Today’s indicator figure is 8,481,740,000  8,481,740,000 of what? 8,481,740,000 ($8.5 billion USD) is the total amount in current US dollars that is provided as Official Development Assistance to countries in the East African Community (EAC) in the most recent year reported.  What do you mean by Official Development Assistance? According to the World Bank, Official Development Assistance (ODA) consists of “disbursements of loans made on concessional terms and grants by official agencies of the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), by multilateral institutions, and by non-DAC countries to promote economic development and welfare in countries and territories in the DAC list of ODA recipients”. In other words this money is grants and low interest rate loans from donor countries and institutions (think UN, World Bank, GIZ in Germany, USAID in the US, African Development Bank, and so on) to less developed countries like those in the EAC. This figure does not include personal or religious charitable donations which would certainly increase the figure of financial support to EAC nations. How does this compare to other regions of the world? In the history of ODA tracking, the most a single country ever received was Iraq in 2005 taking in $22.0 billion USD with the next highest being Nigeria in 2006 with $11.4 billion USD in support. Beyond that, recent years show that Sub-Saharan African countries receive the most aid assistance of any region and three EAC countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were listed as the top ten recipients of foreign aid...

East African countries have been asked to reject the impending trade deal with the European Union. Kenya and the four other nations of the EAC are required to ratify the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) before the end of the month, gradually grating unlimited market access for exports from the EU. While Kenya reluctantly signed the accord in 2014, the agreement, which the civil society and the United Nations have cited as dangerous, is yet to be approved by Parliament. “We must critically analyse what this agreement means for the EAC, it is dangerous for our trade,” said Nathan Irumba, the executive director of the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (Seatini). He was speaking at the close of a trade conference seeking to examine the impact of the EPA on the East African countries. EAC has been negotiating with the EU as a trading bloc. Failure to sign up would mean steep taxes on commodities such as flowers produced in Kenya, which is classified as a lower-middle-income economy. Kenyan flower exports were heavily impacted when the EU slapped heavy taxes of up to 12 per cent some two years ago after the lapse of the preceding agreement, forcing President Uhuru Kenyatta to sign the agreement. Other EAC nations are classified as Least Developed Countries and would still qualify for preferential treatment in trading with the rest of the richer World. The impending exit of the United Kingdom from the EU, commonly cited as Brexit, has already reduced...

The price of commodities also fell, with the price of oil dropping 3.9% to USD50 per barrel.  On June 23, the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU) in a non-binding advisory referendum, which resulted in the resignation of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and is likely to trigger fresh elections later this year or in 2017. Despite pressure from some EU countries, it is unlikely that exit negotiations will begin until a new UK government is firmly in place. There is a possibility that the next UK government will not trigger exit negotiations at all, based on a legal technicality or if it calls a second referendum. Regardless of the probability of an eventual UK exit from the EU, the referendum result has caused market turmoil across the world, as investors worry that the result of the UK vote could drive fresh momentum to anti-establishment movements in other European countries, including East Africa, a region with a strong British colonial legacy, which must feel “blow back” from Brexit. For example, Global stocks lost USD2 trillion in value on 24 June and sterling fell to a 31 year low. UK companies and banks were some of the worst affected, with USD55 billion wiped off banking stocks. The price of commodities also fell, with the price of oil dropping 3.9% to USD50 per barrel. However, the price of gold gained 4.7% as a reflection of investors’ perception of gold as a safe haven. Undeniably, further riveting economic, political...

