In the first three months of 2020, the port of Mombasa handled 8.6 million tons of cargo, against the targeted 8.84 million tons. The amount of cargo passing through the main seaport missed the target by 2.6%. In the whole of 2019, 34.4 million tons of cargo went through the port, up from 30.8 million tons in 2018. Kenya Ports Authority projected that the coastal port would handle 35.9 million tons in 2020. However, in the current environment of the corona pandemic, the port is likely to miss its annual target. Global trade has been severely disrupted as governments impose tough measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19. The port of Mombasa handles shipments for several African countries including; Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Source: Kenyan Wall-street

With a rise in coronavirus cases, Mombasa has emerged as one of the areas most hit by the pandemic. Many cases have been reported from employees of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Container Freight Station (CFS). This has slowed down operations, at the usually busy port, as government agencies and private companies battle to curb spread of Covid-19. The port serves six countries in the East and Central Africa and some of the cargo is cleared at privately owned CFS, which also has staff working at the premises, seconded by State agencies. KPA acting Managing Director Rashid Salim said seven of their employees tested positive while many, who came into contact with them, have been placed under quarantine. The government early in the week dispatched over 1,000 kits for the mandatory testing for employees at the port. These kits are still not enough for a facility that has close to 7000 workers. It was not clear whether hundreds of employees from other State agencies and private firms that operate from the CFSs will be subjected to testing. In the meantime, operations are slowing down. Already, the National Transport Safety Authority NTSA has withdrawn its workforce from CFSs saying it is not safe. Others have scaled down their operations at the port with KPA’s administration departments virtually empty. NTSA Director General George Njao said they have ceased the issuance of the motor vehicle number plates at the CFSs because of “inherent risks” posed by employees of KPA...

As the COVID-19 virus continues its gallop across the world, we are forced to constantly reassess our expectations of both the human and economic costs that it will bring. Indeed, the world is now reaching a point where unilateral decisions by food exporters and falling national revenues could have devastating effects for food-insecure countries, compounding health problems for already vulnerable citizens. Earlier this year, when the virus was more or less limited to China and a few of its neighbours, analysts were more focused on disruptions to global manufacturing value chains, foreign direct investment, and the likely impact of the Chinese economy’s slowdown on global GDP, given the weight of China in the global economy. Consequently, at the beginning of the pandemic, little emphasis was placed on food security, given the expectation that food markets would be well supplied, as cereal stocks would reach their third highest level on record and that, as a result, export availabilities for wheat, maize, rice and soybeans would easily meet anticipated demand. Food Security Devastating effect on food security It is now feared that the COVID-19 pandemic could have a devastating effect on food security if major cereal exporters adopt trade barriers or export bans, as experienced during the 2007-2008 food crisis, or if coronavirus’ effects on the labour force and logistics become important. In addition, for countries that strongly rely on food imports, food security is vulnerable to revenues lost as a result of slowing economic activity caused by COVID-19. Developing countries, particularly...

Just when Africa was preparing to roll out the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) COVID-19 struck. Policy and advocacy think tank, AfroChampions has provided a detailed report of how the global pandemic could disrupt this beautiful plan which would have changed the face of trading among African countries. The AfCFTA was described as the game-changer for Africa's socio-economic development by the Macroeconomics and Governance Division, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The March 2020 opening and operationalization of the Accra AfCFTA Secretariat has delayed. AfCFTA Secretary-General has been sworn in but is without the full complement of secretariat teams due to disruptions to recruitment and staffing. The AfCFTA, which is headquartered in Accra would have provided the opportunity for Africa to create the world's largest free trade area, with the potential to unite 1.3 billion people, in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development. AfroChampion in their report said that the continent as a whole had a commitment and readiness level of below 50 per cent arguing that, Africa that was looking forward to opening its borders to a new trade revolution starting July 2020, now has almost all of its borders shut in order to fight the pandemic. They believe with this pandemic, it is likely some more countries will lose interest in AfCTA and that could have a negative impact on the policy. They also predicted that COVID-19 could plunge some companies into serious financial stress. “COVID-19 is already destroying much of...

The Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mrs. Kristalina Georgieva has advised Africa not to deviate from its plans to enforce the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). She described the initiative as a catalyst for enhanced growth. Georgieva said this recently at the just concluded Virtual Spring Meetings of the IMF/ World Bank in Washington. Responding to a question on how badly the pandemic has affected African economies, she said: “Sub-Saharan African had a lot of countries stepping up over the last years and it is so tragic to see that momentum being stopped and then a number of countries that have even before the coronavirus had been experiencing very dramatic difficulties, conflicts and natural disasters. “Sub Saharan Africa ought to be the center of our attention and it is. We now have more than 30 countries applying for emergency financing. We are prioritising and rapidly responding to this request recognising how critical this lifeline is for them.” She further added: “We need to think beyond that and we need to think about recovery. We need to make sure that the African continental free trade agreement doesn’t get derailed because of the coronavirus and that means engaging with the leadership in Africa and making sure of that we are putting not only financial resources, but also opening up trade channels and making sure that we support the industries in Africa that depend on trade and the revival of trade.” “We are going to have an extraordinary session with President...

