TCCIA News and Events Blog

The East African Business Council (EABC) has published the inaugural issue of the East African Business Directory, the Council announced here yesterday.

The issue is currently on sale across the five East African Countries and is spearheaded by Adafric Communications, EABC�s strategic business partner.

Launched in Nairobi in November last year, the directory is considered the most authoritative and informative business tool in the region, says Godwin Muhwezi, EABC’s communications officer in a statement.

The directory, he added, comes at a time when EAC integration process has gained much impetus with a fully fledged Customs Union and with the Community moving towards the implementation of a Common Market Protocol by 2010 and a Monetary Union by 2012.

“EABC continues to place strong emphasis on improving business environment in the region as well facilitating business linkages both locally and internationally through various platforms.” he pointed out.

By putting together a directory of businesses in the region, he explained, the Council has taken the first step to solve the current information gap on business opportunities in the region.

Ms Agatha Nderitu, acting executive director of the regional business body said the directory presents immense opportunities to those seeking to extend their fortunes beyond the confines of national boundaries and also serves as a tool for business to business match making.

The directory will improve access to information on trade and business opportunities in the region as well as enhancing interaction among businesses the business community in East Africa, Ms Nderitu said.

It allows investors, businessmen and the public to easily identify companies operating within the region. It will also help in the development of direct relationships between key enterprises at both local and regional level, she added.

EABC is the advocacy body of private sector associations and businesses from the five East African Countries (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) with an observer status in the East African Community.

Established in 1997 with the EAC support, it promotes private sector’s regional and global competitiveness in Trade and Investment.

Source – The Citizen

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Tanzania’s annual inflation remained unchanged at 12.1 per cent in September when price rises for non-food items offset falls in food prices, the statistics office said yesterday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that excluding food, the rate of inflation rose to four per cent from two per cent in August.

“Annual headline inflation rate for the year ended September 2009 has stagnated at 12.1 per cent same as that registered in the year ended August 2009,” NBS said in a statement on its website.

Like neighbouring Uganda and Kenya, Tanzania has experienced double digit inflation since last year due to higher commodity prices. The cost of living in the two countries was 14.5 per cent and 17.9 per cent respectively in September.

Food inflation rate slightly eased from 18.9 per cent registered in the year ended August 2009 to 17.3 per cent last month. NBS said non food inflation increased to four per cent from two per cent during the same period.

Food carries a 55.9 per cent weight in Tanzania basket of goods used to measure inflation followed by transportation and fuel, power and water whose weights are 9.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent, respectively, that then they were last month. Vendors at the Kisutu and Mwenge markets attributed the price stability to steady supply from upcountry.

Coconuts at the two-day markets, were being sold between Sh500 and Sh700, while a kilo of rice was sold at between Sh900 and Sh1,600 depending on its quality. Similarly the price of beans remained unchanged with a kilo being sold at between Sh1,500 and Sh2,000.

On a monthly basis, non-food inflation rose by 2.1 per cent in September compared with August when food prices increased by 2.3 per cent.

Among food items whose prices rose during the month, included cereals, cassava, sweet potatoes, fruits, fish, cowpeas and sugar, non-food items whose prices jumped included electricity, kerosene, charcoal, diesel and petrol, NBS said.

Central Bank of Tanzania Benno Ndulu, told Reuters in an interview last month that the Government intends to lower food’s weight to about 42 or 43 per cent.

Tanzania�s annual inflation rate crossed into double digits in September 2008 for the first time in nearly ten years. Its average annual inflation rate stood at 10.3 per cent in 2008, or 6.7 per cent excluding food.

The central bank said in late May, it saw annual inflation at 11 per cent by June, and down to six per cent by 2010. Tanzania�s monetary policy targets an inflation rate of five per cent in the medium term.

The International Monetary Fund earlier in the year had said it projects inflation falling to 7 per cent by end-year because of lower food prices.