What exactly will replace it, if anything, is much, much less clear…” Reuters News Agency Columnist, Peter Apps. THE most dramatic news this time around was the vote by British people to exit from the European Union, henceforth christened by the global media as ‘Brexit vote’. For us here watching the news on television in the intervening period, what prompted the referendum to be taken on whether or not Britain should stay as member of the 28-member post Second World War European unity body was far from clear. I guess not many of us here were interested in this development given the fact that Britain belongs to the club of what Mwalimu Nyerere once described as “wakubwa” – in a collective sense meaning the powerful wealthy North - as opposed to us who belonged to the impoverished South; in the economic sense. But Britain matters. It is a former colonial power of this country and indeed the whole major states of East Africa today. Britain is, from a cultural perspective, influential because English language is one of the leading global languages that links up people across the planet. So what happens in Britain is interesting to Europeans as much as to Africans. Following the opinion of the British national, a columnist quoted at the launch of the perspective, reading his article further, the journalist says that within the UK government no one “planned for the outcome of Brexit vote”. “The results show the country savagely, bitterly divided. Essentially voters in...

IN SUMMARY Across the region, political parties are facing a torrid time, with little financing, restrictive laws on mobilising funds, especially from external sources, and dominant ruling parties that feed off the state — a situation that makes for a generally weak political party foundation. While incumbent parties look strong, are flush with cash and have countrywide networks, experts warn that that strength is hinged on their stay in power — were they to turn into an opposition party, their existence would not be guaranteed. Complaints of an uneven political playing field persist and while the EAC partner states have made attempts to provide statutory financing, critics say the funding is too little or skewed and at best cosmetic. If the functioning and welfare of political parties were a measure of a country’s democracy, how would the East African region fare? Currently, multipartyism is more or less taken as the universal standard of democracy, of course when accompanied by regular elections. Though most of Africa has adopted this standard with some nudging from the West, pockets of resistance remain on whether parties and elections equal democracy. The funding systems set up by governments in the region and freedom for the parties to mobilise their resources is a safe good measure to test the region’s commitment to functional political parties and democracy. The scorecard for East Africa turns out to be mixed. Across the region, political parties are facing a torrid time, with little financing, restrictive laws on mobilising funds, especially...

On June 13, two weeks before the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, the African Union announced a new “single African passport.” The lead-up discussion was much like the original debate on the European Economic Community, the E.U.’s predecessor. African passport proponents say it will boost the continent’s socioeconomic development because it will reduce trade barriers and allow people, ideas, goods, services and capital to flow more freely across borders. But now the A.U. faces the challenge of making sure the “e-Passport” lives up to its potential – and doesn’t fulfill detractors’ fears of heightened terrorism, smuggling and illegal immigration. The African e-Passport is part of a long-term plan for the continent The e-Passport is an electronic document that permits any A.U. passport holder to enter any of the 54 A.U. member states, without requiring a visa. It will be unveiled this month during the next A.U. Summit in Kigali, Rwanda. Initially, the e-Passport will only be available to A.U. heads of state, foreign ministers and permanent representatives based in the A.U.’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, . The plan is to roll it out to all A.U. citizens by 2018. The electronic passport initiative grows out of the A.U.’s Agenda 2063, a plan to mobilize Africa’s vast resources to strengthen the region’s self-reliance, global economic power and solidarity. Why is the single African passport important? The e-Passport is a step toward eliminating borders on the continent, aiming to enable deeper integration, increased trade and further development. Just as important, the passport is a powerful symbol of unity across...

3.4 of what? With the summer holiday travel season upon those in the northern hemisphere, this month’s Indicator is 3.4 or 3.4%, the percentage of foreign tourists compared to residents visiting in the East African Community (EAC) countries.   How does this compare to other regions of the world?  There were approximately 1.13 billion people visiting international destinations as tourists in the most recent year studied, with approximately 5.4 million of them visiting EAC countries, and 65.3 million visiting African countries overall. The highest density of foreign overnight visitors per country occurs in European micronations and Caribbean Islands including Andorra (3247%), Turks and Caicos (1061%), Aruba (1036%), and Monaco (874%). Beyond these categories of countries, Bahrain, Malta, Iceland, and Austria seem to attract a high number of visitors with 767%, 395%, 305%, and 296% respectively. The African nation of Seychelles takes in 233 thousand visitors annually from a population of 91 thousand or a ratio of 255% followed by Mauritius with 82% foreign visitors and Lesotho with 51%. So which countries in EAC have the most and which the least tourists visiting? Despite having numerous game parks and tourist infrastructure Kenya (1.4 million), Tanzania (1.3 million) have only a smalllead on foreign visitors per year than Uganda (1.3 million) or Rwanda (1.2 million) both of which have the highest tourist to resident ratio of the EAC at 9.6%. How does tourism benefit EAC countries? The most recent total expenditure of tourists visiting the EAC was 4.2 billion USD, or about $779...

By Ashery Mkama Trademark East Africa (TMA) has provided 3.0m US dollars to the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) to strengthen standardisation and conformity assessment in Tanzania. The funds whose agreement was signed in Dar es Salaam yesterday extends TMA's support to TBS with the aim of increasing efficiency and effectiveness of the firm in the development and implementation of standards in Tanzania. "This is an opportunity for Tanzania to catch up with other East African Community (EAC) Partner States for TMA support on standardisation and conformity assessment which we missed in the previous round, said TMA Tanzania Country Director, Dr Josephat Kweka. "This means that the results achieved in other countries can be replicated in Tanzania," he said. Dr Kweka was speaking in Dar es Salaam after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) Director General, Mr Joseph Masikitiko. Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Prof Adolf Mkenda, was the guest of honour. This new agreements is an extension of support that TMA has provided to TBS specifically procuring and delivering two categories of testing equipment which included mini-laboratory equipments and glassware, he said. On his part, Mr Masikitiko said TBS still faced challenges such as limited service delivery mechanism, low awareness to stakeholders in participation to standardisation and quality assurance activities, inadequate updates and adoption of standards as well as absence of service value proposition, among others. Over the years TBS has worked to address most of the...

By Wachira Maina Now that the immediate turmoil of Britain's exit vote from the European Union has somewhat subsided, it is a good time to ask what lessons that vote holds for the East African Community. Four stand out. One, a community must be based on values shared by all. Two, a community won't endure if it is not built on the consent of the people. Three, integration is fragile and it takes but the opportunism of a few leaders in a member state to wreck it. Four, the youth must be given voice in integration; if not, the future -- complete with its uncertainties and challenges -- will be shaped by those with the least stake in it, the old. The first, second and fourth are lessons for the Community as a whole and the third, though a lesson for all, is particularly important for Kenya, which has ruined the EAC once before. Let's flesh out each one of these lessons. For the most part, the United Kingdom has never been one with core EU values. Rather, the UK prides itself in its exceptionalism and pursues a foreign policy that is defined more by what the country is against rather than what it stands for. Little wonder then that Anglo-European relations have often been characterised by mutual antipathy. Britain, in the words of its former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, is "insular" with "very special, very original, habits and traditions." That insularity contrasts sharply with Europe's self-conscious cosmopolitanism. And so,...

32,272,059,785 of what? This month’s Indicator of 32,272,059,785 (32.2 billion) is the total market capitalization, the amount of US dollars in all the stock exchanges, in the East African Community at the time of writing.  What do you mean by market capitalization? Market capitalization is the aggregate valuation of the company based on its current share price and the total number of outstanding stocks. Basically, it is the total value of the companies listed on an exchange. In our case $32.2 billion USD is the total value of all the companies in all the stock exchanges listed in East Africa. How does this compare to other stock exchanges around the world? The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest in the world at over $18.2 trillion USD in market capitalization, over 500 times larger than the total value of all the exchanges in East Africa. The NYSE is followed by the NASDAQ at over $6.8 trillion USD and the London Stock Exchange at $6.2 trillion USD.  A bit closer to home is the Johannesburg Stock Exchange which has $951 billion in market capitalization, nearly 30 times as large as the EAC exchanges. So which countries in EAC have the most and the least investment in their stock exchanges? Kenya is the largest economy in the region so it is no surprise that the NSE of Kenya has the largest market capitalization equivalent to $18.8 billion at the time of writing, followed by Tanzania at $9.8 billion, Rwanda just under...