Tourists at a park in Tanzania. The World Bank says the service sector is blossoming. IN SUMMARY For example more than 16 percent of the accounting, architectural, engineering and legal firms in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) countries are already engaged in exports, mainly to neighbouring countries. A World Bank report has praised the East Africa Tourism Platform (EATO) for showing strong leadership in championing a coordinated approach to enhance the region’s travel and tourism competitiveness. The report says the EATP has enabled practitioners, policy makers, and regulators to engage in “meaningful dialogue” about the critical issues that are currently transforming these services in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Cooperation initiatives are necessary to increase the regulatory capacity that African governments need to build over time to engage in meaningful liberalisation efforts,” says Alemayehu Geda, Associate Professor of Economics at Addis Ababa University. “Through analytical support and technical assistance, the World Bank can assist African countries to improve regulation, facilitate services flows, and ultimately make services in Africa more competitive.” Africa’s export potential in traditional services, such as tourism, is clearly recognised, but the emerging success of exports of nontraditional services, such as business services, is often overlooked, the report says. For example more than 16 percent of the accounting, architectural, engineering and legal firms in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) countries are already engaged in exports, mainly to neighbouring countries. “This contradicts official statistics, which assert that professional services exports for several countries are...

Kisumu Governor, Jack Ranguma, will officially open doors to this year’s regional show at the Mamboleo grounds tomorrow. The exhibitions to be held till Sunday July 31 have attracted government institutions and the private sectors which have set up stands from which members of the public will obtain information regarding to this year’s theme, enhancing technology in agriculture and industry for food security and national growth. The events publicity committee chairman, Mr Julius Nyadiango and regional ASK chairman Mr Bernard Ateng’a said this year has attracted relatively higher interest to the international and East African community at its preparation stages. In line with the theme, sister ministries of Public Service, Youth and Gender affairs with that of Devolution and planning initially under one ministry, have erected twin stands at the grounds to enable members of the public access information and understand their distinct roles. Mrs Florence Mugendi, the devolution and planning ministry communications officer said many people still perceive the ministries as one despite having clearly distinct functions. “We were separated into two due to the intense and work overload in service delivery and many Kenyans are still unaware and are left seeking services at inappropriate places and we hope they will get a chance to get clarifications during the show,” said Mrs Mugendi. She said the devolution ministry had been left with planning and statistics that largely concerns population trend studies, special programs and the state department that is closely under the presidency. Mrs Mugendi added that the ministry had...

Kenya plans a new round of talks next month in a last-ditch attempt to convince the other members of East African Community (EAC) to sign an agreement for local goods to continue enjoying duty-free access to European market. Kenyan officials Tuesday downplayed fears that the EAC trade bloc will miss the October 1 deadline set by the European Union secretariat, in what would introduce duty and quotas on Kenyan exports to Europe, making them uncompetitive. This came after Tanzania recently said it would not sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union that grants regional goods duty-free access to Europe, citing Britain’s exit from EU. Uganda has said it is still reviewing the terms. According to EPA terms, the EU can only strike a trade deal with a bloc comprising several nations, meaning a single country cannot go it all alone. This has limited Kenya and Rwanda that are willing to sign up. “We are optimistic that the talks planned for early August will be fruitful and beat the deadline,” Kenya’s Industrialisation and International Trade secretary Adan Mohamed said at a press briefing. The bloc had expected to strike a deal on July 18 in Nairobi but the plan failed. Failure to reach a deal spells doom to thousands of workers involved in cut flowers, fruits, fish, beans, coffee and tea which are mainly exported to the EU. The lapse of the existing interim preferential trade deal without another arrangement would mean imposition of import duties on Kenya’s fresh...