Source – The Citizen

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The world’s poorest countries urged other World Trade Organization (WTO) members yesterday to set up a safety net for cotton producers in poor nations, to help address losses arising from the world economic slump.

Trade Ministers from some 30 members of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) also asked for quick action on removing trade-distorting subsidies and duty- and quota-free market access to cotton and cotton by-products from poor countries.

“We call upon the WTO Members to agree on … the urgent setting up, in the context of current global economic and financial crisis, of a “safety net” mechanism by cotton producing LDCs to address revenue losses,” the group said in a declaration on Friday at a meeting in Tanzania.

The statement did not detail how poor cotton producers would like any safety net to work.

The economic slump that slashed demand and prices of cotton had hit poor cotton producers that were already complaining of rich countries’ subsidies for the crop.

Mid this year, the Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB), director general, Dr Joe Kabisa told The Citizen that there were 240,000 unsold cotton bales in the country until December last year as prices kept plummeting.

Tanzanian farmers produced 680,000 cotton bales during the 2008/2009 season. Farmers were expecting that the product would be sold at a price of $0.67 per pound but the price plummeted to $0.45 per pound as of December and to a further $0.42 per pound as of February 2009.

�With just the 240,000 bales that had not been sold until December, we could be in a position to get $97.4million were it to be sold at a price of $0.67 per pound. However since prices had dropped to $0.45 per pound, the same 240,000 bales would bring us $65.4million. This indicates a drop in earnings by $32million,� he told The Citizen in an interview mid this year.

Countries such as Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali and Chad — all LDC members — have in the past asked for drastic cuts in subsidies by U.S. producers. Washington has yet to respond.

A deal slashing subsidies is seen as a critical test in reaching a fair farm trade agreement under the Doha round of trade talks launched in the Qatari capital in 2001.

The Doha round aims to free up world trade by cutting farm subsidies and tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods, and so help poor countries to prosper.

The LDCs also called for faster implementation of duty- and quota-free market access for poor economies and provision of waivers in opening markets for trade in services.

Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies recently said they were committed to concluding the Doha round by the end of 2010.

Sweden’s trade minister said earlier this week the talks could drag into 2011 if the United States failed to set out its international trade policy soon.

Source – The Citizen

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Local manufacturers want the Ugandan government to consider locking out products from other EAC countries if they continue barring Uganda’s products from accessing their markets.

It has since emerged that some EAC countries have often barred Uganda’s products from penetrating their markets even if they meet the required standards.

Kenya is the most notorious EAC State, which local manufacturers say has time and again blocked Uganda’s products yet its goods flood Uganda’s market freely. Among the local products facing restrictions are beef, milk and chicken.

“We are still unable to freely export various products to Kenya while our counter parts are allowed free access to the local market,” the chairman of
Uganda Manufactures Association (UMA), Mr Kaddu Kiberu, said recently.

Early this year, manufacturers reported that chicks being exported to Kenya were blocked by customs officials arguing that they were under instruction
not to allow Uganda’s products unless on special arrangement, which must be cleared by their government.

Mr Kaddu also said Uganda is the only country that observes the joint EAC policies while other states subjectively implement them or disregard them altogether

Source – The Citizen

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Standard Chartered Bank has launched the �China-Africa Network� initiative for small and medium enterprises meant to facilitate trade between the two areas.

The initiative is part of the bank’s SMEs Month dedicated to the advancement of African SMEs, which conduct trade across the bank’s international network of over 70 markets in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It is also part of the bank’s strategy in Africa in 2009/10 that focuses on increasing market share and profitability of the SMEs� portfolios.

Through the initiative, the bank has organised a business trip to China for its Tanzanian SME customers where they will attend the Canton trade exhibition later this month as well as network with key traders in China. The trade exhibitions will be attended by over 50 trading delegations, 15,000 exhibitors and over 200,000 buyers from over 200 countries.

