Authorised Economic Operator programme earns rewards for traders [caption id="attachment_52541" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Bollore team with their award as best AEO within the clearing and forwarding industry in 2017[/caption] For business owners, time is money and delays that hold up delivery of goods represent loss of potential earnings. In Uganda, an AEO programme funded by United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) through TradeMark Africa (TMA) is helping businesses overcome delays by encouraging voluntary compliance. Richard Lubuulwa, inbound Logistics Manager at Nice House of Plastics, a leading manufacturer in Uganda, recounts the costly delays he used to face importing goods from Kenya to Kampala before his company acquired Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) status with the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). “Whenever we had a truck coming from Kenya, I would personally travel to Malaba or Mombasa to ensure that the truck was cleared. I spent a lot of money making such travels because whenever we let the truck driver deal with the authorities, we would experience days and days of delays. It was costly and tiresome.” This changed once Nice House of Plastics became an AEO five years ago. AEO is a voluntary compliance scheme aimed at facilitating global trade anchored on the World Customs Organisation (WCO) framework of standards.   [caption id="attachment_52549" align="aligncenter" width="683"] A customs officer at Malaba OSBP inspects goods stored in a bonded warehouse[/caption] Built upon the World Customs Organisation SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade (SAFE Framework) AEO programme’s goal is to enhance...

[caption id="attachment_52401" align="alignleft" width="367"] Rwandan farmers drying their maize after harvest[/caption] For many farmer cooperatives across Rwanda, especially those that farm staple crops, access to finance has always been an issue and this is complicated by post-harvest losses that discourage finance providers from investing in agriculture. Positively, the government of Rwanda is undertaking improvement in infrastructure such as cold storage facilities, road and air transport to eliminate post-harvest losses and make agriculture value chains an exciting investment prospect. Joshua Rugema, Country Director, The East Africa Exchange EAX states that, “right now, Rwanda’s agriculture export revenue is an average of USD 500,000,000 per year and I believe that with the investments being undertaken, we will easily get to US$ 2bn in 2023 by embracing innovative agricultural value chain strategies, and utilising the conducive environment government has created.” TradeMark Africa is supporting these efforts and has partnered with EAX to reduce risks by training farmers in production, post-harvest handling, cooperative governance, while at the same time providing equipment for grain management and building linkages to markets. Two years into the programme, farmers now access larger markets, have reduced rejection rates for their grains by over 70% and access loans against their grains. ----------------------------- [caption id="attachment_52409" align="aligncenter" width="445"] EAX-Florence Niyikuze, Trainer and member of Ramba Gatunda Cooperative[/caption] EAX is a regional commodity exchange established to link smallholder farmers to agricultural and financial markets, secure competitive prices for products, and facilitate access to financing opportunities. EAX in Rwanda has maize, beans and soya farmer...

Like many Kenyans, George Adulu an Information Technology (IT) professional from Nairobi, religiously takes a hot cup of tea with his breakfast, paying homage to an age-old Kenyan tradition. Tea is a breakfast staple, a ten o’clock break beverage and a night cap. Many households brew it with milk and water until it acquires a golden colour. The case is repeated across many Eastern African countries. The popularity of tea makes it the second most consumed drink in the world after water. In 2018, global consumption of tea amounted to about 273 billion litres and is forecasted to reach 297 billion litres by 2021. George’s home country, Kenya and its neighbors in East and Central Africa regions are not only big consumers of tea, but also leading producers who trade most of their black tea at the Mombasa Tea Auction. This is the largest black crush, tear and curl (CTC) tea auction center in the world that accounts for 32 percent of global tea exports. The Mombasa Tea Auction (MTA) centre is known for high quality teas that are brought in from across other African tea growing countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique. Every Monday and Tuesday, the auction is a buzz of activities governed by the strike of a hammer as numerous papers are exchanged between buyers, sellers and their intermediaries and tea hauled into ships afterwards. Tea trading at MTA is everything but seamless. That’s about to change....

