NAIROBI (HAN) September 12.2016. Public Diplomacy & Regional Security News.By DICTA ASIIMWE. The East African Community is not spending a third of the money it receives, despite the Secretariat’s complaints about underfunding. The Community has consistently complained about inadequate financing and has been pushing the Council of Ministers to come up with sustainable funding mechanisms. One of the options that was discussed by the Council of Ministers sitting in Arusha on September 5, include a hybrid of a levy and equal contribution by partner states with a commitment to increase the Community’s budget. The levy is expected to increase the Community’s financing, while the option of equal contribution is meant to retain the principles of equity, solidarity and equality as included in the Treaty. But even as the Council of Ministers considers these options, an accountability report by the EAC Audit and Risk Committee found that institutions and projects of the Community, whose budget for the 2014/15 financial year was $125.6 million, only spent $81.4 million. The report, which was discussed by East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) on September 2, found that the money spent represents just 65 per cent of what had been budgeted. Having utilised just 27 per cent of the total budget allocated, the African Peace and Security Architecture was one of the worst performing projects, despite the Community being a region with a large number of peace and security challenges. These challenges include the conflict in Burundi and the effects of conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo...

Migration is a priority issue all the way from Oslo to Cape Town, so the EU and Africa need to work together more effectively in order for it to be better managed in the future. Aderanti Adepoju describes how this can be done. Professor Aderanti Adepoju is the founder and coordinator of the Network of Migration Research on Africa (NOMRA). At present, over 31 million Africans are migrants who live outside the country of their birth, the majority within the African continent itself. In 2015, about 14% of arrivals in Europe were African migrants. Several migrant related events in recent years, most notably perhaps the April 2015 shipwreck that claimed the lives of 800 Africans off the coast of Italy, have significantly raised the discourse on migration to centre stage in both public and political arenas, leading to the Valletta Euro-Africa Summit in November 2015. The challenges posed by African migration are many; stretching from risks of brain drain to a lack of orderly, legal and effective labour migration. The question is therefore what the EU can do to support Africa to properly manage migration? In the study ‘Migration within and from Africa’, published today (12 September) by the Swedish Migration Studies Delegation (Delmi), I argue, among other things, that the EU should focus more on regional governance in Africa. Africa now experiences all types of migratory configurations within and outside the continent. More than half of Africans that migrate internationally do so within Africa, and only 27% go to...

East African heads of state met the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, on Thursday, September 8, to discuss the ratification of the European Partnership Agreement (EPA). Tanzanian president John Magufuli (pictured above), who is also chair of the bloc demanded more time to assess the impact of the agreements before the actual signing takes place. The day-long meeting concentrated on Tanzania's reluctance in signing the trade deal with the EU. The "Daily News" of Tanzania has quoted Magufuli as saying: "There are a number of questions to be looked upon, why are we signing the agreement while the EU has imposed sanctions on Burundi? Why are we signing while UK has pulled out of the EU?" According to Honnest Prosper Ngowi, an economics lecturer at Mzumbe University in Tanzania, the country needs investment in areas of roads, water and power for it to compete in European markets. "I think, what Tanzania has done means that it wants to assess the situation so that it does not lose out once it joins," he said. South Sudan is the newest member of the East African bloc Kenya would pay more taxes Out of the six EAC countries, Kenya stands to lose the most if the deal is not signed. Other member states, like Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, would still be elligible for duty and quota-free access under EU's Everything But Arms initiative for teh world's "Least Developed Countries". Kenya does not fall under this category. "If the EPA is not signed and...

The signing of a trade pact with the European Union for free market access for East Africa’s horticultural crops about a decade ago significantly improved foreign earnings for the region. Under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), East Africa was granted a duty-free quota market access by the EU in efforts aimed at balancing the skewed terms of trade. The agreement is coming to an end this month and a new one is due by October 1. In the trade agreement, EU treats East Africa as a single trade entity and offers it a common package. However, East Africa is now pulling in different directions. Kenya and Rwanda have signed and committed themselves to the extension of the pact, but the others have not. This is why Deputy President William Ruto yesterday reached out to the other EAC heads of state, during a meeting in Arusha, to sign the deal. In particular, Tanzania has been reluctant to sign, arguing that it was interrogating its impact on its industrial production. Perhaps there are other underlying concerns. Burundi is unhappy because of a trade embargo by the EU over its recent controversial elections. Clearly, the hesitation over signing the partnership exemplifies the challenges of regional economic blocs, where at times countries focus on individual, rather than the union’s greater interest. Yet there is much value in hunting as a pack in pursuit of common interests. Among other advantages, this enables a region to attract more investment and puts it in better stead to...

Financing entrepreneurial ventures is one of the key issues to feature prominently in the forthcoming maiden East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition in Nairobi, Kenya. EABC Executive Director Ms Lilian Awinja said one year after the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, they realised the need for a critical follow up on the actual tangible impacts of initiatives like "Trade Africa" or "Power Africa", that have come along with large funds to promote entrepreneurship. "This is why we will have two sessions on the opportunities and experiences to access those funds and on the requirements for other ways of financing," she said. Slated for October 10 to 13 in Nairobi, the crucial conference is organised by the East African Business Council (EABC) in partnership with the East African Community (EAC) respective national investment agencies. On the session, financial Institutions such Kenya's KCB Bank will elaborate on the key issues relevant for the financing of entrepreneurial enterprises. EABC chief added: "This is not on big funds and programmes only but also a chance to learn about innovative sources like crowd funding, impact investment and other incubator initiatives". The conference will also focus on Manufacturing, infrastructure, leather and textiles and energy in parallel sessions, Ms Awinja said. The exhibition expects to pull some 300 participants from the infrastructure-, manufacturingand energy sector, from ICT - and leather and textile industries, as well as from financing institutions. "Important policy makers and top representatives of relevant international organisations have committed themselves to participate," she said. In...