The ‘Africa High-Level Bonn Challenge Roundtable’ was convened by the Government of Rwanda, the East African Community (EAC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to build regional cooperation on the Bonn Challenge – a global effort to restore 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded lands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. The pledges comprise 2 million hectares from the Republic of Guinea, 3.5 million hectares from the Central African Republic, 5 million hectares from Côte d’Ivoire, and an additional 1 million hectares from Ghana (who had already committed 1 million hectares). The Republic of Congo also reaffirmed its commitment to restore 2 million hectares. These new pledges bring the total amount of land committed by countries, companies and organisations for restoration under the Bonn Challenge to over 107 million hectares. “We recognise the importance of the engagement of the international community for the implementation of the Bonn Challenge in our country,” says Christine Sagno, Minister of Environment, Water Resources and Forestry, Guinea. “Forest landscape restoration will help us achieve our international commitments, particularly to the UNFCCC, the UNCCD and the CBD.” Along with the Republic of Congo, other national governments in Africa had earlier pledged their support for the Bonn Challenge, totalling 55.3 million hectares for the region. This includes Burundi (2 million hectares), Democratic Republic of Congo (8 million hectares), Ethiopia (15 million hectares), Kenya (5.1 million hectares), Niger (3.2 million hectares), Rwanda (2 million hectares), Uganda (2.5 million hectares), Liberia (1 million...

East African Community (EAC) member countries are meeting in Kigali for a validation workshop on the study by the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA) on the status of armed crimes in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The report dubbed 'Analysis of Armed Crime Rates' released yesterday, in Kigali was conducted between 2010 and March 2016 with the support of African Development Bank (AfDB). According to the report, Rwanda registered 421 cases related to armed crimes between 2010 and March 2016, the least in EAC compared to other four bloc member states mentioned in the study. Tanzania registered 9, 646 cases; Kenya 12.877 while Burundi and Uganda complete the list with 26, 041 and34, 512 cases respectively, the report further states. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Emmanuel K Gasana, while presiding over the event, highlighted measures put in place by Rwanda in prevention and control of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, including laws and community awareness as well as arms' marking. "The electronic arms record keeping software has been instrumental in enhancing effective arms record keeping and accountability hence minimising possible misuse of arms and this has had a positive impact on reduction of armed crimes in our country," IGP Gasana said. Rwanda was among the first countries to enact and revise its regulations on small arms in line with international and regional obligation of legal harmonisation. "Rwanda National Police continues to make use of different strategies like training and development, crime awareness campaigns through community...

Regional governments have been urged to give more support to women in business to enhance entrepreneurship and ensure equitable and sustainable development. Mary Muthoni, the chairperson of Women in Business Committee at Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), said women entrepreneurs have limited access to affordable credit, and lack skills required to provide innovative products or services. Muthoni said these challenges are hindering efforts by women to engage in cross-border trade. “It is, therefore, important for governments in the East African Community (EAC) bloc to understand these challenges and design policies that will make it easy for more women to do business,” she said. She added that there is need for training to equip women with skills to help them manage and operate cross-border businesses better. She also called on women to form strong business groups to lobby for their interests at the regional level. Muthoni was speaking at the first Kenya-Rwanda Women Business Forum in Kigali yesterday. The event, which attracted over 100 women entrepreneurs from Kenya and Rwanda, was organised by the Private Sector Federation (PSF) and KNCCI-Women in Business Sector. It discussed ways of addressing the challenges women face while doing business in the region, as well as mechanisms on how they can work together and benefit from opportunities presented by the regional market. Eugenie Mushimiyimana, the president of the chamber of women and entrepreneurs at PSF, said it is important for governments to put in place requisite infrastructure to help reduce the cost of...

Plans for the Lamu - Garissa highway have kicked off as the transport corridor to connect Kenya to Ethiopia and South Sudan starts to take shape. The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) is seeking environmental approval for the project that will cost Sh38 billion, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The 250 kilometre road is the second major component of the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia (Lapsset) transport corridor after the ongoing construction of three berths at the port. “The project road, Lamu – Garissa road, forms the initial part of Lapsset corridor,” an audit submitted to the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) says. “The project road will be a gateway to the Lapsset corridor which will provide connectivity to other parts of Kenya through railway and highway.” The highway has a width of 100 metres, will have two lanes but could in future be expanded to four or six lanes. A lane width of 3.5 metres and the shoulder width of two metres are the proposals for its design. It is expected to pass near wildlife sanctuaries, so eight animal crossings will be built along the five major wildlife and forest corridors for safety of animals. “Safety fences have been proposed over certain lengths before and after the crossing points to prevent animals straying into the road. It is also recommended to provide safety fence at these five corridors all along the road length passing by the side of the sanctuary or forests areas with openings only at...

