The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged governments to urgently address the infrastructure challenges airlines face to secure the industry’s future. Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO, said there are worrying infrastructure gaps, which are increasing operational costs and, thus affecting the profitability of the sector. The official also advised governments against privatisation of airport infrastructure, saying such a move would “eat into” the sector’s profitability. “We have not found the correct regulatory framework to balance the interests of investors to get profits with the public interest for the airport to be a catalyst for economic growth,” he said. In a statement, De Juniac highlighted the need to build infrastructure “robust enough to meet the high standards of airline operations and passenger convenience”. This comes at a time when government of Rwanda is seeking to establish new regulations governing civil aviation in the country to help make it more efficient. Minister of State for Transport Eng Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye told Parliament on Monday that the new regulations will improve the way Rwanda investigates aircraft incidents and accidents. Uwihanganye said the proposed regulations will also enable the national carrier, RwandAir, to enter new markets in Europe and America “with ease because the new aviation rules are in line with standards requirements in Europe and the US. The draft law empowers the Minister for Infrastructure to conduct aircraft accident investigations, among other things, and also outlines how Rwanda will work with other organisations and governments to investigate the...

China is funding a quarter of large-scale construction projects in eastern Africa, cementing Beijing’s ascendancy in the region’s economic diplomacy at the expense of traditional allies like the United States and the European Union. The latest Deloitte Africa Construction Trends Report 2017 shows China is bankrolling 25.4 per cent of the mega projects in the region. The Asian tiger is followed by international development finance institutions like the World Bank, which comes in second at 19.7 per cent. African development finance institutions like the African Development Bank (AfDB) are ranked third at 15.5 per cent while funds from private domestic sources stand at 4.2 per cent. The EU accounts for 8.5 per cent while single countries contribute seven per cent, with the US trailing at a paltry 2.8 per cent. “China is the most prolific funder of large-scale construction projections in East Africa financing one in four projects in the region,” says the report released in Nairobi on Tuesday. Deloitte Africa infrastructure and capital projects leader Jean-Pierre Labuschagne linked the rise of Beijing in the region to a cocktail of geo-politics as more EAC nations look east and abandon their traditional partners in the search for new markets by the resource-hungry Asian behemoth. “You have a Chinese economy that is booming, possibly flattening a little bit because of the world economy and so they are looking to export those services and expertise,” Mr Labuschagne told the Business Daily. “I do think there is also an element of a political statement behind...

Tanzania’s current gas exploration and mining is billed to be at the top of agenda, as Kenya is being ranked a major oil exporter before the year 2020. The event (June 14 – 15, 2018) at the Intercontinental Hotel will also celebrate its fifth anniversary as the most prestigious oil and gas summit in East and Central African region. The Summit will significantly address onshore oil discoveries in Uganda and Kenya and offshore gas discoveries in Tanzania and Mozambique, developments that have made East Africa a subject of intense interest among the global energy industry. “The speed at which governments in East Africa are developing hydrocarbon reserves is a clear indication of their will to cement the region’s reputation as the new hotspot in hydrocarbon exploration and production,” reads a statement from the Summit organisers dispatched to Arusha last week. President John Magufuli has since ordered that exploitation of natural gas begin “as a matter of urgency” while Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta announced his government’s plans to bring forward the country’s oil production deadline by two years and ‘set a path’ that would enable the country to become a major producer and exporter by 2019. The Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) Agreement between the Joint Venture Partners and the Government of Kenya was signed on March 14, 2017, allowing all EOPS upstream contracts to be awarded. The EOPS production of 2000 barrels per day is expected to commence around the end of the year. “Africa Oil Corporation is society and...

