Humanitarian Supply Chain & Logistics

...On infrastructure, [Kenya Vice President] Ruto pointed out that the development of functioning infrastructure is critical in transforming COMESA economies from middle income and eventually higher income economies. He said to realise this, member states have launched the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway running from Mombasa to Kigali through Nairobi and Kampala.

Kenya is also collaborating with neighbours to develop the Lamu Port South Sudan Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) which will be the second major transport corridor in our region...infrastructure development in the region was critical in transforming COMESA economies from primary producers into middle income and eventually high income economies.

"An infrastructure system including roads, ports, railways, energy generation and transmission, information and communication technologies as well as other public utilities is essential to regional competitiveness."

Rwandan truckers are now able to compete favorably with their Tanzanian counterparts in signing up new customers.

This follows the Tanzania’s government decision to reduce its road toll charges on Rwandan registered trucks in September last year.

Rwandan registered trucks now pay $152 each to use Tanzanian roads compared with the $500 before. This is what Tanzanian registered trucks also pay while in Rwanda...

...Road tolls have been listed among the leading trade barriers by those coordinating the single customs territory. The experts say that reducing the charges would be in line with the success for the new Single Customs Territory system. The reductions would also result into cheaper prices for some commodities coming from Tanzania like rice.

The Central Corridor is about 1700 kilometres, stretching from Bujumbura through Kigali to Dar es Salaam. It is a shorter route than the Northern Corridor which is about 1900 kilometres.

Catalysts Principal Partners, a Kenyan-based private equity firm, has bought a stake in EFFCO, a Tanzanian logistics and heavy equipment renting company. Catalysts did not disclose the extent or value of the deal, but its investment criteria show that it puts between $5 million (Sh432 million) and $20 million (Sh1.73 billion) in a venture.

EFFCO will use the funds to expand its operations which are primarily in transport and leasing of equipment like forklifts, excavators, graders, trucks, compactors, dozers and cranes to contractors especially those in construction, mining, oil and gas.

The leaders of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda seek to develop a joint power generation project to increase power supply in the region, according to a final document from their meeting...

"Work on power interconnection should be completed in the Republic of Uganda by February 2015, Republic of Kenya by March 2015 and Republic of Rwanda by April 2015," a communiqué released at the end of the meeting says.

The regional leaders also agreed to develop a common mechanism of acquiring way-leaves for not only power generation but to cover other utilities within the integration projects.

Major tripartite projects, including EA single tourism visa and use of national identity cards as travel documents which came into force on January 1, 2014 were officially launched...The [4th] Summit was convened to review the progress on implementation of the decisions reached during the 3rd Infrastructure Summit that was held in Kigali on October 28, 2013 and to provide direction on implementing the Northern Corridor Integration Project.

Procurement fraud is the second most frequently reported form of economic crime behind asset misappropriation, according to a study.

The PwC Global Economic Crime Survey 2014 showed 29 per cent of organisations had experienced procurement fraud, and it was most common at the vendor selection stage, followed by the bid process.

The sectors reporting the most procurement fraud were state-owned enterprises, followed by energy, utilities and mining; engineering and construction; and transport and logistics.

The report, which is the first to include procurement as a separate fraud category, said three trends were driving this type of wrongdoing. These were an increase in public tender processes, companies altering their global supply chains, and a rise in outsourcing.

The report said: “In our experience, the requisitioning of goods is a ripe area for fraud. The threat is especially great in cultures where loyalty to family, schoolmates, local community or even national pride are strong influences, stronger perhaps than dry corporate policy statements or legalistic sounding codes of conduct.”

Regionally, the highest response rates for procurement fraud were Africa (43 per cent) and the Middle East (33 per cent).

Globally, 37 per cent of respondents said they had experienced economic crime, a rise of 3 per cent over the 2011 survey, and the most common area was asset misappropriation, followed by procurement and then bribery and corruption.

The survey, which included 5,128 responses from more than 95 countries, found the region reporting the most economic crime was Africa, followed by North America and Eastern Europe.

