Browsing: EAC

As the rest of the country shuts down all entry ports, heavily reliant on tourism, the spice Isles of Zanzibar are allowing charter flights to land but with strict conditions.

Isles authorities have permitted charter flights bringing tourists to the island to land but on condition that all persons on board enter a 14 days quarantine stay, at their own expense.

This surprising turn of events happens in the backdrop of ongoing global threat of the spread of coronavirus. Even leading sports leagues have been cancelled and regional high profile meetings are been held on conference calls.

Across Africa, the tourism industry has come to an almost complete shutdown. It is time immemorial since a disease stopped people from touring and going for holidays, at least not since the deadly World War I and II power viruses.

With most all African countries eventually succumbing to the threat and finally closing …

There are now more than 100,000 mini-grid stations across Africa, these little power generation stations are serving to bridge Africa’s rural power gap and Tanzania is no exception.

While the country leads Africa in rural electrification efforts, there is still huge gap between demand and supply and the solution to cover it lays in mini-grids, small power stations that generate power at localized remote points.

To date, Tanzania has well over 100 mini-grids that provide electrical power to over 250,000 people in remote corners of the country. These mini-grids provide close to 200 MW using biomass, fossil fuel and solar systems as well as hybrids of these energy sources.

Tanzania’s national policies also support adoption of renewable energy technologies. Off-grid electrification using renewable energy technologies can offer a power solution to rural and remote areas. These efforts are inline with the global Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG number 7 calls for …

You now risk at least 5 years or a maximum fine of Ksh10 million, or both if found guilty of infringing the new The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2019.

President Uhuru Kenyatta recently signed two bills into law; they include Competition and Insurance Bills.

The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2019, now an Act of Parliament, was submitted to the National Assembly during the reading of the 2019/2020 budget and is intended to separate the legal provisions on abuse of buyer lower from those on abuse of dominant power.

The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2019 has the object of addressing emerging issues in the economy, including challenges of delayed payments. This problem has been highlighted in the retail sector, but is also affecting many other sectors.

The new law therefore empowers the Competition Authority of Kenya to review contracts and agreements between suppliers and buyers to determine cases of abuse of buyer power.

According …

The East African Community has for long earmarked the linking of partner countries through roads. One of this link is the link road that connects the coastal towns of Mombasa and Tanga, touching the lives of thousands of commuters and transporting goods and services worth millions.

Recently, the EAC announced that it has increased its funding for key projects from various donors among the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), which has now approved this project.

The Bank’s support for the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga/Horohoro and Tanga-Pangani-Bagamoyo roads Phase I, is in the form of African Development Bank and African Development Fund loans and represents 78.5% of the total €399.7 million project cost.  The European Union contributed a grant of €30 million, 7.7% of the total project cost, to the government of Kenya.

The road is a key component of the East African transport corridors network, connecting Kenya and Tanzania. Producers, manufacturers and traders …

The 39^th Meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers has approved the Final Draft Cotton, Textiles and Apparels (CTA) Strategy and its Implementation Roadmap. The strategy whose vision is to have “An integrated and globally competitive cotton, textiles and apparels industry,” makes a critical analysis of the CTA sector along the following key levels of the value chain: Cotton Seed (Production); Seed Cotton (Ginning); Cotton lint (Spinning); Yarn Weaving/Knitting/Printing/Dyeing/Finishing), and; Fabrics (Garments/Apparels/Fabrication/Manufacturing) level.

The 39^th Council which was chaired by Rwanda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and East African Community Affairs, Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe, was attended by line Ministers from all the EAC Partner States and EAC Executives.

The Council further approved the Final Draft Leather and Leather Products Sector Strategy and its Implementation Roadmap. The Council which met at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, further directed EAC Partner States to give priority to …

Never in the history of the East African community has there been more funding than now, with the current funding for various social and infrastructural projects reaching US$3 Billion. Most of these funds have gone into inter-states projects as well as projects within a state having a regional impact.

The community has been able to achieve a tenfold increase in grants while still reducing internal expenses and costs by over 40 percent in the last four years.

Documents at our hands show that the EAC has been able to sign projects with different development agencies including Africa Development Bank, USAID, China, EU and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation worth $547,454, 168.

These documents seem to agree with Amb Libérat Mfumukeko who has been pushing for an effective secretariat that is able to raise financing on key projects while at the same time cutting on costs. This, he has argued in …