East African countries are leading in implementing Africa's agricultural transformation policies. According to a report on the Malabo declaration, Southern Africa comes second. The declaration is a set of agricultural goals that Heads of State attending the African Union Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in June 2014 adopted, to be attained by 2025. The Africa Agricultural Transformation Scorecard tracks progress in commitments made by governments. East Africa managed an average score of 4.20, which indicates it is on track to meeting its commitments when assessed against the 3.94 benchmark for 2017, with five out of the eight regional countries that submitted their progress to the AU, managing the minimum 3.92 score. Rwanda was ranked the best agriculturally transformed country in Africa with a score of 6.1, thanks to political and institutional reforms. Burundi scored 4.7, Ethiopia 5.3, Kenya 4.8 and Uganda 4.5, to cement the region's 4.2 score ahead of the Southern Africa region which scored 4.02, and Northern, Central and Western Africa which scored 3.83, 3.62 and 2.35 respectively. Speaking at the launch of the scorecard, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn asked the seven countries that did not submit their reports to do so in the next review in 2020. Source: All Africa

Juba - South Sudan has unveiled numerous ambitious agricultural development strategies that seek to enhance food production and curb severe food insecurity in the world’s youngest nation. Under the plans announced by the country’s Agriculture and Food Security Minister, Onyoti Adigo, the government would embark on initiatives seeking to support research, access to financing, infrastructure development, review of land policies and enhancing public-private sector partnership. He added that the government would support the formation of farmers unions, revive cooperatives across the country and also roll out nationwide farmer-education initiative in a bid to improve their knowledge on commercial farming and modern food process techniques to reduce post-harvest wastage. “Key to achieving agriculture transformation in the country is raising productively level in the farms, driving the revolution in productivity, mechanization and improving farm management techniques based on research and adaption of hybrid varieties of maize and rice,” Adigo said. According to Adigo, agriculture constitutes 80 per cent of people’s livelihoods in South Sudan, and it also contributes 36 per cent of South Sudan’s non-oil gross domestic production, but this has been hampered by conflict, inadequate research facilities, and poor infrastructure, among others. The UN and other aid agencies have warned that at least 1.5 million South Sudanese could face famine as the East African nation enters what has been described as the worst lean season in history between January and March. Adigo said that to achieve the set targets, South Sudan will have to double its efforts to bring peace and stability...

The UN specialized agency on civil aviation on Thursday hailed the East Africa Community (EAC)'s aviation safety record. Barry Kashambo, the regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) told an aviation forum in Nairobi that the high standards has been validated by the continued progress in the ICAO safety audits taken in the last four years. "Four out of the five audited EAC states are among the 12 that are above 60 percent effective implementation score in the Eastern and Southern Africa," Kashambo said. "This translates in 80 percent of the audited states being above the Abuja target of ensuring that Africa's aviation accident rate be in line with global average by end of 2015," he said during the occasion of the official opening of the fourth EAC Symposium on Aviation Safety. The two-day symposium was organized by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Safety Oversight Agency (CASSOA), the administrative agency of the East African Community (EAC) that focuses on safe and secure development of aviation in the region. The regional aviation conference brought over 300 delegates from East Africa and across the world to review ways to improve aviation safety in the EAC. Kashambo said ICAO shares the region's desire to build resilient state aviation oversight systems that will ensure protection of the lives of the traveling public. He noted that the target of improved safety can only be achieved if the region fulfills certain prerequisites...

Back in 1999, under what is known as the Yamoussoukro Decision, African countries planned to free their skies for air travel. Last Sunday the African Union (AU) took its first big step towards this goal, launching the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). The landmark announcement unveiled by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the new chair of the AU, aims to transform intra-African air travel, lower prices and increase connectivity. The initiative has 23 signatories. There are 32 AU members still to come on board. Take off for African aviation Opening up the continent's skies could be a huge coup for African airlines, which would work under a common regulatory framework. It could also benefit intra-continental travelers who are often bound to illogical and time-consuming routes via Europe and the Middle East when flying between African countries. The agreement will also hope to increase the continent's global share of the aviation industry. The total population of Africa accounts for around 17% globally, but the continent's proportion of air travel passengers varies between 2-4%. In a statement, Rapahel Kuuchi, Vice President for Africa at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said: "Greater connectivity will lead to greater prosperity." "An IATA survey suggest that if just 12 key African countries opened their markets and increased connectivity an extra 155,000 jobs and US$1.3 billion in annual GDP would be created in those countries." The approach follows in the footsteps of similar single market aviation agreements such as theEU's Internal Market for Aviation, which are generally recognized to...