The most common methods of fraud detection were data analytics, followed by routine internal audit and risk management. The report also referred to the “fraud triangle” of elements that are often present in wrongdoing. These were pressure, opportunity and rationalisation.

The countries reporting the highest levels of economic crime were:

1. South Africa

2. Ukraine

3. Russia

4. Australia

4. Papua New Guinea

6. France

7. KENYA

8. Argentina

8. Spain

The United States government has signed a cooperative agreement with TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) worth $25 million signifying partnership with President President Barack Obama’s Trade African Initiative.

The signing took place recently in Nairobi Kenya between the officials from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and TradeMark East Africa (TMEA). TMEA is based in Nairobi.

A statement availed to East African Business Week reveals that basically the aim is to increase trade within East Africa by reducing the time and cost of transiting and transporting goods across the region. 

The partnership will also support East African Community (EAC) regional integration. Through Trade Africa, TMEA will broaden its regional integration program at the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam and key border posts along the Northern and Central Corridors, and will work with EAC Member States to remove barriers to trade...

High transport costs remain a challenge for many African countries, particularly those that are landlocked. ECA studies show that landlocked countries have disproportionately high trade-related costs, mainly due to significantly higher costs of inland transport. Indeed, in the case of countries such as Burundi and Rwanda, inland transport costs account for over 70% of the total import/export costs. Landlocked countries depend on transit countries for their international trade and they are linked by transit transport corridors. Efficient corridor management as well as smooth cross-border relations among the stakeholders involved in transit transport are required for landlocked countries to fully benefit from the globalised trading system.

It is in this context that the Economic Commission for Africa, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) are jointly implementing a project aimed at improving the level of performance of corridors, in terms of time, cost, and reliability of the transit transport process. As part of the project, ECA and UNCTAD collaborated with the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (TTFA) to organise a regional capacity building workshop in Kigali from 22-24 January 2014. The workshop was attended by various stakeholders from Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania involved in transit transport, including government officials from the ministry of transport and infrastructure,ministry of trade, customs,police, as well as transport operators, insurance companies, and freight forwarders, among others.

Participants were introduced to transit transport corridor analysis and trained on two transit transport management methodologies, namely: (i) the Cluster Development methodology, developed by UNCTAD, which is a collaborative approach that brings together stakeholders involved in transit transport to share information, identify challenges, and coordinate their facilitation measures; (ii) the Time/Cost Distance Methodology, developed by UNESCAP to assess and monitor the performance of transit transport operations.

The regional workshop was followed by national workshops in Rwanda, held in Kigali on 27-28 January 2014, and in Burundi, held in Bujumbura on 30-31 January 2014. The national workshops were used to introduce the two methodologies to a wider range of stakeholders, establish national clusters, and to discuss the results of the initial application of the Time/Cost Distance Methodologyin the concerned countries.

Key recommendations from the regional and national workshops included the need to: harmonise road tolls in all countries of the Central Corridor; improve transportation by rail as well as maritime transport in the countries of the Central Corridor; improve road safety along the corridor; and reduce the number of weigh bridges along the corridor, among others.

Working for the United Nations became more hazardous last year, with at least 58 persons losing their life in deliberate attacks. According to the Standing Committee for the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service of the United Nations Staff Union, 33 peacekeepers and 25 civilians and associated personnel were killed in 2013. The civilian fatalities included nine staff members, four security officers and 12 contractors working on behalf of the organisation...

...The highest number of fatalities in 2013 occurred in the ambush on April 9, in which five peacekeepers, two national staff and five contractors were killed; in the attack in Mogadishu on June 19, in which one United Nations staff member, three contractors and four security officers were killed; and in the attack in Darfur, Sudan, on July 13, in which eight peacekeepers were killed.

Sixteen peacekeepers were killed in Darfur, seven in South Sudan, four in Mali and four in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Five civilian staff members, four of them working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), were killed in Syria...