Summary Amani Abou-Zeid, the commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission, has urged countries to embrace transnational projects to facilitate the movement of cargo, noting that no meaningful development can take place without significant investment in infrastructure. The African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development Raila Odinga noted that while countries have increased budgetary allocations to infrastructure projects, funding from private and institutional investors was missing to bridge the continent’s infrastructure deficit. Lack of infrastructure is a bigger hurdle to trade within Africa than uncertain non-tariff barriers, eating up close to 40 percent of logistics expenses and affecting free movement of goods, officials have warned. Amani Abou-Zeid, the commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission, has urged countries to embrace transnational projects to facilitate the movement of cargo, noting that no meaningful development can take place without significant investment in infrastructure. “We need to invest in infrastructure to boost our intra-trade on the continent. This can only be achieved by increasing budgetary allocation toward infrastructure projects,” said Ms Zeid in a speech during the official launch of the Programme For Infrastructure Development in Africa (Pida) Week in Nairobi, organised by the African Union Development Agency (Auda)-Nepad. The African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development Raila Odinga noted that while countries have increased budgetary allocations to infrastructure projects, funding from private and institutional investors was missing to bridge the continent’s infrastructure deficit. Mr Odinga said Covid-19 had also negatively impacted cross-border trade as AU members...

Summary Waiting times at the border stations are commonly used as an indicator of trade facilitation performance. All registered products require a local certificate of conformity to be permitted into the country. Kebs shall register products based on test reports from laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, product certification by the National Standards Body and/or under IECEE scheme. The import, export and transit of goods and the means of transporting them are subjected to national and international regulations. Compliance with these regulations is checked and enforced when the goods arrive in the country of transit or destination. In most countries, this is at the border crossings or stations close to the geographical boundary of the country. Unfortunately, traders, their representatives and drivers in most cases are forced to undertake multiple formalities at border crossings to release and clear the goods. At times this becomes a lengthy or speedy process depending on the organisation of the border crossings, the procedures in place and management of those formalities. As a result, delays have become common, with pictures of endless lines of waiting trucks depicting trade barriers, particularly in developing countries in Africa. Waiting times at the border stations are commonly used as an indicator of trade facilitation performance. However, the delays and incalculable timelines harm transit traffic and cross border trade. They cause unpredictable delivery times for traders and make it difficult for them to participate in a time-sensitive logistics chain of business with the producer and cargo owner. Uncertain timelines also increase...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Subregional office for Eastern Africa and Agricycle Global Inc. agreed to work together in nurturing youth groups in Kenya, and refugees and host communities in Uganda in the development of fruit and vegetable value-chains. Areas of collaboration include capacity development for youth on fruit and vegetable value chain development; od safety standards and fruit and vegetable-related agribusiness; documentation of youth empowerment business models; transfer of knowledge and skills for adoption of technologies and equipment for fruit drying; and publishing of best practices. Through this agreement, targeted beneficiaries will improve their access to market, as well as technology, such as solar driers/ dehydrators, and gain capacity development trainings on quality control of their produce. These interventions will eventually help them to improve their incomes and livelihoods, contributing to decent rural (youth) employment and reduction of food waste and loss. Women and youth have been historically excluded/ discriminated against in the agricultural value-chain even though they have an important role to play in the agri-food systems Signing the agreement, David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, noted that youth employment in the food and agriculture sector in the subregion was a key area of focus given that youth constituted a large segment of the population. “In order to address issues such as rural exodus, unemployment, and food and nutrition insecurity, it is critical to engage and invest in...