How can Rwanda get more of its domestic products to international markets? A key element in achieving this goal requires applying rigorous requirements to food, animal and plant exports, known as Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures set by importing countries to address food safety, animal health and plant health risks that may be carried by traded products. Working with the Rwanda government, TradeMark Africa’s (TMA) Standards, Technical Regulations and SPS Measures project continues to support interventions that will enable Rwanda producers to meet these rigorous requirements. On the one hand, the TMA interventions support regulatory bodies to improve their capabilities and authority to implement requirements to access export markets through acquisition of modern laboratory equipment building inspection capacities and automating trade processes to reduce costs and time involved in certifying products. On the other hand, the interventions focus on private sector by training of value chain players from farmers to pack houses to exporters, to ensure quality and safety is adhered to from the farm gate. Combined, this is contributing to reduction of standards related barriers to trade and rejection of Rwanda’s agricultural exports due to SPS concerns. Improving Businesses Diego Twahirwa an exporter in Rwanda knows too well the losses that follow non-compliance to SPS measures. The thirty-one-year-old businessman is the founder and owner of Gashora Farms, a leading chili export firm based in Bugesera District. In September 2019, he signed a five-year agreement with a Chinese firm – GK International Enterprises – to supply 50,000 tonnes of dry Chili...

In Gulu, Northern Uganda, Santa Joyce Laker leads a cooperative society of 4,070 farmers and traders, 3,000 of whom are women. Her story is an example of recovery and resilience after disaster, rising to succeed against the impact of conflict that plagued the region for almost 20 years. From rape to death of loved ones, to being displaced and facing hunger, Joyce says she saw it all, and so have many members of her cooperative. When the opportunity to do business presented itself, she run with it and co-founded Atiak Outgrowers Cooperative Society. As in many post conflict places, it is the steady hand of optimists seizing opportunities and being on the front lines that lead the way for their communities to begin recovery from the aftermath. Joyce was the optimist in Gulu. The Atiak Outgrowers Cooperative Society collectively grows and trades sugarcane, sesame, maize, beans, rice, cotton, shea, and honey. The cooperative links members to agricultural inputs, information, agronomic education, collective financing, and markets. This has enabled farmers to double their incomes. Santa founded the cooperative after receiving training from the Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Ltd (UWEAL) as part TradeMark Africa (TMA’s) Women in Trade project, funded by Government of Netherlands. Inspired by the lessons on managing businesses profitably and collective power, Santa began organising other women back home in Gulu. She convinced them that forming a cooperative will help them access bigger more lucrative urban markets directly. TMA’s women and trade project is premised on the fact that...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In Rwanda from the capital city of Kigali to the borders with Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda, cooperatives are building socially and economically resilient communities. TMA has interest in supporting women economic empowerment and this is being shown by its recent financial commitment to increase funding to women programmes. As well as its partnership with local organisations such as Profemme Twese/Hamwe to devote increased attention to forming cooperatives for women cross border traders to help them tap into their collective power.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image="51005" img_size="full" add_caption="yes" alignment="center"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]At the border of Goma and Rubavu, Kotiheza cooperative comprising of 36 women is milling, packaging and exporting maize flour to Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo, in addition to distributing within Rwanda, as a result of this programme. Musa Abonabise is the President of Kotiheza cooperative, and the only man in the co-operative, “We started off as informal traders stationed right at the border of Goma and Gisenyi. Kotiheza was formed in 2011 when we came together to formalize our operations. Before becoming a cooperative, most of what we did was against the rules and regulations of cross-border trade. Pro-Femme/Twese Hamwe helped us found the cooperative, offered us training and advocated on our behalf with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to access financial grants. Our lives have been positively transformed.” *Goma is the capital of North Kivu province in the eastern DRC. It is located next to the Rwandan city of Rubavu (also commonly referred to as Gisenyi). [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text="Success shows in the ranking"...

A few years ago, the cargo handling section of Mombasa port teamed with dusty and sweaty workers busy hauling  heavy packages on their backs, from the warehouses to the waiting lorries. Injuries and chest pains were a norm. One of these workers was Humphrey Agini. He recounts how the polluted and risky work environment caused him to take many sick leaves; and quantifies the wages he lost, as a result, to the thousands of shillings. He wishes away those back breaking days . For years, Humphrey, who is employed by Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) spent his days offloading heavy sacks of clinker, coal, fertiliser and industrial chemicals. The fierce sun would burn on ruthlessly. He worked for sheer survival. Each time he was about to give up, he remembered his parents back in the rift valley region of Kenya and his younger siblings who relied on the earnings he made. He became a sort of expert in handling dirty cargo. Yet, protective gear was unheard of and many were the days when both he and his colleagues fell ill. Just as hundreds of other port workers shared in his fate; so, did hundreds of importers and exporters, who contended with the delays this caused to exit or enter the port. Greening the port takes off Humphrey’s hard work and diligence had caught the eye of his superiors. And so, when KPA in partnership with TMA transitioned to mobile harbour cranes for bulk cargo handling in 2017, to increase port productivity, he was...

