Aisha Inshuti holds
dual Rwandan-Ugandan citizenship. Having completed university, the 24-year-old
ventured into a cross-border business of selling women's hair products. She
buys them in Uganda and sells them in Rwanda.
"Crossing the
border is sometimes difficult especially with politics these days," she
tells DW. "Many Rwandans have dual citizenship. You can have both Rwandan
and Ugandan nationality, but these days we hear there is a problem with the
Ugandan and Rwandan government," she said. Nowadays, she claims, Ugandan
immigration officials even go to the length of confiscating the Ugandan
identity cards of people with dual citizenship. "It will take you ages –
if not forever – to get it back, so we have resorted to only using the Rwandan
national ID," Inshuti says.
At a bus terminal in
Uganda's capital Kampala, Joki Wanjeri, a 27-year-old Kenyan trader, waits for
her bus back home to Nairobi. She deals in women's footwear and shares
Inshuti's sentiments. Ugandan officials create obstacles that impede free trade
between the two countries, Wanjeri says. "Once you reach the border on the
Ugandan side they want money [bribes], otherwise you cannot cross," she
laments. "It's easy for the Ugandans to cross from Kenya with our goods,
but when it comes to us it's a different story."
Political
wrangling to blame.
While Akol Amazima, a
Ugandan political analyst cannot confirm the traders' experiences, he does believe
that the root of problems lies in intra-regional politics. The problems at the
borders are often the result of political differences between the countries.
"When the political situation between leaders is not good, it affects
traders," he says.
Amazima points to the
current "bad blood" between Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame. "So traders who go to Rwanda, some of them
are mistaken for spies and that affects their performance."
The East African
Community (EAC), comprised of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and
since 2016 South Sudan, wants to improve trade relations. The bloc has ratified
a common market and a customs union. In 2013 the countries signed a protocol to
implement a monetary union and single East African currency within 10 years.
The EAC was first called into life in the late 1960s. It collapsed in the 1970s
and was revived in 2000. Regional heads of state have since emphasized the need
and urgency for the EAC to work harder, to fast-track the development of the
bloc. Over the past few years, however, political wrangling has again hampered
much needed progress.
Tanzania and Kenya have
experienced similar cross-border disputes as Uganda and Rwanda. "When
President [John] Magufuli of Tanzania and his counterpart in Kenya, Uhuru
Kenyatta, were not seeing eye to eye, it affected the traders in the Namanga
[border town],” says Amazima.
"Whenever somebody
was going to Tanzania they would strictly scrutinize him, so much so that even
the cows that had crossed to Tanzania were auctioned off." The incident in
in late 2017 saw the Tanzanian government confiscating over 1,000 cattle which
Masai herders had brought over the border from Kenya for grazing. Masai from
both Kenya and Tanzania, who claim historical ownership of the land, had been
crossing the border for years.
Kenya, Tanzania and
Uganda have also been blaming each other for exploiting the low import duties
on sugar. The trade dispute resulted in Tanzania slapping Uganda with a 25
percent import duty on sugar, and Uganda and Tanzania taxing Kenyan sweets and
sugared drinks.
Revenue
bodies receive a boost
One company which is
trying to improve the regional cooperation is TradeMark East Africa, a private
donor-funded initiative working with EAC governments. It focuses on bottlenecks
that affect trade, particularly imports and exports.
"One of the key
things we have done is to support the revenue authorities in East Africa to
implement customs management systems," says Damali Ssali, director of
TradeMark East Africa's Ugandan office.
"If you are importing
or exporting, customs will take about 80 percent of your transaction
time." The company helps governments in the region to implement customs
management systems that take only 24 hours and can be accessed from anywhere in
the world. "You don't have to waste your time in Mombasa port, you can
just come straight through to Uganda," says Ssali.
Ugandan car importer
Michael Odida told DW that he is one of the traders who has profited from the
EAC common market and customs union. "Regarding the single customs
territory – it has improved. If I need a vehicle cleared in Mombasa my team
will have the whole process done from Kampala. As much as it has its
shortfalls, overall I think it is a good innovation," Odida says.
Uganda Revenue
Authority spokesman Vincent Seruma explains that the protocol on the
establishment of the East African common market has greatly improved trade
among member states. "We have our staff in Mombasa, we have Rwandan staff
in Mombasa, we have Tanzanian staff in Mombasa, so if there is any kind of
decision to be made between the different revenue authorities, it is much
easier to resolve an issue because we are working a little closer," Seruma
says.
Dream
of a single currency
Another underlying factor
that has affected regional trade, according to Amazima, is the fluctuating
value of local currencies against the US dollar and the fact that there is no
common East African currency. "At times the dollar affects these
currencies differently, so by the time you reach the border you want to change
your money you end up losing some money," he says.
An EAC monetary union,
which would pave the way for a single currency across the six countries, could
ease trade within the region. Players in the region have been divided about
this however, arguing that more time is needed.
The International
Monetary Fund has long been saying that truly integrated markets are key to
economic productivity and growth, not only in East Africa but Africa as a
whole. Intra-African trade stands at an estimated 16 percent. The recently
ratified African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) deal is expected to boost
that figure to 52 percent among the 55 African Union members by 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment