Free Trade fingers crossed, some time this summer, goods should start being sold without tariffs across borders within the five countries of the East African Community (EAC). The new common market will take in 130m-plus people in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The next step is monetary union, with political federation a far remoter prospect.
The agreement signed last year at the EAC’s headquarters in the Tanzanian city of Arusha was a first step. Optimists say the EAC should join free-trade blocks in southern and western Africa before 2030.
The EAC should be better placed to trade with Congo, Ethiopia, and Sudan. And if it can build its own wider manufacturing base, its goods may start to compete with cheap stuff from China.
Kenya, which has the region’s strongest manufacturers, retailers, and banks, is sure to gain most. But for the EAC to succeed, others must win too. Rwanda and Burundi should benefit from cheaper and quicker transport of goods to and from the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Uganda is well placed to expand its agriculture for export. Read the rest of this entry »
Sub-Saharan African markets are attracting interest from foreign fund managers seeking to diversify risks in their global portfolio. Andre DeSimone, Executive Director at Kestrel Capital tells us why Africa’s stock markets continue to perform remarkably well despite their small size and low liquidity.
For most English speakers, computer terms such as “instant messenger,” “download” and “cut and paste” seem quite ordinary. However, for millions of African indigenous language speakers, the absence of technology in their own language simply increases the digital divide.
Bourse Africa, a unit of Financial Technologies, plans to set up an electronic exchange to trade African commodities futures by the second half of next year, Director of Strategy Adam Gross said. 
Zebrajobs.com and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) have spearheaded the inaugural African Virtual Job Fair (AVJF) to support the recruitment needs of U.S. and other international companies and organizations doing business in Africa. The African Virtual Job Fair will draw job seekers from around the globe as well as Africans in the Diaspora for career opportunities with public and private corporations and organizations operating across the continent. 
Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, plans to begin operating a commodities exchange by December so that farmers can act on better price information, improving incomes for rural residents.
Seacom, the $600 million underwater fibre-optic cable, has opened the prospect of much greater competition in one of the developing world’s most expensive and limited telecommunications markets. 
