about the length of time of the process with most fearing that it could be a major setback...

Although tensions between Uganda and Rwanda begun years ago, they were invariably played down and, consequently, largely went unnoticed. But the tensions are intensifying, leading to acrimonious war of words between the two countries’ Presidents, and closure of their common border. This is in terms of the movement of goods (trade) and persons as required under the East African Community (EAC) Customs Union and Common Market Protocols. In the event, Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta travelled to Rwanda and Uganda on Monday, where he held private talks with Presidents Paul Kagame in Kigali, and Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe. This is in efforts by the Kenyan leader to help mend broken ties between the two fellow member-states of the 6-nation EAC. The seemingly endless wrangling between Uganda and Rwanda is largely based on claims by President Kagame that the Museveni regime is hell-bent to destabilize – and, finally, oust from power – the government in Kigali, colluding with Rwandan rebels to do so. Perhaps not unexpectedly, President Museveni has denied President Kagame’s claims – and, for good measure, makes more-or-less similar claims against the Kigali government. All this does not augur well with EAC’s nobble efforts at comprehensive regional integration culminating in an East African Federation, complete with a single Federal Government and a Monetary Union. What the 175 million East Africans in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda need in their unity of purpose is peace, stability and all-inclusive, sustainable socioeconomic development. And what these millions of East Africans...

President Museveni has rooted for the removal of border restriction and promotion of free movement of goods and services across the borders of African states in order to have access to larger markets. According to the president, the free movement of goods and services is a matter of survival for Uganda, East Africa and Africa. This, according to him, is one of the ways Africans can prosper. “Once we know this, then we must accept the free movement of goods and services by removing taxes (tariffs) and non-tariff barriers (border restrictions, road-blocks on trade routes, complicated licensing procedures, etc). It is only when the goods produced by the factories access big markets that they can make profits. Again, it is basic economics,” Mr Museveni said on Wednesday while delivering a paper titled ‘Tackling Inter-trade barriers’ at the close of Africa Now Summit, Munyonyo. Below is Museveni’s full presentation; The first barrier we need to tackle is the strategic conception. How are we going to solve the issue of prosperity? We shall solve the issue of prosperity through the production and sale of goods and services. The African leaders need to know that there are two key players in a modern economy: the producer of a good or a service on the one hand and a consumer of that good or service on the other hand. If nobody buys or consumes that good or service that business will collapse. Of course there are factors that must link the producer and the...