The construction of Tanzania standard gauge railway Line has received much needed impetus after the China Exim Bank agreed to support the project with a USD7.6m loan.- According to the ministry of transport officials the Tanzania standard gauge railway is expected to cover about 2,190-kilometre and will be implemented by Chinese contractors in assistance with local contractors. The statement also added that the loan given will be able to fund the construction of the project fully and it’s expected to begin in the current financial year as the government has also allocated funds for the same. The state officials added that the money that was given by the Chinese Bank will be able to finance the project. Construction of the Tanzania standard gauge railway is expected to start this financial year as the government has also set aside about 1tri/- from the current budget for the purpose. Standard gauge railway will enhance cross border trade Once the project is complete it will be able to streamline Tanzania’s Transport Sector and will boost trade between Tanzania and its neighborhood countries. The railway is expected to cover countries including Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The construction will involve three phases while the first phase will see the construction of the railway line from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza via Isaka and Tabora. According to Exim Bank president, Mr Liu Liang they look forward to ensure the Transport sector of Tanzania gets to another level. Mr Liu added that the...

Delays in clearing goods, corruption and theft at the Port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, and high fees charged by some regulatory agencies continue to hurt trade along the Central Corridor, officials have said. Members of the East African Business Council (EABC) brought the matter up during a Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) in Dar-es-Salaam last week. Traders also complained about value added tax (VAT) charged on auxiliary services levied on goods on transit. Omar Kassim, chairperson of Uganda Clearing Industry and Forwarding Association (UCIFA), said the issues need to be addressed to ease doing business. Kassim, who is also EABC vice-chairperson for Uganda, said, for instance, clearing of goods in Tanzania takes 10 days on average, while in Rwanda the same task takes a maximum of three-days. “Long clearing time in Tanzania is attributed to complicated documentation and compliance activities as businesspersons require 10 documents to import or export to Tanzania,” Kassim said. Various documents, he argued, attract different costs estimated to be double the average costs incurred in other sub-Saharan countries. “As if that is not enough, delays and challenges linked to documentation and border compliance has bred corruption among trade facilitation agencies,” Kassim said. According to Tanzania’s VAT Act 2014, supply of international transport services is zero-rated regardless of who the supplier is. Eighteen per cent VAT is applicable to additional services such as cargo inspection, preparation of customs documentation, container handling and storage. Sources say for goods in transit to qualify for to zero-rate, the services must have a...

According to information received from Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian government signed a comprehensive financing deal with China's EXIM Bank, securing the necessary funds to commence construction of this new Central Corridor mega-rail project. Once complete, the new Standard Gauge (SGR) line will link the port of Dar es Salaam with Kigali, although there are also plans afoot to connect Eastern Congo to the rail line and maybe even Burundi, although that country is currently in a political and economic freefall, unable to look beyond today. The new rail line will broadly follow the present narrow gauge line, also connecting from Tabora to Isaka, the designated link station from where the line then continues into Rwanda to connect the capital Kigali. Additional domestic rail lines from Tabora are reportedly also planned, to the Lake Victoria port of Mwanza but also to Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika. The signing of the finance deal concludes one of the key prerequisites for the construction of the new rail line and going by the Kenyan experience, where the new Mombasa to Nairobi SGR line is ahead of schedule, the same is now expected for Tanzania, once construction proper goes underway. Promoters of the Northern Corridor rail link between Mombasa, via Nairobi and the Ugandan border to Kampala and on to Kigali, are now said to be scratching their heads though, trying to figure out what Kigali's position will be vis a vis their proposed link via Mirama Hills to Kampala. When the rail line to...