By Henry Lyimo East Africa enjoys strong economic growth for over a decade now but the rosy picture of the economy is soiled by deepening inequality which begs a question on who in particular benefit from the growth. This is one of the key observation of the State of East Africa Report 2016 that was launched in Dar es Salaam last Friday by Society of International Development and TradeMark Africa. The region has recorded robust growth of the economy with an average of more than six per cent annual growth-rate for over a decade with Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda all forecast show rapid economic growth over the next decade on the back of tourism, agriculture, services and manufacturing industries and improving their transport links and energy supply. Source: All Africa

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...

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...

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...

The president of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has appreciated the flourishing trade partnership between Rwanda and Uganda. In his key note address at the opening of the government and political leaders retreat at Kyankwanzi yesterday (Tuesday) Museveni said Rwanda and Uganda’s export and import of goods and services is on good footing. He noted that; “Today Uganda exports US$263 million worth of goods and services to Rwanda. Rwanda, in turn, is exporting US$78 million worth of goods to Uganda. Through Rwanda Airlines, Uganda is currently contributing about US$ 24.1 million to the prosperity of the people of Rwanda…” Here we reproduce his full speech as presented to the NRM Central Executive Committee, cabinet and permanent secretaries gathered at Kyankwanzi; “REFOCUSING ON THE NRM’S IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATION As we have repeatedly pointed out in all the NRM documents, the NRM principles are four: patriotism (anti-sectarianism and anti-gender-chauvinism); pan-Africanism; socio-economic transformation; and democracy. As the leader of the NRM and its precursors (Fronasa, etc), for almost fifty years today, I must salute the Ugandans in general and our supporters in particular because they have always rallied around our cause. They listened to our message when we were students. They supported us in the anti-Amin struggle ─ witness the Fronasa force we built up so quickly on the western axis in 1978/79. In their millions, they supported us in the anti-UPC war of 1981-86. Ever since 1986, the Ugandans, in their millions, have supported our anti-terrorism military campaigns and our political struggles against opportunism....

Intra-African trade has long been a weak point hit upon by leaders looking to strengthen sustainable growth on the continent. Within certain regions, such as the West African Economic and Monetary Union, WAEMU (or by its French acronym, UEMOA), the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC) or the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), regional economic unions have flourished along trade needs and cultural links. The most recent African Economic Outlook (AEO) shows that despite varying degrees of economic growth and development, economic blocs have benefitted community members through not just increased trade, but income convergence, with UEMOA leading among them. Incomes have narrowed at an average rate of 19.6 per cent between WAEMU’s richest and poorest countries over 15 years, according to AEO. In almost all WAEMU countries, the per capita GDP has risen compared to Côte d’Ivoire, the region’s leading economy. Benin and Senegal have caught up with Côte d’Ivoire, while remaining members Niger, Benin, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso are still behind. “This could mean that poorer countries grew faster than richer ones to narrow the gap. The convergence may also be explained by the slowdown of the Côte d’Ivoire economy during the country’s political crisis of the early 2000s,” the report stated. African trade with the rest of the world, especially the European Union, has remained consistently high throughout a decade of growth and the 2008 economic crisis. However the ‘Brexit’ shake-up, along with a general downturn in commodities prices, puts...