“We are working with our colleagues in China to assist these customers network and explore business opportunities in China through organised meetings with Chinese businessmen operating the same line of businesses. It will help them interact and establish business opportunities with trustworthy contacts,” Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania CEO Jeremy Awori said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The bank’s Chinese-speaking relationship managers will assist the customers interact while in China, while the bank�s branches in China will be useful in facilitating transactions through cost savings, trade services and cash management solutions.

During the SME month, which will run throughout October, the bank intends to provide a platform to significantly deepen its understanding of SME customers’ requirements and assist in their continued development.

Mr Awori said SME banking was an important strategic business for Standard Chartered Bank and a key platform for future growth. SMEs account for between 30 and 60 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP and are the driving force for economic development in Tanzania.

In order to dedicate itself better to SMEs, the bank opened in 2007 a special branch in Kariakoo to cater for the requirements of SME customers.

Source – The Citizen

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The Government has invited bidders to provide consultancy services towards the establishment of Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB).

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) yesterday invited bidders to express interest for carrying out a feasibility study leading to the establishment of the bank. Its advertisements in the local press say the deadline for submission of the expression of interest will be on November 3, this year.

“The main objective of the consultancy services is therefore to assist the government in establishing the TADG and define the parameters within which the bank may operate successfully as an efficient, effective and sustainable development bank,” reads a statement in the advert.

According to Tanzania National Business Council’s (TNBC) Agriculture Working Group (AWG), an initial capital of $500 million (about Sh660 billion) is required to start the financial institution.

AWG chairman Felix Mosha says the private sector could be involved to provide additional funding of the project through Government guaranteed long-term bonds.

The establishment of the bank is expected to greatly boost national efforts to revolutionalise agriculture in the country, which remains underdeveloped nearly 50 years after independence.

When operational, the bank will help farmers access affordable long-term loans that will cater for their investments in new farming techniques and technologies as well as buying vital farm inputs.

The growth and development shortcomings of agriculture in Tanzania are attributed to lack of cheap and long-term loans for the sector. Official statistics show that the sector has for a long time been receiving just about 10 per cent of the total loans disbursed by commercial banks to the private sector.

Out of that, only about 0.8 per cent goes to actual agricultural production.

Source – The Citizen

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Power supply snags like the ongoing rationing and other infrastructure-related hassles do not augur well for Tanzania�s competitiveness as an investor-friendly destination, members of the business community said yesterday.

Speaking during the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) annual general meeting in Dar es Salaam, they called for quick rectification of the snags to help boost Tanzania’s ranking in global competitiveness ratings.
The country is also let down by bureaucracy in some public offices and policy inconsistence.

In the World Bank’s Doing Business 2010 report, Tanzania slipped five due to the country’s reluctance to make business-friendly reforms.

Members of the business community however believe that the government has itself to blame for the country’s poor ranking that saw it slipping to position 131 from last year’s 127 out of the 183 countries surveyed by the Bank.

“The problems are within the government machinery…it is true that we have been doing a lot of reforms but very few public officials are ready to go with the pace of reforms… bureaucracy is still too high,” Mr Elvis Musiba, the immediate former TPSF chairman The Citizen.

Speaking on the sidelines of the extra ordinary meeting, he slated the government for changing its own pro-investor policies without consulting members of the business community.

“It was the same government that okayed import duty exemptions on some capital goods but went on to remove the provision recently…this is what I term as ‘policy reversal’ and such are the issues that make us uncompetitive, forcing observers to rank us poorly,” he asserted.

Earlier, the TPSF executive director, Dr Evans Rweikiza, said members of the private sector are currently in discussions with the government to try to convince the government to revise the power-rationing timetable in favour of the productive sector.

The government and members of the business community have also formed a team to work into issues highlighted by the World Bank report as bottlenecks to investing in Tanzania.

“The team is currently at work and will soon present its findings for action by relevant bodies…the utmost goal is to make sure that we improve in next year rankings just like we did in some of the past reports,” he said.

There are issues that will be worked upon right away while others will need time, said Dr Rweikiza.

Source – The Citizen

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Many organizations are ignorant of what branding entails, which consequently impacts negatively on their overall performance, the chairman of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) said in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.