To most people, a One Stop Border Post (OSBP) at one of East Africa’s border crossing points is simply a building where papers are processed.  TradeMark Africa (TMA) has worked to establish and improve systems at 13 OSBPs across East Africa to ensure that they are much more.  To the frequent border users,these infrastructures are more than just brick and mortar. OSBPs represent safety, ease of doing business and time and cost savings. Truck drivers, importers and exporters, clearing and forwarding agents and cross-border traders are among the many people whose livelihoods are affected by border crossing processes. Unfortunately for them, border posts in Tanzania and other East African countries have traditionally lacked the efficiency to ease the burden on trade to the thousands of their users resulting in high transactional costs and delays. Part of the problem was infrastructural, the other human. The old border outposts lacked important facilities such as reliable power, internet, avenues for efficient information sharing among border authorities, and enough space for day-to-day activities. This resulted in a back log of clearance and hence congestion. Inspection sheds were too small and could only accommodate one or two trucks at a go with tens and in some cases, hundreds of others waiting in queue. Traders had to undertake multiple paperwork processes, physically moving from one office to the next, often many metres apart. In many cases, drivers endured weeks of clearance time, partly due to only daytime processing hours. Nowadays, several processes are undertaken on a 24-hour...

Many years ago, Juliana Mtenga worked as a simple tailor in Tanzania's city of Dodoma. She earned a small income, which she didn't mind because she considered her real full time job as that of taking care of her children and the house. As any caring mother, Juliana was concerned about her children’s nutrition – more so for her youngest who was a toddler in 2010.  It bothered her that quality baby formula was expensive and unavailable. At one point, like other women in her village, she resigned to this fate, until one day when she decided that she had had enough. Juliana embarked on a very ambitious mission: that of making her own baby formula. She scored text books and magazines, reading about recipes and soon enough, she had a game plan. She began taking various dried grains such as millet and sorghum to local grinding mills. Afterwards, she would mix them into proportions that ensured nutritious meal for her child. As time passed, her neighbors noticed her product. Increased interest and demand convinced her to start stocking a few packets in her small tailoring shop. A worker at Juliana Mtenga's factory making a sale By 2012, Juliana had increased her monthly production from 5kgs to 200kgs. And, it seemed that she had hit the ceiling, because up to this point, she had exhausted the market that was in close proximity to her. That, and the fact that she viewed the baby formula business as a side activity, not a main source of income. And then, Juliana met officials from Tanzania Women Chambers...

David Sanga is a 65 year old resident of the Mbingu Village in the Kilombero District in Tanzania." David Sanga is a 65 year old resident of the Mbingu Village in the Kilombero District in Tanzania. David has been a cocoa farmer for more than ten years. Before Kokoa Kamili (KK) appeared in Mbingu, David sold his cocoa harvest to ‘Mocoa’, an organic cocoa out-growers association. As there was little competition for his produce, prices were determined by Mocoa and were non-negotiable. With little information on real market prices and the additional expense of having to take his produce to ‘buyer’ collection points, his farming business was a subsistence exercise characterized by insecurity and hardship, especially during the dry season when there was little to sell. When Kokoa Kamili begun their project in September 2014 in Mbingu, they introduced a healthy element of competition offering not only significantly higher prices for a better grade of cocoa but a collection service for ‘wet’ cocoa, at no extra charge. This additional service had not been an option before, but it not only simplified the process of getting his cocoa to market, but also significantly reduced his costs and the time spent organizing sales. The Sanga family had also been growing rice, maize and bananas on their small-holding, production having been expanded over the past five years to cover three plots in Mbingu. David also produces a wide range of fruits and vegetables to support the dietary needs of his family. Aside from...