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Author: Martin Mwita
Before the Covid-19 Pandemic struck, East African countries had a common agenda to invest in infrastructure development.
As the three main economies of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda they sought to become competitive and attractive investment destinations, the issue of borrowing in foreign currencies created the debt burden they face today.
The mega investments in roads, railways, ports and aviation, have all been challenges, as low revenue collections and high recurrent expenditures continue to plague their respective governments.
Most of the countries have no choice but borrow to bridge budget deficits. According to the IMF, the major EAC nations, namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, together, had borrowed more than $100 billion in both external and domestic borrowing.
With the global economy in teeters post Covid-19 and the impact of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, economies worldwide are contracting, leaving East African nations in a perilous situation.
According to the IMF, about
Kenya’s inflation has marginally dropped for the third straight month providing relief to households that have been battling runaway inflation since April last year.
The overall year-on-year inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 9.0 per cent in January 2023, down from 9.1 per cent in December and 9.5 per cent in November last year.
It hit a five-year high of 9.6 per cent in October 2022, data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows. The lower inflation (measure of the cost of living) in January however remains above the preferred ceiling of 7.5 per cent.
According to the government statistician, the high inflation was due to increase in prices of commodities under transport (13.1%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (12.8%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (7.3%) between January 2022 and January 2023.
These three divisions account for over 57 per …
The world has in recent months witnessed a dramatic turnabout on the future of nuclear energy, mainly in the developed countries.
This is on the back of the Russia-Ukraine war which has seen post-pandemic energy shortages turn into a full-blown energy crisis.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), nuclear power plants slated for closure across Europe have been given “an 11th hour reprieve.
Japan has announced, after a decade of paralysis, that it plans to restart many of its reactors, which have sat idle since the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi.
France, which had launched plans to reduce its dependence on nuclear energy during President Macron’s first term, reversed course and now, plans to build at least six new reactors and a dozen smaller modular reactors.
The UK on the other hand recently launched an ambitious plan to build eight new reactors and16 small modular reactors.
Even anti-nuclear Germany …
The East African region is endowed with a variety of minerals that have the potential to catalyse faster economic growth for individual member states.
The bloc in general is rich in fluorspar, titanium and zirconium, gold, oil, gas, cobalt and nickel, diamonds, copper, coal, iron ore, among other minerals.
While the DR Congo and Tanzania are considered to be the richest in mineral deposits in the region, almost every country has its own which has a commercial potential.
Kenya has numerous ores and industrial minerals which are believed to be in substantial quantities.
These minerals include soda ash, fluorspar, titanium, niobium and rare earth elements, gold, coal, iron ore, limestone, manganese, diatomite, gemstones, gypsum and natural carbon dioxide.
While investors have been mining in some of the minerals in large scale, with artisanal miners sinking tunnels in small scale capacity, the country is yet to fully exploit the minerals leaving
… 
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has retained the base lending rate in the country at 8.75 per cent, citing easing inflationary pressure and positive macroeconomics outlook.
CBK’s decision making organ – Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met on Monday against a backdrop of a weak global growth outlook, decline in global commodity prices, easing inflationary pressures, geopolitical tensions, persistent uncertainties, and measures taken by authorities around the world in response to these developments.
This includes the back-to-back fed rate hikes witnessed in the US as the country navigated high inflation which hit a peak last year.
Kenya’s overall inflation decreased to 9.1 per cent in December 2022 from 9.5 per cent in November, mainly due to lower food prices.
Food inflation declined to 13.8 per cent in December from 15.4 per cent in November, largely driven by a decrease in prices of maize and milk products.
This is pegged on …
Kenya is set to sign business deals in the Indian market as Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) leads its members to this year’s Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) tourism fair in the country.
The expo to be held at the Jio World Convention Centre, in Mumbai from February 2-4, will bring together exhibitors from over 60 countries, as destinations globally smart out of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
Over 14 Kenyan travel trade partners will take part in the three–day exhibition with the country seeking to reposition itself in the Indian market, whose growth has picked up to about 90 per cent by the close of last year, compared to 2021.
KTB acting CEO John Chirchir says OTM is giving Kenya an opportunity for re-entry into the Indian market that was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“India is one of the markets whose travel was negatively impacted with the Covid-19. We …
Kenya’s President William Ruto has asked his Cabinet Secretaries to act fast to deliver on his administration’s development programmes, “with speed and efficiency”.
“We made important promises to the people of Kenya, especially those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. And we must deliver,” the president said.
According to Ruto, there are no excuses not to deliver his mandate adding that the government must work as a team and drive the interests of the people.
He was speaking at a cabinet retreat on the implementation of the government’s development priorities for 2023.
In the run up to the August 2022 General Elections, Ruto gave a number of promises under his bottoms-up economic plan.He unveiled a five-point manifesto dubbed ‘The Plan’, which he said would address Kenya’s economic challenges.
Economic recovery in a post-Covid era was one of his main objectives. Ruto also pledged to invest at least Sh250 billion …
For years, the East African Community (EAC) struggled with divisions among member states mainly on key trade agreements slowing down the region from achieving a full working common market.
Countries have been playing protectionism targeted mainly at protecting local industries, with fallouts witnessed among states.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have had their fair share of the trade wars with both tariff and non-tariff barriers affecting regional integration.
Poor infrastructure in some parts of the region has also been affecting easy movement of trade volumes while businesses have suffered lack of enough capital to do trade.
However, recent developments have set the region for growth both on intra-EAC trade, continental trade and of course international trade.
Over the course of 2022, there has been progress on the East African Community’s Common External Tariffs (CETs) which had dragged since 2016.This exposed the region to cheaper imports mainly from China and India, making
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2022 has been a mixed bag of fortunes for the East African Community (EAC) as economies in the region implemented different policy interventions and post-Covid recovery strategies. This is after a somewhat robust recovery in 2021 following a major dip in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic brought most sectors to a near halt. The tourism and logistics sectors were among the hardest hit sectors with the pandemic also affecting the real estate sector, finance, construction, events management, ICT, manufacturing and consultancy. The region is however on the road to recovery with reopening of economies propping GDP growth which has averaged four per cent (4%) in 2022.Going into 2023, average growth is projected at 4.7 per cent with top performers seen to be Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, albeit the impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the realities of stagflation and recession remaining a threat.
But what is expected of
One of the few spoken regional trade blocs of Africa is the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
Despite such little being spoken of this resource rich area, it is home to some of Africa’s richest countries, yet it has for decades encountered various obstacles that have stunted social and economic progress. Human capital development is a major issue in the region, along with armed conflicts, natural disasters, and health crises.
As a result, the region’s economy have not been able to flourish despite their abundance of natural resources.
Oil in Central Africa
Roughly 30% of Africa’s crude oil is located in the ECCAS region.
Angola, located there, just surpassed Nigeria as Africa’s largest oil producer, pumping out about1.16 million barrels per day.
Chad, the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Cameroon are some of the other oil-producing countries in the area. Yet the resource has not contributed as much
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