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The 6th African Grain Trade Summit with a clear agenda for regional grain trade in Africa, and with renewed commitments for creating an enabling environment for structured trade concluded in Kigali, Rwanda.
The outcomes of the three-day summit reaffirms the regional grain sector actors’ commitment to structured grain trade in Africa and sets out a clear agenda on different priority areas to be achieved within the next two years, when the next summit will be held.
In a major push to create an enabling environment for the grain sector in Africa, H.E. Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, pledged to continue to support the operationalisation of the single customs territory through the Northern and Central Corridor Initiatives. The President’s remarks were delivered on his behalf by the Right Honourable Prime Minister, Anastase Murekezi.
Over 200 delegates from 14 countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, The Netherlands, Singapore, USA and Philippines attended the summit.
The delegates, who represented the Government officials, private sector, traders, farmers, processors, financial institutions, civil society and development partners all committed to work together through Private-Public Partnership models to reduce the billions of dollars that get out of Africa through food imports.
In his remarks, the Hon. Kanimba, Minister of Trade and Industry, appreciated the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) for organising such a high-level summit, noting that, “the 6th African Grain Trade summit that we are hosting here in Kigali provides an opportunity to review our commitment to address the structural constraints of the grain trade on the African continent”.
He urged the delegates to create synergies and work together to create effective partnerships between the public and private sector to modernise the grain trading commodity value chain and to boost the intra-African grain trade.
Dr Bernard Otim, the chairperson of the EAGC, recognised the various challenges and bottleneck in the regional trade within the EAC but was confident that through this summit priorities would be identified and solutions provided for an efficient grain sector.
The summit ended with recommendations from the delegates who fronted for a private sector-led Action Group that would champion the identification of key issues and to drive policy engagement with governments to ensure the grain sector thrives. Regional harmonisation of trade policies among countries and among regional economic blocs was supported unanimously by the delegates.
The Eastern Africa Grain Council was tasked to drive the regional trade harmonisation agenda, including policies on Warehouse Receipting Systems, Post-harvest Management, storage systems and technologies that support regional trade.
The summit also brought together, for the very first time, the EAGC, the Southern Africa Grain Network and the West Africa Grain Network, where it was agreed on the need of collaboration on Marketing Information and Capacity Building. The delegates further agreed to the formation of the African Grain Council.
In addition, business to business linkages were made between the private sector, including traders, farmers and processors from the EAC, where trade contracts were sealed worth 10,290 Metric Tonnes of beans, 10,000 Metric Tonnes of maize, 10,000 Metric tonnes of rice and 47,000 Zero Fly bags. This is part of the trade facilitation initiatives EAGC provides to its members through regional networking.
“This summit has been successful given that all the objectives of the summit have been achieved”, noted Mr. Gerald Masila, the Executive Director, EAGC. He added that “clear commitments to create an enabling environments were agreed upon, trade contracts were signed worth millions of dollars, knowledge and lessons were shared among participants, and collaboration throughout the continent was achieved through the discussions with the East, West and Southern Africa region”.
The African Grain Trade Summit is a biennial, high-level, multi-stakeholder event organised by the Eastern Africa Grain Council with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, through its project the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, Food Trade Eastern and Southern Africa Organization, Government of Sweden through Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation.
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A five-day dissemination workshop on EAC regional Health Projects and Programmes for health sector stakeholders, line Ministries, Departments, Agencies and County Health Officers concluded on 2nd October 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The workshop was organised by the East African Community Secretariat in collaboration with Kenya’s State Department of East African Affairs and the Ministry of Health.
The overall objective of the workshop was to bring on board different stakeholders and policy makers at different levels with the aim of raising the participants’ awareness and uptake of EAC Health Projects and Programmes.
Addressing the participants, the Principal Secretary, State Department of East African Affairs, Mr John O. Konchellah, revealed that Kenya continues to register enormous benefits in the EAC integration process as witnessed by the high number of foreign direct investments and increased revenue from the intra-regional trade, greater trade in the services sector such as in retail, where Nakumatt and Uchumi supermarkets enjoy a regional presence.
He said the country had made a mark in the financial services where KCB and Equity Banks had penetrated the regional market, in the education sector where Kenya’s institutions of Higher Learning such as Kenyatta and Kenya Methodist Universities had opened branches in the region, as well as in the transport, telecommunications and professional services, among others.
