News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 19 May 2015
The selection: Tuesday, 19 May
Today, in Accra: 47th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government
West African leaders meet Tuesday in Ghana’s capital (VOA)
ECOWAS summit to decide on two-term tenure for heads of member states (StarrFM)
Yesterday, in Midrand: President Kenyatta's address to the Pan-African Parliament
@UKenyatta: My full address to the Pan-African Parliament, televised live by public broadcaster SABC
Pan-African Parliament meets to deliberate on African issues (Shanghai Daily)
Multimedia: Fortifying Africa's legislature (CNBC)
Kenyatta appeals for the opening of borders (Business Day)
Kenyatta sideswipes SA over visa restrictions (City Press)
The main objective of the study is to undertake survey and assess industrial statistics and information management systems in the Tripartite Area with the view to formulating a programme to address the identified gaps. The survey data and information is the next process of developing comprehensive industrial databases at national and Regional levels as well as providing the basis for technical support for Tripartite Countries (T-Countries) to build their capacity to collect, compile and disseminate international comparable industrial statistics. COMESA invites eligible consultants to indicate their interest in providing these services.
Dollarization in Sub-Saharan Africa: experiences and lessons (IMF)
Dollarization is also present, prominently, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where it remains significant and persistent at over 30 percent rates for both bank loans and deposits—although it has not increased significantly since 2001. However, progress in reducing dollarization has lagged behind other regions and, in this regard, it is legitimate to ask whether this phenomenon is an important concern in SSA.
Tony Elumelu Foundation, ECA collaborate on a Data Revolution for Africa (UNECA)
To better meet the challenges and realize the promises of the data revolution through collective effort among African stakeholders, a High Level Conference (HLC) on Data Revolution was held in Addis Ababa, March 2015, in response to a request by African Heads of States. During the HLC, an Africa Data Consensus (ADC) was adopted, which urges African data communities to develop a coordinated response and exploit the new opportunity while responding to the challenge together.
The conversation on the data revolution in Africa continued in Lagos when the Economic Commission for Africa convened data experts to discuss immediate steps to be taken to actualize the data revolution in Africa. The Lagos meeting, hosted by The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s Africapitalism Institute, included experts from the World Wide Web Foundation, United Nations, African Union Commission and the African Development Bank. The outcome of the meeting becomes a permanent annex to the ADC and includes guiding principles for partnership with other ongoing initiatives at global, national and regional levels.
EAC Secretary General's Private Sector CEO Forum
The Secretary General informed his guests that due to the growing portfolio of the EAC projects and programmes, and also in order to diversify the EAC resource base and cut on donor dependency, there was need for the Community to tap into the potential funding from the private sector through the establishment of an EAC Private Sector Fund. Amb. Sezibera informed Tanzania's business community that the ongoing initiative to set up a $20 Million EAC Private Sector Fund was to boost the participation of the private sector in the ongoing market integration. The Chair of EABC drew the attention of the Secretary General on a number of outstanding issues that need to be addressed and they include:
IGAD: training course on technical barriers to trade
Training participants made the following recommendations and way forward: Develop and validate regional SPS strategy, enhance promotion and implementation of standards, countries to domesticate international standards in their national context, IGAD to support countries to harmonize standards, policies and control procedures to enhance cross-border formal trade...
Ethiopia plans export hubs with $10bn factory parks (Bloomberg)
Ethiopia is targeting $1 billion of annual investment in industrial parks over the next decade to boost exports and make it Africa’s top manufacturer, a special adviser to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said. The government may invest half of the $10 billion needed for zones across the country that will house textile, leather, agro-processing and other labor-intensive factories, Arkebe Oqubay said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa. The International Finance Corp., the World Bank’s private lending arm, along with Chinese and European lenders and private-equity funds are interested in projects, he said.
Dar, Maputo agree on stronger ties (Daily News)
Tanzania and Mozambique have agreed on a Joint Permanent Commission to work on areas of cooperation between the two countries, the main focus being on trade and investment promotion, natural gas, education, fighting cross border crime and security in territorial waters. Speaking at a state banquet in honour of visiting Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi in Dar es Salaam on Sunday night, President Jakaya Kikwete said the two governments have started to ease the movement of people across the borders by relaxing visa protocols.
Zambia: Government will ban chain stores from importing chips from South Africa - Sampa (Lusaka Times)
Government will ban chain stores from importing certain processed foodstuffs such as potatoes if they fail to comply with the directive by President Lungu to stock locally produced goods. Deputy minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Miles Sampa has since given a two-month ultimatum to international chain stores such as Shoprite, Spar, Pick n Pay and Hungry Lion to start buying potatoes produced by local farmers.
