The African Development Bank re-affirmed its intention to boost economic and regional development on the African continent when its Board of Directors approved a $300 million support facility for the Eastern and Southern African Trade & Development Bank (TDB) on Wednesday, 17 July, 2019. The COMESA regional trade and project finance package consists of a composite funded trade finance and project finance facility, and an unfunded trade finance risk participation agreement (RPA). This comes on the heels of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, which came into force in July 2019; and the Bank’s partnership framework featuring African DFIs, including the TDB, which committed to working together to scale up, speed up, and synergise African development. The facility’s trade finance component will enhance the TDB’s confirmation capacity, support its rapidly expanding forfeiture business, and help it become a globally acceptable confirming bank. The project finance component will facilitate the delivery of export-oriented infrastructure, which will promote regional trade within the COMESA region.  The facility further demonstrates the Bank’s longstanding and growing partnership with the TDB as a regional development finance institution in pursuit of shared development goals. In presenting the project to the Board, the Bank’s Director for financial sector development, Stefan Nalletamby, said that the RPA “will enable the Bank and the TDB to share confirmation risk on African issuing banks. This will promote broad-based economic growth on the African continent by making international trade easier. It will benefit no less than 43 financial institutions operating in...

It will spend the funds on helping developing countries learn from UK expertise on trade deals and attracting foreign investment. The move will see Liam Fox's department spending funds earmarked as Official Development Assistance. The funds will still count towards the government's target of spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid. The measure was confirmed by Trade Secretary Liam Fox in an interview with BBC News. "We want to bring development and trade closer together," he said. "Rather than having developing countries dependent on the largesse of rich countries, we want them able to get sustainable development and trade their way out of poverty, and one of the ways in which we can do that is to give them the skills that will attract the investment into their country... to develop some of those attributes that helped us get investment into the UK and helps them get investment on a stable basis." Shift overseas aid 'away from humans' Labour accused the government of "pinching aid money from the world's poorest to prop up rich investors". "As the government desperately chase post-Brexit trade deals, they must rule out raiding the aid budget for anything other than fighting global poverty," said Dan Carden, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. Moving the existing spread of aid spending away from the primary responsibility of the Department for International Development is already controversial. More than a quarter of the budget is now spent by other departments, including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,...

COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe said the regional economic bloc counts on President Kenyatta’s support to guide and move forward the implementation of AfCFTA. “As COMESA, we are confident that your commitment and support will play a big role in the realization of AfCTA as we work to ensure COMESA’s voice is heard and its interests safeguarded at the continental level,” Ms Kapwepwe told President Kenyatta. Ms Kapwepwe, who is the country for the 21st COMESA International Trade Fair and High-Level Business Summit, was speaking today when she paid a courtesy call on the President at State House, Nairobi. She said COMESA will continue to play a key role in addressing unemployment and trade imbalance in the region. Implementation of AfCTA was launched early this month at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of Africa Union (AU) in Niamey, Niger. President Kenyatta assured of Kenya’s support to COMESA as it moves to consolidate its position as an economic powerhouse on the continent. He reiterated his call for COMESA member states to come together and take advantage of their collective strengths as an economic bloc. “Our success as COMESA member states will largely depend on us stopping to look at each other as competitors and instead unite for economic integration that will make us all winners,” President Kenyatta said. “We must focus on removing the obstacles that are hindering our people from working and doing business together,” he added. At a separate meeting at State House Nairobi, President Kenyatta met...

The recently signed African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA), which came into force on May 30, represents a unique opportunity to grow intra-Africa trade and diversify trade exports with the rest of the world. The agreement establishing AfCTA is not only creating the biggest trade agreement since the World Trade Organisation was established in 1994, but is also the most significant step towards economic integration which has already been achieved in other regions in Africa. The impact of AfCFTA can be seen in the context of the current very low levels of intra-Africa trade. Intra-regional trade represents an average of 15% of global trade across both imports and exports as of 2017. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, regional intra-trade accounts for 59% of Asia’s exports and 69% in Europe. With customs procedures eased under the AfCFTA, intra-Africa trade is expected to grow to at least 53% by the mid-2020s, thus effectively contributing in the region of $70bn to the continent’s GDP. The growth in intra-Africa trade will ensure that an increasing proportion of Africa’s more than US$2-trillion economy is traded internally. For the financial sector, there will be increased demand for trade financing to aid the anticipated overall growth in intra-Africa trade. For example, to support the expected increase in intra-Africa trade of $119.6bn by 2022, it will require nearly $40bn in trade financing alone. To achieve growth to the value of $27.9bn in industrial goods by 2022, an estimated $9.3bn in trade financing will...

The world needs fairer – not less – trade to promote shared prosperity, UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant told participants at the largest gathering on sustainable development progress in New York on 17 July. The High-level Political Forum (HLPF) convened at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 9 to 18 July to take stock of the progress made on the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) and chart next steps towards a more prosperous world by 2030. Geneva-based trade trio, UNCTAD, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), told participants at the forum that trade is a powerful means for achieving the global goals. “Trade has been a major catalyst for economic growth, both in developing and developed countries,” Ms. Durant said. She said it has lifted standards of living in developing countries by improving access to food, medicines and education, among other benefits. Bigger pie, but not divided equally However, the benefits of global trade have not been distributed equally, Ms. Durant observed. While the value of trade has increased fivefold and its volume fourfold for the past 30 years, the bottom 50% of the population has captured only 12% of the total economic growth, whereas the top 1% captured 27% of it. In 1990, world trade was about US$5 trillion, whereas in 2018 its volume reached $25 trillion. “Trade has contributed to make the pie bigger, but its shares have not been divided equally,” Ms. Durant said. She noted that some developing countries have benefitted from global trade,...

