TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) Chief Executive Officer, Frank Matsaert told a news conference yesterday during the launch of its annual report for 2014/15 that similarly, time taken to ship cargo from Kigali to Dar es Salaam has drastically been reduced from 24 to four days.
“The results presented in this report demonstrate our continued commitment to increasing intra-regional trade and building the region’s competitiveness. These results reaffirm our ambition to transform the lives of East Africans through supporting projects that will increase prosperity for all in the region,” said Matsaert.
He pointed out that TMEA has made strides to support informal trade across borders, which is often the lifeline of most rural livelihoods noting that since such traders do not use available formal systems and structures for their transactions, it is difficult for regional trade policy initiatives to have any significant impact on their lives.
Matsaert further pointed out that there is therefore need for continued efforts to ensure that such economically disadvantaged populations have access to markets.
“One of the ways in which TMEA has done this is by facilitating the formation of cooperatives for informal women traders which have enabled them educate their members, access finance as a group, and engage formally with border officials,” he noted.
Among other things, TMEA has worked in partnership with East African Community governments to construct seven key One Stop Border Posts (OSBP) across the region through an investment of more than US$100million, an investment which lowered time taken to cross borders by 30 percent.
The OSBP have been completed at Taveta and Holili which started operations in April 2015 while construction of the Kagitumba/Mirama Hills, Mutukula/Mutukula and Kobero/Kabanga OSBPs is also complete with operationalization due next 2016.
TMEA Board Chairman, Ali Mufuruki said some key changes have occurred in the governance structure at TMEA.
“Following on from last year, we have strengthened the TMEA governance structure with the appointment of a team of highly qualified professionals to the board of directors. These individuals bring a wealth of experience in various sectors including the private sector, government and non-profit,” Mufuruki said.
TMEA is also investing heavily at the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa which aim to increase the capacity and efficiency of East Africa’s two main maritime and trade gateways so as to significantly increase port access, improve efficiency and boost productivity.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, East African Affairs, Regional and International Cooperation, Dr Augustine Mahiga paid tribute to TMEA’s important work in boost intra-regional trade in EAC saying such efforts complement government projects.
“We are very pleased with the partnership between the government of Tanzania and TMEA on several projects including support to the East African affairs ministry to implement a comprehensive framework for regional integration,” Dr Mahiga said.
He further noted that TMEA’s project to modernise 11 deep water berths and the rehabilitation and upgrading of port access roads at Dar Port will significantly increase port access, especially for larger, modern vessels, while improving movement and efficiency.
“Results are evident with a reduction in import times from 16 days (2013) to 10.2 days (2015). TMEA has also funded the construction of four OSBPs in Tanzania, 3 of which are finished and operational, which are expected to drastically reduce cross border times and spur trade in the region,” he noted.
The Annual Report indicated that TMEA hopes to see a 10 percent increase in the total value of exports from the EAC region and a 25 percent increase in intra-regional trade exports when compared to total exports in the region by 2016.
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