Three decades after the plan for open skies in Africa was mooted, 23 countries on the continent this week launched the Single African Air Transport Market in Ethiopia. Driving the single air market is the dream that Africans will be able to fly across the continent seamlessly and cheaper than the prices that the current protective markets will allow. Despite the celebratory mood, however, the launch of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) does not mean travellers will automatically crisscross the continent. On the runway to take-off are a number of significant steps that signatories have to take in realising this dream. “We are not ready to start today. It will take a bit more time to achieve the vision,” said the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) director-general Gilbert Kibe. Mr Kibe said that it would be at least a decade before the full dream of the single market was realised. Under the umbrella of the Single Market, cross-border flights will be treated as domestic flights for taxation and regulatory purposes. Airlines will also be granted fifth freedom rights, meaning a flight from Johannesburg can stop by Nairobi and pick up passengers on its way to Cairo. This will all serve to drive ticket prices down and increase connectivity on the continent. While the African Union aims to erase the tedious bilateral service agreements in favour of a multilateral protocol to govern SAATM, Mr Kibe says that countries in the region are still far from it. Initially, countries will...

More than 10,000 small-scale women traders engaged in cross-border business in the East African Community have been trained on laws governing trade among the member countries. The women drawn from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda Ethiopia and Eritrea have been trained on various areas including taxation laws and common market protocol. Speaking at Green Park Hotel in Taveta, Taita Taveta County on Monday, Eastern African Sub Regional Support Initiative For Advancement of Women (EASSI) project coordinator Ms Ruth Warutere said the women were also being sensitised on using official border posts while crossing the border. “Some of them were using illegal routes to escape custom charges. They did not know that it is cheaper than using these escape routes,” Ms Warutere said. Goods stolen She said some businesswomen at the border had complained that their goods were being stolen by rogue bodaboda operators and thieves along the border. “Some women did not know that it would be more expensive to use these routes because they pay more transport charges that when they use the border points,” she said. She said the organisation also helps the women traders get a certificate of origin, which exempts them from paying taxes of goods worth 2000 dollars. “Some traders don’t know about this and other opportunities. We normally train them on such opportunities and laws governing each trade,” she said. On the other hand, the organisation’s project officer, Manisurah Aheebwa, urged the East African member states to harmonise laws which don’t favour women in...

Botswana on Tuesday signed a tripartite free trade area agreement which marked a milestone in the trade agenda of the African Union. The document was known as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Area (FTA) Agreement. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Botswana's minister for Investment, Trade and Industry Vincent Seretse said the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) will boost intra-African trade as a result of elimination and reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers as well as market expansion. Seretse said the TFTA is also expected to serve as one of the building blocks of an African Economic Community, thus facilitating deeper regional and continental integration in Africa. According to SADC Deputy Executive Secretary Thembinkosi Mhlongo, the tripartite agreement has the potential to boost trade in Africa and accelerate development by creating a huge single market of about 700 million people with an estimated gross domestic product of well over 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars. Source: Xinhua Net

On his second day in office as the new African Union Chairperson, President Paul Kagame, alongside his Togolese counterpart Faure Gnassingbé and AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki, launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative during the last day of the 30th AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday. The effort seeks to connect African countries and streamline transportation and trade on the continent. President Gnassingbé was appointed to champion the initiative. Monday’s launch follows about three years of efforts following its adoption at a previous AU summit. With 23 member states at the moment, the initiative is likely to have more countries come on board in the coming days. The initiative is aimed at creating a single unified air transport market in Africa and the liberalisation of civil aviation in Africa. This could reduce scenarios where travelers have often been forced to spend long hours or days in transit due to infrequent commercial flights between African countries. It’s common to come across cases where African travelers from East Africa had to travel to connect to West Africa through Europe and Asia due to lack of interregional connecting flights. The model is similar to that of developed markets such as Europe, where airlines from participating countries can fly to airports of fellow member states. Rwanda is part of the Ministerial Working Bureau as the Rapporteur. The government is upbeat about the development as it is likely to see RwandAir access more countries and markets across the continent. State minister...

President Paul Kagame has called for increased private sector collaboration in African Union’s key initiatives. Kagame was speaking at the closure of the 30th African Union summit yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Kagame, who on Sunday began his term as the AU Chairperson, told his counterparts that the private sector was eager to get involved as critical partners in creating opportunities and building prosperity. “As we go forward, I would encourage closer collaboration with Africa’s private sector on the Union’s key initiatives. The business community is always eager to get involved, and more importantly, they are critical partners in creating opportunities and building the prosperity our continent needs,” Kagame said. He also called on African countries to pay more attention to conservation, saying it would enable the continent to make the most of its assets and better management of sectors such as agriculture and tourism. “Africans need to take the lead, in partnership with like-minded global organisations, in conservation because it affects us directly. Driving conservation will allow us get the most out of our continent’s assets, contribute to better management of our agriculture and tourism sectors, and support efforts to mitigate climate change,” he said. Addressing questions by members of the press, the President said that the African Union reforms were picking up the pace as countries and their respective leaders were in support of the process. “Reforms need a lot of mindset change, change doesn’t come easy, it requires hard work and sometimes taking risks but the most...

