Browsing: East African Community

Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, fertilizer prices have risen by 21 per cent.

It was noted that “the recovery of Africa has been impeded by greater inflation and tighter global financial conditions as well as rising interest rates,”

To counter external shocks, such as the Ukraine crisis, she urged public and private sector partnerships to enhance intra-African agri-food, industry, and service trade. She also urged the continent’s recovery from Covid-19 to get back on track.

When asked if Africa needs a second Marshall Plan, Keita said that Africa already has an effective one, in the AfCFTA, that may help it prepare for unpredictable times.…

So now the government through its Ministry for Agriculture has decided to take action to increase domestic production of edible oils. To do this, the government has developed several strategic approaches including upgrading peasant technology.

This initiative fits into the country’s overall industrialization initiative that targets mainly agricultural mechanization. By increasing funding for the set up of factories and smaller production plants, Tanzania is able to increase its output of edible oils.

However, the country needs to increase seed production hand in hand with increasing its value chain capacity. This is where the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (Tari) based in Dar es Salaam comes in. A globally-renowned research institute that develops hybrid seeds among other agricultural research works.…

Traders have been calling for more staff to be posted at the Agriculture Food Authority (AFA) of Kenya to facilitate the approval of applications of maise import from Tanzania to Kenya. Additionally, the traders requested joint testing of aflatoxin to be undertaken in Arusha to reduce the number of rejections at the border.

Peter Musiba explained that the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) is tackling aflatoxin and has set outstations for testing in Dodoma, Singida and Shinyanga to facilitate the trade of cereals.

Paloma Fernanda, the Chief Executive of Cereals Millers Association, urged for a joint campaign on combating aflatoxin from as early as farm and post-harvest losses in the EAC region.…

Justice Makau’s ruling was as follows, “I find as decided in the Court of Appeal decision, the petitioner has a right to mechanise and adopt technology in its operations. The matter in dispute is therefore effectively concluded and settled in terms stated.”

If the cry of the workers’ Union is true, then this ruling threatens more than 50,000 workers’ jobs and allegedly, already over 10,000 tea pickers have lost their jobs to the machines.

However, the odds are pinned against the peasants, the Kenya Tea Growers Association says the loss of jobs has nothing to do with the machines but rather ‘…tea companies reducing their workforce through natural attrition.…

• The East African economic growth is projected to recover this year despite COVID-19 setback thanks to sustained public spending on infrastructure and improved performance of the agricultural sector
• The bloc’s growth is likely to reach an average of 4.1 percent this year, up from 0.4 percent posted last year

The East African economic growth is projected to recover this year despite the COVID-19 setback thanks to sustained public spending on infrastructure and improved performance of the agricultural sector.

This is according to a new report by the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) which indicates that the bloc’s growth is likely to reach an average of 4.1 percent this year, up from 0.4 percent posted last year.

In its latest economic outlook report for the region, AfDB shows that next year average growth is projected to hit 4,9 percent.

Further, the report reveals that COVID-19 containment measures and global supply and demand …

The government of Tanzania has received 1.3tri/- as Covid-19 relief package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Now the government has announced plans to implement a score of projects that will be financed with this fund in a move it says, will help the private sector’s liquidity.

As part of its own fiscal policies to cushion the economy from the negative effects of the global pandemic, the government, through the Central Bank has also released another 1tri/- to commercial banks in a bid to increase their lending capacity.

With these funds, the Central Bank released funding and IMF funding that goes into implementing national projects, the private sector is empowered to borrow and win project tenders and as such increase money circulation in the economy.

The strategy is meant to back the economy which had slowed down due to reduced demand which in turn reduced produced production stagnating the whole …

Four critical universities best practices for fostering graduate employability are of interest: Industry partnerships, Aligning university education with a country’s development plans, Regular university curriculum reviews, and Strengthening quality assurance systems.

However, while Universities work to better prepare graduates for the workforce, it is imperative for the government and the private sector to step in and increase the employability of graduates who are already in the workforce.…

That year, in 2015, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania settled for a three-year plan to phase out the importation of used clothes, a major exporter been the United States. To realise the intended ban, taxes were increased on second-hand clothes were increased effectively deterring their importation. The plan was to completely ban the import of second-hand clothes as of 2019.

This ambitious vision was never realized as the Trump administration issued an ultimatum for EAC to rescind the ban on second-hand clothes by 23 February 2018 or, as the DW writer Isaac Mugabi puts it ‘face the consequences.’…