Trading within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is set to begin on 1st July 2020, just over two months from now. So far, only 29 member states out of 55 have ratified the agreement. More countries need to ratify it if the projected boost of 52 per cent in intra-African trade should be attained by 2022. However, Covid-19 could slow things down a bit. While the full effects of the virus remain to be seen, a gloomy economic picture is emerging that AfCFTA will have to contend. There is a unity of expert opinion that the continent is about to go into recession because of the virus. The question is by exactly how much. One could start with the recent African Development Bank (AfDB) analysis entitled "Impact of the coronavirus on the Africa economy". Before the onset of the pandemic, AfDB had projected the continent-wide gross domestic product (GDP) growth to reach 3.4 per cent this year. The GDP will now shrink in the negative to between -0.8 and -1.1 per cent in 2020. In sub-Saharan Africa, estimates by the World Bank are bleaker with a predicted economic contraction of between -2.1 and -5.1 per cent for 2020. The International Monetary Fund forecasts a dip of -1.6 per cent in the region south of the Sahara. Though a country like Rwanda will fare relatively better with a projected growth of 5.8 per cent, the average negative growth in the continent suggests the trading in AfCFTA will not start...

Institutional capacity in public healthcare systems, law enforcement and regulatory agencies, as well as the capacity of the state to commandeer production of essential goods and services, have become decisive interventions in this pandemic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose conservative government had for years underfunded the public sector, confirmed this unequivocally when he thanked the National Health Service (NHS) for saving his life after he was hospitalised with the virus. We have President Cyril Ramaphosa to thank for his leadership in mobilising national, continental and global public and private resources to enhance our capacity to tackle this pandemic. The admirable collaboration between public and private healthcare institutions has laid an important foundation for a well-resourced and -run National Health Insurance (NHI) system. We can learn from Britain’s NHS about what works and what doesn’t, so we can build our NHI on a firmer footing. Post-pandemic socio-economic restructuring There is no wisdom in hankering after the old socio-economic development models that brought us to the multi-layered global crises (climate, health and socio-economic) we face today. Post-pandemic socio-economic restructuring has to go beyond traditional notions of privatising state-owned enterprises and a smaller government. The entire global socio-economic system we have relied on has been exposed as fragile and a threat to both rich and poor in our society. No economy can prosper while excluding the energies and talents of the majority of its youthful population — as we have done since 1994. We need to transform our economic and social relationships...

At the start of March, before the novel coronavirus kicked us hard in the ribs, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and Trademark East Africa released a report titled Creating a Unified Regional Market: Towards the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area in East Africa. It was music to the ears of East Africanistas, punting that East Africa could earn $1.8 billion in welfare gains, and see the creation of two million jobs from the successful implementation of African Continental Free Trade Area in East Africa (AfCFTA), which is scheduled to become operational in July this year. As it happens, some optimists see July as the time when we will have found treatment for Covid-19, and will be emerging from our lockdown caves, and beginning to work on recovering from the wreckage of the virus. The pessimists are talking of 18 months. If the optimists win, it would be perfect timing for AfCFTA—or at least people like me thought. One of the big talking points in the wake of Covid-19, is that it has shown us the perils of long global supply chains, and over dependence on few suppliers—mainly China—for the goods that we need. When goods could no longer be shipped as the world locked down, medicines from China and India, critical supplies like masks, and even food, begun to run out. The thinking is that we shall see a dramatic diversification of the sources from which countries and companies buy products and services, and also...

The push by the nine private vendors to continue supplying seals to all domestic and transit cargo has borne fruit after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) allowed them to temporarily continue offering the services to decongest port facilities. This followed last week’s three-day standoff at the Port of Mombasa. The KRA management gave the vendors a temporary window to continue providing containers with the seals after importers and transporters staged protest over what they considered premature introduction of the new Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking Seals (RECTS). The port players accused the KRA of lack of adequate staff and seals for the cargo, leading to a standoff at the port of Mombasa for a number of days before the taxman gave in. Since Wednesday last week, no truck was allowed to leave Mombasa port without being armed with RECTS after taxman made it mandatory since the beginning of this month. The nine private firm vendors which will continue offering the services include SGS Kenya Limited, I Spy Africa Limited, Rivercross Tracking Limited, Automated Logistics Company Limited, Navisat Telematics, Borderless Tracking, Track & Trace Limited, Oak and Gold Limited and Soltic/Techno brain. KRA Commissioner, Customs & Border Control Kevin Safari acknowledged the congestion and said the KRA has procured 8600 seals for use by cargo transporters and 4,000 seals for use by tankers transporting transit petroleum and ethanol. Mr Safari said the seals are ready and in use by cargo transporters and tankers transporting transit petroleum and ethanol. “The KRA would like...

Frankfurt (Germany) and Nairobi (Kenya), April 2020. GreenTec Capital is very pleased to announce our investment in Kenya’s Amitruck. Amitruck is an innovative mobile and web based trucking logistics platform that brings together cargo owners and transporters for their mutual benefit. Logistics spending in Africa by manufacturers and retailers has crossed the $160 billion mark back in 2018 and keeps growing. However the sector across the continent suffers from fragmentation and lack of transparency. According to a study by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, in accessing foreign markets, on average, Africa’s transport and insurance costs represent 30 per cent of the total value of exports. By matching cargo owners with trucking logistics professionals through a digital competitive bidding process, Amitruck brings trust and transparency into the African logistics sector. Amitruck’s solution cuts out expensive middlemen whilst increasing security as all drivers and vehicles are vetted and goods in transit insured. “Logistics is a significant challenge in Africa and the current crisis is only making this more obvious. Amitruck’s solution has the potential to tackle the fragmentation and lack of trust in the sector while enabling capacity growth by increasing driver and truck owner accessibility to the broader market. We are extremely proud to be kicking off this long-term collaboration with Amitruck’s team” Maxime Bayen, Senior Company Builder at GreenTec. “With a presence in Germany and in Africa, Greentec is an ideal partner as we continue to scale our business” said Mark Mwangi CEO of Amitruck. “We’re excited to...