THE government has challenged the private sector to produce high quality goods at low costs to compete in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market. Deputy Minister for Investment, Industry and Trade, Mr Exaud Kigahe made the remarks on Monday at the opening of a three-day workshop on a capacity building programme for the private sector in Dar es Salaam to grasp AfCFTA opportunities. “This market is likely to create trade competition, so I urge you to ensure that we continue to produce high quality products that will be able to enter other African countries and encourage market competition,” he said. The workshop was organised by TradeMark Africa. He said the government is committed to creating a friendly environment by ensuring the availability of reliable and affordable electricity which is fundamental in producing goods at low cost. He also said the government is in the process of conducting a comprehensive analysis of the AfCFTA agreement on the country’s economy and preparing the national AfCFTA charter. “Recognizing the importance of the AfCFTA agreement, the government has engaged various experts to obtain information and stakeholders views on the implementation of the agreement,” said Kigahe. He added, “The strategy will help us to organize ourselves as a country to ensure that we take full advantage of the AfCFTA agreement opportunities,” He said the AfCFTA market was an opportunity that could be used by Tanzanians to attract investors who would produce their products and sell them on the local market and the AfCFTA...

MBABANE - Secretary General of COMESA Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe is said to have signed the Protocol on Relations between the African Union (AU) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). Eswatini is among the 21 member States of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). According to a correspondence from COMESA, the Protocol is meant to consolidate relations with the continental mother body. Witnessed by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat and East African Community (EAC) Secretary General Dr. Peter Mutuku Mathuki, the signing ceremony took place on February 4 this year at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa. The Protocol aims to, among other things; formalise, consolidate and promote closer cooperation among the RECS and between them and the AU through coordination and harmonisation of their policies, measures, programmes and activities in all fields and sectors in line with the principle of subsidiarity and complementarity. Signed Other Regional Economic Communities that have already signed the Protocol include the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Community of Sahel-Saharian States (CENSAD) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This Protocol entered into force on November 10 last year after being signed by the Chairperson of the Commission and three Chief Executives of three Regional Economic Communities. Kapwepwe was in Ethiopia attending the 40th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council and the 35th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. The Assembly of Heads of State and...

Africa has long been a complex market for many global businesses. Trade and commerce have been fragmented across its 54 countries, with currencies, consumer insights and regulations specific to each. At the local level, consumers have often bought and sold things in open air markets, with cash or even barter of mobile phone minutes. But a recent pan-African trade deal has begun to streamline the African market, and technologies are giving consumers and businesses new on-ramps. The result? The continent and its 1.5 billion are more accessible than ever. Aubrey Hruby has advised companies in and out of Africa for the past two decades and is a senior fellow at the Africa Center at The Atlantic Council, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the co-author of an award-winning book, The Next Africa. In this month’s Signal Conversation, Hruby shared insights on how commerce is evolving and the many opportunities for businesses to engage in what is now the world’s fastest growing region. Transcript John Battelle Welcome to another Signal Conversation. I’m very excited about this one. We have with us Aubrey Hruby, who is an advisor to companies with interest in African markets, working mainly with African policymakers and Fortune 500 companies across 20 distinct African markets. She’s a senior fellow at the Africa Center at The Atlantic Council, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the co-author of an award-winning book The Next Africa. Welcome, Aubrey. So good to have you here. Aubrey Hruby Thank you, John....