The Principal Secretary, who was representing his Cabinet Secretary at the official opening of the dissemination workshop, said at the cross-border levels, the harmonised internal tariffs and simplified identification procedures had resulted in an increase in informal cross-border trade, which give the much needed income at the grassroots especially for women.
He noted that there was an opportunity for the Private Sector and County Governments to engage in Public-Private Partnerships to grow the health sector and thus, the need to enhance coherence in National and sub-National Policies across the health sector.
Speaking at the same occasion, Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Health, Dr Khadijah Kassachoon reiterated that diseases had the capability to transcend beyond the scope of any one community, one county or one country and therefore, the need to develop a common approach to mitigate common health risks to the region.
The Health Principal Secretary disclosed that Health Professionals Boards and Councils from all the EAC Partner States were working on harmonising training curriculum, admission criteria and schemes of service for the different health professions, which will enable highly skilled population to cross the borders seeking employment and remitting funds back home.
At the same occasion, Hon. James Mwangi Gakuya, MP, and Member of the National Assembly Committee on Health said the establishment of the EAC Treaty was through a resolution of the National Assemblies, which was a clear demonstration of the commitment of the legislature to ensure its implementation is undertaken to the letter.
He said the East African people viewed the signing of the Treaty as a new beginning, a reformed agenda and a new region for one people with one destiny. “At the time of its signing, the Treaty was a beacon of hope for the people and a liberator of sorts”, noted Hon. Gakuya and pledged support in whatever manner in ensuring that it is achieved and that the recommendations that are likely to follow, be it policy, legislative or administrative are to the best interest of the East African people.
The Deputy Secretary-General in charge of Productive and Social Sectors, Hon. Jesca Eriyo, who represented the EAC Secretary-General, disclosed that the global Total Health Expenditure (THE) per capita in 2013 was $1,038 compared to $8,400 in the United States of America, $21 in Burundi, $45 in Kenya, $71 in Rwanda, $49 in the United Republic of Tanzania (URT) and $59 in Uganda.
She said THE per capita increased significantly in the region between 2000 and 2013: from $7 to 21 in Burundi; $19 to $45 in Kenya; $9 to $71 in Rwanda; $10 to $49 in URT and $19 to $59 in Uganda. During the same period, GDP per capita rose from $129 to $259 in Burundi; $409 to $1,257 in Kenya; $216 to $679 in Rwanda; $308 to $998 in URT and $261 to $675 in Uganda.
At the turn of 2010, low and middle income countries were recommended to increase their THE per capita from US$35 as recommended by the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health in 2001 to $60 by 2015 to ensure delivery of a limited set of key health services, mainly using domestic resources in the face of dwindling international financing for health.
The EAC official reiterated that as the economy of the Partner States grow, it was imperative that they progressively increase financing in response to increasing needs of the rapidly growing population, changing trends in public health and the need to attain universal health coverage.
“As we transit from the Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals, resource tracking is going to be as important as tracking of results and indeed, these must be tightly linked throughout the health value chain”, observed Hon. Eriyo.
EAC Day held at the Nairobi International Trade Fair
Meanwhile, the 4th EAC Day was successfully held on 2nd October at the Nairobi International Trade Fair at the Jamhuri Park in Nairobi, Kenya. The day is jointly organised by the East African Business Council (EABC) and the Agricultural Society of Kenya to showcase businesses that are at the forefront of taking advantage of the benefits of the EAC integration process, and consciously and consistently pursue the East African objectives.
The day, which coincided with the official opening of the Trade Fair by the President of the Republic of Kenya, saw H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta visiting the EAC-EABC stand and interacting with officials from the two organisations on the status of removal of Non-Tariff Barriers in the region.
The Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Rt Hon. Daniel F. Kidega; the EAC Deputy Secretary-General in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr Liberat Mfumukeko; and, Hon. Peter Mathuki, a Member of EALA, were some of the officials present at the 4th EAC Day.
The Nairobi International Trade Fair ends on 4th October 2015. The EAC Secretariat used this occasion to showcase achievements of the regional integration process to the enthusiastic thousands of students and other show-goers.