SA investors target Zambia (Daily Mail)
A business delegation from South African is in the country to explore business and investment opportunities in the Copperbelt and North-Western provinces. According to a statement issued by Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) yesterday, the delegation comprising 14 companies from various sectors is looking to expand their businesses into Zambia. The sectors include energy, engineering, construction, mining, logistics and finance.
Egypt devises strategy to double exports to $42bn by 2019 (AMEinfo)
The Egyptian government has devised a strategy to double the country’s exports to $42 billion by 2018-2019, an Egyptian minister announces. Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, announces that his country will sign major free trade pacts with the three largest economic blocs in Africa in June in a bid to increase national exports. According to the minister, the agreements will allow Egypt to become an export hub for African nations.
Swaziland: Good times beckon for the informal cross border trader (Swazi Observer)
Southern Africa Cross Border Traders, coordinator, Francis Ngambi said informal trade contributes about 43% of overall Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP). In the SADC intra-regional trade, informal cross border trade contributes 30 to 40%.. However, he stated that informal trade chokes because there is still lack of information on the existing legal documents that apply in the SADC Free Trade Area.
Botswana retailer picks Kenyan partner in EA growth plans (Business Daily)
Choppies Supermarket, a Botswana-listed retail chain has picked a Kenyan businessman as its partner to help in its expansion plan into East Africa. Birju Pradipkumar Patel, who serves as a director at Export Trading Group — one of the largest global agriculture commodity companies based in Dar es Salaam — confirmed that he had partnered with Choppies for its Kenya and Tanzania operations.
Where does the world stand in reaching sustainable energy objectives? (World Bank)
“Progress Toward Sustainable Energy: Global Tracking Framework 2015” gives a snapshot of how far the world has come in achieving universal access to modern energy, doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix and shows how much work remains to reach these objectives. So what happened to global access to electricity between 2010 and 2012? There have been notable advances in electrification—driven primarily by India— but progress in Africa remains far too slow.
Achieving clean, sustainable off-grid lighting for Africa (UNEP)
Creating favourable conditions for modern solar lighting markets can provide a low-cost solution to reducing carbon emissions, indoor air pollution and health risks, while bringing electricity to an estimated 600 million people in Africa who lack access to the power grid, says new report by UNEP. The report, entitled Developing Effective Off-Grid Lighting Policy - Guidance Note for Governments in Africa, recommends best practices and smart policies enabling the market uptake of off-grid lighting solutions
Transport infrastructure and welfare: an application to Nigeria (World Bank)
Transport infrastructure is deemed to be central to development and consumes a large fraction of the development assistance envelope. Yet there is debate about the economic impact of road projects. This paper proposes an approach to assess the differential development impacts of alternative road construction and prioritize various proposals, using Nigeria as a case study.
Zimbabwe: Govt to introduce 30 new tollgates by year-end (The Herald)
Government has applied for a $25 million loan facility from two local financial institutions to be used for the acquisition of new equipment for road maintenance this year while 30 new tollgates will be opened by the end of the year in order to boost revenue inflows.
Africa's 'infrastructure apartheid' is deep; Lusaka, Luanda and Accra painful for construction firms (Mail & Guardian Africa)
Infrastructure in conflict-prone and fragile environments: evidence from the DRC (World Bank)
Christian Kingombe: 'Shifting perceptions of Africa - considering the rising middle class' (Tutwa)
Zimbabwe: Indaba to audit regional integration on cards (The Herald)
South Africa: Call to increase security at ports to stop illegal export of scrap metal (News24)
Nigeria, Poland trade hits N23m (ThisDay)
Nigeria: Improving non-oil export with EEG scheme review (The Guardian)
Pakistan: Dumping duty on cement (Business Recorder)
Witney Schneidman: 'Going to Kenya is an important undertaking, Mr President' (Brookings)
Roberto Azevedo: 'Trade supports Malaysia’s development' (The Star)
This post has been sourced on behalf of tralac and disseminated to enhance trade policy knowledge and debate. It is distributed to over 300 recipients across Africa and internationally, serving in the AU, RECS, national government trade departments and research and development agencies. Your feedback is most welcome. Any suggestions that our recipients might have of items for inclusion are most welcome. Richard Humphries (Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter: @richardhumphri1)