With the Covid-induced recession subsiding as vaccination rates increase, there was great hope for the AfCFTA to show that it could live up to its hype. So, what has worked? Since trading began on 1 January, some intra-African trade under AfCFTA arrangements based on anecdotal evidence has taken place, including alcoholic beverages and cosmetic products (recent data on trade flows are not yet fully available). Although intra-African agricultural trade remains below 20% compared to more than 60% for Europe and Asia, trade is projected to grow once negotiations have come to an end and trade barriers are progressively rolled back. To date, 42 out of 55 African countries have ratified the agreement, and 88% of the negotiations on product-specific rules of origin have been concluded, covering more than 70% of intra-African trade according to the AfCFTA Secretariat in 2021. However, a significant shortcoming of the agreement is that many nutrition-sensitive goods may not be fully liberalised or progressively liberalised over longer periods, as indicated by ongoing negotiations on tariff offers. Examples of protected goods include live animals, meat, fish, milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, coffee, tea, spices, oilseeds and sugars. Africa’s agricultural commodities and raw materials have traditionally dominated trade with the rest of the world (cocoa, coffee, cotton, tobacco and spices) with a mix of processed goods (cane and beet sugar, prepared or preserved tunas, wine and other food preparations). For the AfCFTA to reach its full potential by exploiting the full range of the agri-food value...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is expected to increase intra-African trade in transport services by nearly 50 percent, according to the latest estimate by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The UNECA, noting that Africa’s transport sector is set to strongly benefit from AfCFTA, said in a statement sent to Xinhua Friday that a recent estimate entitled the “Implications of the AfCFTA for demand for transport, infrastructure and services” indicated that with AfCFTA in absolute terms, more than 25 percent of intra-African trade gains in services would go to transport alone; and nearly 40 percent of the increase in Africa’s services production would be in transport The study conducted by experts in the Energy, Infrastructure and Services Section of UNECA unpacks AfCFTA investment opportunities in the transport sector. According to the findings, AfCFTA requires 1,844,000 trucks for bulk cargo and 248,000 trucks for container cargo by 2030. This increases to 1,945,000 and 268,000 trucks, respectively, if planned infrastructure projects are also implemented. The largest demand for trucks to support AfCFTA is within West Africa at 39 percent; demand from West to Southern Africa is 19.8 percent and from Southern Africa to Western Africa by 9.9 percent. UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of UNECA Vera Songwe said the AfCFTA is “expected to significantly increase traffic flows on all transport modes – road, rail, maritime, and air,” but that such gains will only be optimized if the AfCFTA is accompanied by the implementation of regional infrastructure projects. On the...

The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) have signed a fund management agreement to raise funding support for party states and commercial entities in the area of trade. As indicated by the secretariat, the estimated fund requirement for uninterrupted implementation of the AfCFTA agreement and to eliminate the adjustment cost is about US$10 billion over the next six years, and this agreement is to help raise funding in that regard. Speaking at the agreement-signing ceremony, Secretary-General, AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, stated that the secretariat will not be going to World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF) for funding support but will depend solely on indigenous funding firms to raise the required amount to successfully implement AfCFTA. “We as Africans cannot continue to go to the World Bank, IMF, and others to finance our own trade as a continent. So, I will rather go cup in hand to Afreximbank, Trade and Development Bank, then go to the others in Europe and other parts of the world for support. We are not going to succeed in the implementation of this trade agreement without Afreximbank. This Adjustment Fund is being introduced because we know that as member countries are implementing tariff adjustment mechanisms, there would be some revenue loses in the short term and we want to ensure that their interest is accommodated. This is where the Afreximbank comes in as the pillar of implementation of AfCFTA by providing this facility of US$1billion, to make sure that we...

Originally published in the World Economic Forum Blog on 13 January 2022. Limited use of technology is inhibiting LDCs' path towards structural transformation. These countries can implement measures in several areas to build their technological capacity. Innovative approaches to resource mobilization should be explored to fund such transition. Structural transformation is the process of moving resources from low productivity to higher productivity and skill-intensive sectors, thereby setting development and economic catch-up into motion. While many countries have achieved structural transformation in a matter of decades, the least developed countries (LDCs) have been notoriously slow in this respect. One of the factors for this lack of structural transformation is LDCs’ overwhelming dependence on commodities for production and exports. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's Commodities and Development Report 2021, over 75% of African LDCs depend on commodity production for over half of their export earnings, though Asian LDCs have a relatively diversified export basket. The report also suggests that it is extremely challenging to move away from the trap of commodity dependence and attain structural transformation. Fortunately, a combination of technology and global integration can help countries on this path. When it comes to technological advancement and its effective use, the LDCs are at the lower end of the ladder. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)'s Global Innovation Index 2021, which monitors the state of technological advancement in 132 countries, 21 out of the 32 countries in the bottom quartile are LDCs. Of the 22 LDCs ranked altogether, only one (Tanzania) is in the second quartile....