Local business leaders have decried the low level of penetration and application of ICT among the business community across the East African Community (EAC) saying that this was among the major impediments to doing business in the region. This was observed Thursday during a dialogue dubbed ICT for Business, which was organised by the East Africa Business Council (EABC) a regional body that brings together private sector associations and corporates from EAC partner states. The meeting was aimed at collecting views from business owners on the best approach that can be used to fast-track the adoption of ICT in their daily business dealings at the regional level. Dennis Karera, the vice chairman of the council said that though governments have championed the campaign on ICT penetration and adoption, there has been slow uptake in this area among the private sector across member states. “We are all aware of the benefits ICT can bring to our businesses from time-saving to being compliant with government regulations  like paying taxes on time but it is regrettable that still, you conduct business with someone and they invoice you using a pen,” he said. Karera also warned business leaders, that if they continue to shun ICT, it will be very difficult for their businesses to survive, saying that governments are striving to broaden the market through initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area. “We therefore have no option but to embrace ICT,” he said. Going forward, Daniel Murenzi, the Principal Information Technology Officer at...

Heads of State drawn from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) are keen to see the incorporation of small and medium enterprises under the impending border-less trade on the continent. The leaders who were represented at the opening of COMESA’s high level business summit in Nairobi on Wednesday lay emphasis on the growth of the micro-enterprises who between themselves contribute to the largest share of jobs and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) output. “Each government should have the political will to support SMEs as they wouldn’t be able to penetrate a continental market by themselves. Further, we risk developing a free market which only serves the big boys,” noted Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu. While the continent is adequately resourced with a hardworking and enterprising populace, trade between partner states has remained well below average as exports to the rest of the world remain dominant. Intra-trade within COMESA accounted for a mere Ksh.814 billion ($7.9 billion) in 2017 in comparison to a greater share of Ksh.9 trillion ($86.9 billion) in total global exports. Acting Mauritian President Paramasimuv Pillay attributed the depressive trade play-out to continued barriers to regional trade to further pile pressure on partner states who remain keen on sheltering their internal markets from any external influence. “We must promote policies and measures to better the business climate by, for instance, eliminating barriers to SME licensing. We can also seek to relax some of the rules of origin to enable enterprises to source for raw materials widely,” he...

NAIROBI, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on Wednesday launched the COMESA Source 21 Business Facilitation Handbook to provide market information and investment for its members. Amany Asfour, immediate past chairperson of COMESA Business Council, told a regional forum in Nairobi that access to information across African economies has been hindered by the fragmented nature of respective national markets. "The handbook is the first step in combating lack of knowledge in the region and limited access to trade information in order to promote cross-border trade," said Asfour in Nairobi. The report details the amount of imports and exports that each member conducts within the trading bloc. "The business facilitation handbook will act as a tool to provide businesses with data that can inform their transaction and logistical costs while trading certain products in the region or looking to engage in partnerships within COMESA," said Asfour. She decried the low level of value addition in the region, adding that regional economies will prosper once processing and value addition of raw materials takes root. COMESA is a regional economic organization in Africa with 21 members. Source: xinhuanet

The move is aimed at speeding up the clearance of goods and services as a way of promoting regional trade. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Directorate of Customs and Excise (DGDA) and the Uganda Revenues Authority (URA) have signed the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (RECTS), a standards operating procedure that will extend electronic cargo tracking to DRC. The move is aimed at speeding up the clearance of goods and services as a way of promoting regional trade. The project worth $642,000 is being funded by the Department of International Development (DFID) through Trademark East Africa.DRC joins other East African countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda already implementing the Electronic Cargo Tracking system (RECTS).   The project will be implemented in three phases with the first phase being the launch of the Uganda Office; the second phase will be opening of the Goma office in eastern DRC while the final phase will be the launch of the Kinshasa command center, according to  Moses Sabiiti, TMA’S Country manager for Uganda and South Sudan. “The introduction of an electronic cargo tracking system to the Northern Corridor will reduce transit costs, lengthy transit times caused by physical checks in transit countries and across the DRC territory,” said Sabiiti. He added that the system that was launched on Tuesday at URA offices, will reduce the risk of freight diversion between the place of origin and checkpoints hence combating fraud and increasing the country's tax revenues through trade. “For DRC, this is the best solution...

Kenya on Wednesday urged investors from east and south Africa to explore investment opportunities in the country's strategic sectors. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said during the launch of 21st COMESA International Trade Fair and High Level Business Summit that Kenya has created a friendly investment climate. Kenyatta said that Kenyan is a leader in imports and exports of agricultural, horticultural and floriculture products, making it a strategic area for investors in different sectors of the economy. He said the government has undertaken legal and policy reforms aimed at making Kenya one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world. Kenyatta urged COMESA members to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to boost their socio-economic transformation. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is a regional economic organization in Africa, with 21 members including Djibouti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, the Comoros, Libya, Seychelles, Uganda, Tunisia and Somalia. Source: Xinhau