World Chambers of Commerce have honored a Tanzanian-designed scheme to use cell phones to identify and help overturn barriers to free trade across East Africa. The scheme won second prize in the World Chambers of Commerce competition for the best project amongst a field of other groundbreaking innovations from Britain, China, the Slovak Republic and Turkey. The short messaging system (SMS) online non-tariff barrier (NTB) reporting and monitoring mechanism was developed by the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) to get the business community not just to grumble about NTBs but to log them, report them and get them referred to those with the power to overturn them. “Already within East Africa other countries are expressing interest in the system. To get that international recognition for a project designed and driven by the private sector is great,” said Pauline Elago, Country Manager of TradeMark Africa, which backed the scheme. It is the first of its kind in East Africa and is a beacon in the battle against NTBs, regulatory or official hurdles which slow free commerce and add to the cost of transporting goods to the region, which already has the highest transport costs in the world. ““It is a great pleasure to see that the in-house innovation can stretch its wings to the international community. The recognition that the NTBs SMS and online reporting and monitoring system has received is evidence that what we do, as a private sector, in creating favorable business environment adds value to...

They are as much a feature of Africa’s borders as immigration officials, barbed wire and bureaucracy. They are the service stations of Africa’s highways and the pit stops of commerce from Cape Town to Cairo. They gravitate to the frontiers where trucks stop, truckers break and travelers take on food and water for their journeys. Their shop fronts are brimming baskets and their cash registers are pockets and purses. They are the women traders who make a living by selling wares at Africa’s myriad borders and TradeMark Africa (TMA) is helping them to get organized, to know their rights and to reap the fruits of East African (EA) integration. “As cross border traders we carry the ignition key to transform our communities,” said Hadijja Sserwanga, a champion of the rights of Uganda’s border traders, regional Chairperson of the East African Women Cross Borders Traders Association (EAWCBTA). She describes herself as a politician, activist, teacher and community development worker fighting to overturn the sexual harassment, exploitation and marginalization by the (largely male) people who run and operate EA borders. She’s been a border trader herself since 1987, operating on the Uganda-Tanzania frontier at Mutukula, and has seen and experienced the problems women traders run into by not knowing their rights under EA integration or being bamboozled into paying unnecessary fines, taxes and bribes because they don’t know better. “I have a lot of passion for women’s empowerment and being a cross border trader. I feel we can transform ourselves from being...

Nairobi – After 10 years of stop-go discussions, three East African states are on the verge of launching a single tourist visa to ease the path of visitors across national borders and make it easier for the tourism industry to offer multi-destination packages. “It’s taken a while. There were concerns about how to split the revenue, about possibly losing money and about screening visitors, but Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya have seen that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages,” said Waturi Matu, coordinator (Kenya) of the East African Tourism Platform. Moves to facilitate tourists across East African Community borders was given fresh impetus in June when the presidents of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda met and agreed to strengthen integration and cooperation to spur the growth of trade. “Rwanda will be in charge of designing the visa, and the plan is to have it launched in January next year with Tanzania and Burundi free to join at any time,” she said. Long a lobbying goal of East Africa’s tourism industry, the single visa will enable a tourist to buy a visa for the three countries for $100 instead of three visas for $150. The savings for couples and couples with children, the main tourism unit, is therefore substantial. “Tourism is a key source of income for the East African Community and we support the East African Tourism Platform precisely so it can lobby to make the borders between members states ‘thinner’ and less bureaucratic,” said Frank Matsaert, CEO of TradeMark Africa. The...

DAR ES SALAAM – Tanzania has embarked on a major shake of its ports, railway and road networks to handle surging cargo traffic caused by its own economic boom and similar expansions in neighbouring countries. “We’ve set specific timeline targets for every sector, port, road, rail – the lot. And if these targets are not met, then heads will roll, including mine, and I am rather keen to keep it where it is,” Tanzanian Transport Minister, Harrirson Mwakyembe said. The Programme, called Big Results Now, marks a determination by the government and its development partners to modernise its infrastructure to cope with current and projected demand as East African economies grow at rates that would make the United States envious. Tanzania is growing by around eight percent a year and similar rates are being enjoyed by all its East African Community (EAC) partners, driving demand for construction and consumer materials from Dar es Salaam to the shores of Lake Kivu. In contrast to previous plans, the Minister said that targets set by the National Key Result Area (NKRA) of the plan would be regularly scrutinized because “periodic measurement of performance is of critical importance, as is adherence to targets.” This will not be a grandiose five-year-plan to gather dust and be replaced by another. “An efficient transport sector is essential for the sustainable development of any country, so ability to keep track of level performance cannot be over-emphasised,” he said. The plan, built with assistance from donors, including TradeMark Africa,...

Few parts of the world have pioneered the cell phone with such ingenuity as East Africa. You can pay bills with it, check crop weather with it and, when you’re not checking your bank balance, talk to your auntie in Kisangani or Kigali or Kericho. But now, for the first time in East Africa, the humble cell phone is being used as a beacon to champion free, smoother and cheaper trade across the region by naming and shaming unnecessary or duplicated barriers to the free movement of goods. The short messaging system (SMS) online non-tariff barrier (NTB) reporting and monitoring mechanism, was developed by the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) to get the business community not just to grumble about NTBs but to log them, report them and get them referred to those with the power to overturn them. Such is the beauty of the system that it has been nominated for the award of Best Project of the Year by the International Chambers of Commerce and World Chambers Federation, a grouping of senior business, trade and commerce experts. “It is a great pleasure to see that the in house innovation can stretch its wings to the international community. The recognition that the NTBs SMS and online reporting and monitoring system has received through its nomination in the finals, is an evidence that what we do as a private sector in creating favorable business environment adds value to the lives of people; not only because the world...