Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) has launched G-Soko Platform, an online trading platform that will link smallholder farmers to grain buyers through a structured market mechanism. The platform was officiated by the East African Community’s Secretary General, Richard Sezibera. The G-Soko platform is developed by the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) in partnership with Food Trade Eastern and Southern Africa, and Virtual City, a leading mobile software solutions firm supporting the supply chain and agribusiness industry in Africa. This is through a five year trade enhancement and promotion programme that aims at encouraging trading in regional staple food markets. The UK through DFID Africa Regional Department has invested £35 million in the Food Trade Eastern and Southern Africa programme to stimulate the regional grains market through partnerships with private companies and policy influencing. Executive Director of EAGC, Mr Gerald Masila, said, there is urgency to expand regional food trade due to the exponential growth of staple food imports. “Linking rural food surplus production zones in Eastern Africa to major deficit urban consumption centres requires a well-functioning regional market. We wanted to address this deficiency but also do it in a way that is inclusive and effective. This is why we developed G-Soko; a market transaction platform that will enhance food trade across borders, and contribute towards making trading more transparent,” he said. The platform performs a structured trade function that integrates the entire grain trade from farm to market. Through G-Soko, farmers are able to aggregate their produce through a...

Central Corridor member states are finding it difficult to attract private investors to finance prioritised infrastructure projects because of the huge financial outlay and the delayed return on investment involved. This puts the governments under pressure to either finance the projects from their budgets, or mobilise donors to fund the activities. These financing issues were raised last week during the 4th Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) regional task force meeting to review the Presidential Round Table (PRT) resolutions and finalisation of an implementation plan. “What private investors want is to put money in projects that make quick returns, but projects like railways are long term and this is partly why the private sector is shunning these projects,” said George Rukara, Assistant Commissioner of Water and Rail Transport Regulation in Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport. The five Central Corridor member states are Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike Tanzania, the other Central Corridor members are landlocked and any efforts to access to the sea would facilitate trade. Drawing funds from their coffers would strain regional governments given that some have a tight budget for domestic expenditure and the Central Corridor projects have not been included in this year’s fiscal budget. Member states have the huge task of securing funds to finance more than 10 new joint development projects that have been prioritised and will be jointly owned and funded. The projects are to enhance intra-regional trade by lowering the cost of doing business...

One of the East Africa’s community countries ‘Rwanda’ has expressed great Interests in a contract to finance, design, build, operate and maintain a 1661 km railway linking the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania with Burundi. Rwanda has proved to highly support the business Idea and the contract than the two other project partners; Tanzania and Burundi. The Procurement is being led by the Rwanda Transport Development agency on behalf of the three countries, which have appointed CPCS of Canada for an advice on the contract structure and the selection of private-sector partners. Two PPP contract models are being considered: a turnkey build-operate-transfer concession, or the award of separate construction and operations & maintenance contracts which may enable the states to source financing at lower cost. The DIKKM railway as it is known from the initials of the main places to be served, the railway would largely follow the alignment of the existing metre gauge line for the 970 km from Dar es Salaam to Isaka, (Kahama District of the Tanzania’s Shinyanga Region) replacing the current line without disrupting its operations during construction. From Isaka the DIKKM railway would follow a 494 km Greenfield alignment to Kigali in Rwanda, with a 197 km branch from Keza to Musongati in Burundi. A feasibility study for the project was completed by Canarail and Gibb Africa last year, building on work previously undertaken by BNSF and DB International. This recommended that the line be developed through single joint infrastructure company and regulated...

Sun City, South Africa - The recently launched African free trade area can succeed only if it is backed by good credit insurance that covers payment risk as well as political and country risk. This is according to Gregory Nosworthy, managing director of Euler Hermes, the credit trade insurer and subsidiary of German insurer Allianz that opened its South African office in May this year. The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) was launched in Egypt in June this year by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community. The three blocs bring together 26 countries with a population of around 625 million people and GDP of $1.6 trillion. Nosworthy told a media briefing at the Insurance Conference: Africa Rising 2015, held at Sun City this week, that trade between African countries had increased by 300 percent over the past 10 years, albeit from a low base. Euler Hermes underwrites $102 billion worth of trade between TFTA countries at present. Nosworthy says the most important risk to underwrite is payment risk to ensure that an exporter of goods receives payment once the goods have reached a customer in another country. The second risk to underwrite is country and political risk, which covers factors that could prevent a company from taking goods into or out of a country, most notably conflict or political upheaval, but also developments such as the outbreak of Ebola. Euler Hermes currently underwrites 860 billion euros worth of...

The recently launched African free trade area can succeed only if it is backed by good credit insurance that covers payment risk as well as political and country risk. This is according to Gregory Nosworthy, managing director of Euler Hermes, the credit trade insurer and subsidiary of German insurer Allianz that opened its South African office in May this year. The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) was launched in Egypt in June this year by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community. The three blocs bring together 26 countries with a population of around 625 million people and GDP of $1,6 trillion. Nosworthy told a media briefing at the Insurance Conference, Africa Rising 2015, held at Sun City this week that trade between African countries had increased by 300 percent over the past 10 years, albeit from a low base. Euler Hermes underwrites $102 billion worth of trade between TFTA countries at present. Nosworthy says the most important risk to underwrite is payment risk to ensure that an exporter of goods receives payment once the goods have reached a customer in another country. The second risk to underwrite is country and political risk, which covers factors that could prevent a company from taking goods into or out of a country, most notably conflict or political upheaval, but also developments such as the outbreak of Ebola. Euler Hermes currently underwrites 860 billion Euros worth of global trade. Source: The Citizen