Heightened demand for energy, a shift in policy and the emergence of viable entrepreneurial innovations are propelling transition to sustainable energy in the East African region. This emerged during a two-day conference organised by Kenya’s Strathmore University‘s Energy Research Centre (SERC) in partnership with Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa (RES4Africa) – an association that promotes the deployment of large-scale and decentralised renewable energy in sub-Saharan African countries. The meeting was held on in Nairobi. During the January 23-24 conference, which was convened here with support from the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) to discuss best practices for effective renewable energy deployment in the region, stakeholders explored issues facing the sector and possible solutions. Momentum has also been buoyed by strong regional agencies that enhance collaboration in the energy sector development. These include the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP), with a mandate to ensure optimum development of energy resources and ease access to electricity, and the East African Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EACREEE) which, among other roles, ensures policy harmonisation and awareness creation. Isaac Kiva, Director of Renewable Energy at the Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum said they are supporting the development of renewable energy. “Having a grid that can meet demand is important, and it is the reason Kenya has a renewable energy Master Plan,” he added. However, the journey for the growth of renewable energy is still fraught with challenges. Bernard Osawa, Vice Chair of the Energy Sector Board, at the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA),...

Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has implored Ghanaian businesses to take advantage of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) yet-to-be rolled out by the African Union (AU). She said the Agreement, targeted at creating a single continental market for goods and services, will open up the over one billion African market to Ghanaian businesses. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 30th Ordinary Session of the AU's Assembly of Heads of State and Governments, the Minister said the CFTA will bolster trade and ensure a "borderless Africa." “Already the protocol of free movement of goods and services through the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) works very well – the East African Economic Community (EACC) and also the South African Development Community (SADC) works perfectly as well," she said, making a case for uniform trade. Intra-continental trade in the year 2000 accounted for about 10 percent of Africa’s total trade, and only increased marginally to 11 percent in 2015. Trading among members of the European Union (EU), for example, amounted to 70 percent in 2015. Intra-African trade is still estimated at less than two percent (2%) of global trade. To improve trade among countries, Heads of State in Africa signed an agreement to implement the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), which negotiation started in June 2015. The CFTA, when implemented, will reduce the continent’s vulnerability to external shocks and expected to enhance the participation of Africa in global trade as a respectable partner. Ms Ayorkor Botchwey believes the CFTA will wean African countries off foreign aid. “So now the...

The Gates Foundation will contribute $50 million (€40.9 million) in financing, as well as an additional $12.5 million (€10.2 million) in technical assistance, to investment projects in the health sector in Africa through the EU’s framework to improve sustainable investments in Africa. This pooling of resources is designed to encourage additional private investment towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and will allow successful projects to be scaled up more rapidly.  The European Commission welcomes this strong support to its efforts towards sustainable development in Africa and will match this contribution with another €50 million. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “The EU accounts for a third of foreign direct investment into Africa – this is now helping create jobs and growth on both of our continents. But we must do more to improve the business environment and provide a platform for African innovators to grow. This requires the full involvement of the private and philanthropic sectors, and I am grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their much-needed engagement. This is an investment in our shared future. Europe’s partnership with Africa is one in which we support each other, help each other to prosper and make the world a safer, more stable and more sustainable place to live.” Bill Gates said: “Improving health outcomes allows a society to become more prosperous and productive. There has been a lot of progress in this area in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000, but we need to do more to incentivize research and...

UN Environment Executive Director Erik Solheim and World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevêdo announced today that their organizations would join forces to launch a new dialogue on promoting innovative ways of using trade to generate greater opportunities to strengthen our economies and our environments at the same time. The two leaders underscored the urgency of facilitating a dialogue among all stakeholders to identify ways of ensuring that trade and environment policies are mutually supportive. At the same time, they recognized that any meaningful action towards bringing trade into closer alignment with a sustainable, inclusive and prosperous world economy would have to be underpinned by new forms of collaboration and innovative partnerships involving consumers, firms, governments and organizations. The two organisations will aim to provide a platform for interested stakeholders from all sectors of society to exchange ideas, showcase successful experiences and improve understanding of how trade can more effectively help bring about inclusive and sustainable development, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. In this way, the initiative is intended to serve as a springboard for stakeholders around the world to seize the trade, investment and job opportunities resulting from the emerging shift towards more sustainable modes of production and consumption. Executive Director Solheim said: “While trade has brought prosperity to many, we must ensure that it also works for our natural resources, for our climate and for all people. Governments, the private sector, and civil society need to understand that trade can and must work for the environment. By...

Businesses should seize a $6 trillion opportunity to invest in tackling climate change over the next two decades, the head of an Indian multinational said at Davos on Thursday (25 January). “Climate change is the next century’s biggest financial and business opportunity,” Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, a $19 billion conglomerate, told the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global business and political leaders held in the Swiss Alps resort of Davos. Mahindra likened the transformation to when cars were first introduced and the industry that developed around them. Climate change will also bring new appliances, technologies and retrofitting of old ones, he said. “Why on earth are we talking about this as a compulsion or a burden?” he asked the audience. The idea that companies face a trade-off between improving the climate and their growth or profits is a “myth”, he added. “Everything our group of companies has done to try and improve energy (consumption) or to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has given us a return,” he said. “We have to dispel the idea that there is a trade-off (for business),” said Mahindra, who is co-chair of a climate action summit taking place in California in September. On Wednesday, Philipp Hildebrand, vice chairman of BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, told the WEF a new generation is ramping up pressure on asset managers to put money into investments with a strong environmental agenda and to push companies to play a bigger role in addressing climate change....