A trade initiative is helping mid-size businesses tap opportunities there. A Kerala-based spices company recently started growing chillies in Rwanda, which is estimated to have increased the income of farmers there six-fold. A leather company from Tamil Nadu has set up a plant in Uganda producing one million pairs of shoes annually and is generating new jobs in both countries. And, 300 Ethiopian artists are getting handloom and handicrafts training in Bengaluru. These are just a few of the success stories that have been spun over the past two-three years by Geneva-based development agency International Trade Centre’s initiative — ‘Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa’ (SITA). “We are looking at mid-sized companies which have less of a natural inclination to look abroad. Through the SITA initiative we are building bridges between India and East Africa by taking Indian companies to these countries to see with their own eyes what the opportunities are,” said ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez, in a telephonic interview with BusinessLine. Investment flows worth $71 million and additional trade flows of $26.5 million have so far been generated between India and East Africa (with an additional $10 million in the pipeline) as part of the six-year project (2014-2020) funded by the UK’s Department of International Development. Gonzalez will be in India later this week and visit Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru to take stock of the progress made so far and prepare the ground for more partnerships. Multiple sectors The sectors being promoted include leather, spices, pulses, textile...

In a world looking increasingly inwards, Africa will need to make its own opportunities, writes Kingsley Makhubela. Changes in the global landscape require emerging markets to consider how they must shape their future. Many countries in the developed world have focused their efforts and resources inwards as a result of challenging economic times. There is a danger that a shift away from emerging markets will negatively affect the global economy’s ability to grow. This would not bode well for Africa, given its growing integration into the global economy in recent years. To mitigate this, Africa must take steps to secure its own share of global economic growth and African citizens must sustain the economic growth of the continent. The greatest opportunity to realise its growth potential is often overlooked — Africa’s ability to trade and do business with itself. What is required is an inward and outward strategy acting in tandem — outwardly cementing Africa’s place in the global economy through foreign investment and improved trading links while internally driving the integration of regional trade. It is no coincidence that Africa’s recent growth, epitomised by the label "Africa rising", was in part realised due to increased levels of foreign direct investment. Improvements in fiscal policies, governance and regulatory frameworks, along with a move to diversify away from commodities, presented greater opportunities to investors. If Africa is going to capitalise on this base, it needs to collaborate on a shared future. Africa’s development must be underpinned by further regional integration and...

Arusha — ANOTHER submarine telecommunications system is set to link the East African region with South Africa, Asia and Europe. A statement from China's Huawei Marine, now made available here, reveals that HM was completing a 'desktop study' for a new subsea cable system, dubbed the 'Peace Subsea Cable' whose first phase is meant to connect South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia and Pakistan (Gwadar and Karachi). Peace is short for 'Pakistan East Africa Cable Express' and the system has been designed by Chinese firm, Tropic Science, to provide a new information expressway for interconnection among Asia, Africa and Europe - through existing land and subsea cables The report further explains that Huawei Marine would begin a marine survey on January 15, with the Peace system expected to be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2019. The first phase will span some 6,200km and would link Pakistan (Gwadar and Karachi), Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya. The second phase would provide an "extended option" to South Africa and Europe with a total length of about 13,000km, all based on 200G dense wave-division multiplexing technology on a design capacity of 60Tbit/s. "The Peace system will provide a new information expressway for interconnection among Asia, Africa and Europe by connecting with existing land and subsea cables," Huawei Marine and Tropic Science said in a joint statement. Tropic Science chairman He Liehui said the system will become "an important infrastructure for Asian, African and European intercontinental communications and promote economic development of the regions"....