“The biggest markets for your goods are often right next door. You don’t have to just look overseas for growth, you can look internally…it shouldn’t be harder for African countries to trade with each other than it is for you to trade with Europe and America,” he said. Obama was delivering a keynote speech to the African Union in Addis Ababa, the first sitting US president to address the body since its foundation in 2001. The speech capped off a five-day trip to Kenya and Ethiopia. According to UN figures, the share of intra-African trade in Africa’s total trade over the past decade was only about 11%, compared to 70% for Europe. In response, Obama said that the US would step up efforts to encourage regional integration, building on previous US assistance in modernising customs and border crossings in the East African Community. The president also highlighted US efforts in battling corruption, tackling illicit capital flows and building power capacity on the continent. Obama praised African countries that have torn down barriers to investment, but argued that much more needs to be done to spark business growth on the continent. “In many places in Africa, it’s still too hard to start a venture, still too hard to build a business,” he said. Obama said that the United States stands ready to assist African nations who intend to “make doing business easier” and called for an increase in US trade efforts on the continent. “I want Africans and Americans doing more...

AFRICA: Expressions of interest in a contract to finance, design, build, operate and maintain a 1661 km railway linking the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania with Burundi and Rwanda have been invited by the three countries. Known as the DIKKM railway from the initials of the main places to be served, the railway would largely follow the alignment of the existing metre gauge line for the 970 km from Dar es Salaam to Isaka, replacing the current line without disrupting its operations during construction. From Isaka the DIKKM railway would follow a 494 km greenfield alignment to Kigali in Rwanda, with a 197 km branch from Keza to Musongati in Burundi. The DIKKM railway would be built to 1 435 mm gauge, in line with East African Community and African Union policies for new lines in the region, and would be suitable for heavy freight trains with 32·5 tonne axleloads and up to 2 000 m long. Two PPP contract models are being considered: a turnkey build-operate-transfer concession, or the award of separate construction and operations & maintenance contracts which may enable the states to source financing at lower cost. Procurement is being led by the Rwanda Transport Development agency on behalf of the three countries, which have appointed CPCS of Canada to advise on the contract structure and the selection of private-sector partners. A feasibility study for the project was completed by Canarail and Gibb Africa last year, building on work previously undertaken by BNSF and DB...

Tanzania's port services to regional countries are further opening up. And this time around the country's Ports Authority (TPA) has opened its liaison office in Lusaka, Zambia. The office, opened some few weeks ago was a clear testimony that Tanzania is committed to serve business community using Dar es Salaam Port. It should be remembered that a similar office was inaugurated last year in Lubumbashi, Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). From the business point of view, the decision to open a new office in Lusaka is a wellcalculated move. It is all about smoothening business between Tanzania and Zambia. It is about making Dar port competitive and therefore convincing Zambians to utilise it ... and at the end of the day benefiting both countries. Emphasising the importance of the new office, one Zambian trader, Mukasa Mwalupasi said that "the office could have opened many years ago." However, there are other steps that should be taken urgently if Tanzania wants to emerge a competitive country in the region and avoid the Dar port becoming semi- redundant. The chief among them is making railway systems work and further streamlining processes of clearing cargo at the port. This is because countries in the region are working tirelessly in making sure that their ports perform well. Countries with ports work very hard to make sure that they also get a share of cargo from the country we call land locked countries. Right now, Zambia through Zambia Railway Limited is operating...

Traders using the Holili/ Taveta border post between Tanzania and Kenya said they have started benefiting from the newly established One Stop Border Post (OSBP) as of now the time for cargo clearing has reduced significantly. John Omomdi, a Nairobi-based trader, on Sunday described the East African Community’s facility as important tool towards realizing the potential benefits of the trading bloc. "As traders, we’re very optimistic that the facility will make East African business community benefit out of the community as it promotes trade between countries," the cereal crop trader said, as clearing his maize cargo at the border. Under the OSBP arrangement, cargo clearance, immigration, customs and other border transit tasks are done in one roof unlike in the past when each country would do on its side. The East African Community’s project is part of the implementation of the custom union and common market protocols-among the key pillars of the trading bloc with a population of more than 130 million people. "This is a welcoming endeavor as it will take the region extra miles in terms of development," Omondi said. According to him, East African governments need also to reduce non-tariff barriers (NTBs) for the on-transit goods. Holili/ Taveta border post between Kenya and Tanzania is currently operating whereby experts have it that before its opening it took 33 hours to clear vehicles carrying cargo across the border. "But now, it takes only nine hours for the documents to be processed at the border post," said Daniel Muturi,...

Dar es Salaam — After a long and strenuous tussle among 28 members of the Euro Zone on the economic bailout of their 29th member-state based in Athens, the people of Greece finally secured what can be equated to pulling a meat chunk from the Lion's teeth. Three months on, their economic life had come to the brink of total collapse. Bank doors had been shut leaving clients with limited daily ATM cash withdrawals. People had literally to choose between food and medicine. The banks are now open. Thanks to the European Central Bank (ECB) decision to provide the country with an additional Seven Billion Euro bailout after reaching an agreement within the zone. Without having to recount the painful process that Athens had to go through, it would be proper for the governments and people constituting the current East African Community bloc to read the Euro Zone developments between the lines to enable their integration deliver the goods. For, what really matters at the end of the day would be the state of well-being of the people rather than the individual governments in power at the material time. Governments change but the people remain. To the emerging economic blocs, particularly on the African continent, the EU has been something to model themselves upon. Some EU members have actually been supporting the formatting of these blocs, including the current East African Community. Now here we were. The EU centre seemed could no longer hold. Athens reached the stage of not...