Speaking at the IABC-Tanzania public forum, Mr Mark Schumann (pictured) said branding is wrongly defined by most organizations. To them, he said, it means just creating an ‘eye-catching logo’ or a ‘clever phrase’ as a marketing exercise, which is not the case.

“This is just a small fraction of what branding is all about,” Mr Schumann told the gathering.

The American said branding is a wide term that seeks to tell the public why a particular organization exists.

“It is a management tool used by human resources, senior management, communications and marketing departments in order to support their organisation’s strategic plan,” he asserted.

According to him, branding is required to first occur on �the inside� part of an organisation. This entails the action of communicating the values of the organisation by top managers to employees.

Branding connects employees to the organization’s mission and mobilizes them to actively participate in implementing the organization’s strategic plan.

“It is branding therefore that makes an employee to choose to work for a particular organization and not otherwise�in the same way, it is branding that makes clients choose to go for the organization’s products,” he explained shortly before speaking to a gathering made up of practitioners in marketing, communications, human resources and other senior management positions.

The expert said it is a mistake to think that branding is for a profit-making entity rather, it is a necessity even for public organizations and other non-profit organizations.

“For example, the government can choose to educate people regarding the dangers of speeding their vehicles in city roads�it (the government) can come up with just a few words and systematically plan them to indicate the dangers of high speeds…when the words live in people’s minds and people stop speeding their vehicles, then we regard that as successful branding,” he said.

He however cautioned that when branding, an organization is required to live by what it says.

“There are ethics in branding�it requires an organization to have commitment to truth, it should authenticate what it believes in and be committed to the values that make its brand unique,” he said.

Source – The Citizen

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High interest on loans are making lives of civil servants in Mara Region much harder, regional administrative secretary Chrisant Rubunga, has said.

Mr Rubunga cautioned civil servants in the region not to take huge loans over and above their legal income, stating the civil service regulations forbade them to secure loans exceeding one third of their monthly salary.

In a statement circulated to municipal, town and district executive directors in the region, Mr Rubunga said big loans greatly affected behaviour and discipline of the civil servants at workplaces.

Complaints had been received from civil servants’families of living below the poverty line because their bread winners’ salaries are being deducted to service the loans.

The Government would take punitive measures to uphold discipline amongst indebted civil servants in the region, including denying them promotion and annual increment, he cautioned.

Many civil servants admitted securing huge loans, and asked the Government to raise their salaries to enable them meet the high cost of living.

Source – The Citizen

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Tanzania’s services receipts have decreased by $48 million to $1.91 billion due to a drop in transportation earnings, according to the Bank of Tanzania.

The nearly three per cent slump in overall services receipts during the year was an outcome of the impact of the global recession that affected both advanced and developing economies.

During the 12-month period ending June 2009, Tanzania’s service payments increased by nearly 10 per cent to $1629.6 million. BoT attributes the surge to increases in freight, travel and other business services.

BoT says in its July economic review report that transportation services earnings during the review period fell by 20.4 per cent. Earnings plummeted to $326.5 million from the $376.7 million level that was recorded at the end of June 2008 due to a drop in transit trade.

Apart from the economic crisis, transit trade in Tanzania was also adversely affected by congestion at the Dar es Salaam port. The port lost considerable business to its competitors in the region, notably Mombasa in Kenya and Beira in Mozambique.

Travel services, which account for about 60 per cent of total services receipts, increased slightly to $1,250.4 million from $1,228.7 million during the review period. The report says the small increase in travel receipts was an outcome of the recession that hit the US and UK, which are Tanzania’s major tourist source markets.

“The available statistics from the Immigration Department indicate that the number of tourist arrivals has decreased to 672,296 during July to May 2008/09 from 706,425 reported in the same period last year,” BoT notes in the report.

Receipts from communication, construction, insurance, financial, computer information, government, royalties, and personal and other business services declined to $276.3 million from $376.9 million.

Source – The Citizen

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