The six-nation East African Community bloc said it would deliberate over a free-trade agreement with the European Union for three months before committing to a treaty that should be in place before October. “We have considered all the issues on EPA and we have given this issue another three months until January so that we can come up with a solution,” Tanzanian President John Magufuli said after a regional summit in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania. The countries have been negotiating the so-called Economic Partnership Agreement, or EPA, with the European Union since 2002, a reciprocal pact that will extend their duty- and quota-free access to the bloc, while opening up their economies. The EAC groups Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. While Rwanda and Kenya have already initialed the treaty, all other nations are required to commit to the deal for it to take effect. Kenya is the only nation that stands to lose access to Europe because it isn’t grouped among the Least Developed Countries. The others can continue exporting to the bloc under a separate Everything But Arms treaty for LDCs.   Source: Bloomerg

Recently, member states of the East African Community (EAC) discussed the need to accept regional currencies as a means of payments in cross-border trade. This means traders will now transact without having to convert their respective currencies to US dollars and back to their own – a process which was not only tedious but time consuming and costly. On Monday this week, while opening the Global African Investment Summit (TGAIS) in Kigali, President Paul Kagame called on African governments to be time conscious in the implementation of regional integration projects, highlighting the enormous cost that is incurred when such projects are delayed or stalled. This brings to mind English Playwright, William Shakespeare, who once said “better three hours too soon than a minute late”. The move to accept regional currencies as a means of payment will not only be timely but will see the region’s member states save a substantial amount of money that was previously lost through exchange. Implementing this will cushion our local currencies’ against drastic fluctuation against foreign currencies as it has been before. The move to trade in national currencies will protect them from adverse vulnerability of the local currencies in the member-countries of the bloc. Experts attribute our struggling currencies to keep afloat against the US Dollar to a globally strengthening dollar and reduced foreign exchange inflows from tourism, trade and agriculture. The global currency and exchange movement remains one of the most important developments in human liberation since the World War Two. It evidences a...

IN SUMMARY Otherwise, Kenyan exports could be asked to start paying taxes from as early as October 1, a development that will make its produce — mainly flowers and fish — uncompetitive in the EU market. The fate of Kenya’s Europe-bound exports rests with the European Union parliament after the East African presidents pushed back the date for reaching final decision on free trade pact to January. President John Magufuli who chaired yesterday’s extraordinary heads of state summit said the bloc would continue to discuss the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the aim of concluding it at the start of next year. “We have given ourselves three months to discuss further the signing of the EPA agreement and we will meet in January 2017 over this issue,” Mr Magufuli, who is also the East African Community chairman, said during the extraordinary summit in Dar es Salaam. “We appeal to the EU not to punish Kenya by denying it access to the European market,” he said in a statement. Tanzania had earlier indicated it would not sign the EPA during yesterday’s summit. The EU had given the region up to September 30 to sign and ratify EPA. Sources said it later asked EAC to show commitment by November 30 after Kenya’s Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed and his Rwandese counterpart Francis Kanimba asked EU parliament for more time few days ago “to prove region’s commitment.” Start paying taxes Kenya, the only state classified as developing country among the EAC’s six members, ships...

Kenya will have to lobby for its own duty-free market access to Europe to shield its exports to the European Union from taxes. This is after Tanzania and Burundi’s refusal to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement at the Heads of State Summit in Dar es Salaam yesterday, dealing a blow to the pact whose deadline is October 1. Uganda, which had indicated willingness, also failed to sign the deal at the summit. Consequently the East Africa Community presidents pushed the EPA talks to January. The move leaves Kenya with no other option rather than to lobby for its own quota-free market. Kenya and Rwanda signed the deal in Brussels, Belgium, last week on Thursday but it cannot be ratified by the EU commission without signatures from all the EAC member states. Deputy President William Ruto represented Kenya at the summit attended by president John Magufuli (Tanzania) Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame,which was meant to convince Tanzania and Burundi to sign the EPA. Burundi sent a representative - minister for external relations and international cooperation Alain Aime Nyamitwe, to the 17th extra-ordinary summit. “Tanzania has reneged arguing that it was analysing it (EPA)while Burundi is furious after European countries slapped an aid embargo on the country following its disputed elections and violence that followed it,” a communiqué from the Deputy President Press Service said. It said the East Africa Community will write to the EU not to punish Kenya by imposing taxes on its goods. “The deadline given by...

Kenya Ports Authority officials inspect cargo at Mombasa Port. FILE PHOTO  Kampala. The spokesperson of the Kampala City Traders Association (Kacita), Mr Issa Sekitto, has called for equal treatment and access to systems of clearance as Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) launched a new terminal at Mombasa port. “Equal accessibility to the tax system will help speed up the clearing process for goods. Uganda’s tax system ESCUDA is open to the Kenyans unlike the SIMBA, clearing system which is only accessible to Kenyans,” he said. “As long as the issues are not addressed, we shall only benefit from the increase in capacity at the port but will still face challenges trying to clear the goods,” Mr Sekitto said. “Anything that concerns the capacitation of the port is welcome although in our opinion as Kacita, a dry port at the side of Uganda would have been the best option because a lot of cargo is abandoned at the Mombasa port,” he said. The first phase of the second container terminal at the Kenya Ports Authority was opened by president Uhuru Kenyatta last week. This comes at a time when the Mombasa Port has recorded a marginal growth between January and May compared to the same period last year. A total of 11.3 million tonnes of cargo passed through the port against 11.2 million tonnes recorded in the corresponding period in 2015, reflecting an increase of 50.931 tonnes or 0.5 per cent. With about 50 per cent of Mombasa Port traffic destined for...