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Issue #: 485_12 May 2016
COMESA- Commonwealth launches Design
Studio to stimulate the leather industry
T
he COMESA Leather and Leather Products
Institute in collaboration with the
Commonwealth Secretariat have launched
the Regional Design Studio project that will
influence productivity and marketability of
African products at the global level.
The launch was conducted during an
awareness raising and capacity building
workshop in Mombasa, Kenya 9 – 12 May
2016. Besides the launch, the workshop
will create awareness on the importance
of product development, standardization,
branding, and packaging and information
dissemination.
The partnership with the COMESA/LLPI comes
at a time, when the COMESA Secretariat is
supporting the development of SMEs Clusters
across many value chains.
COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya,
who was one of the key speakers at the
opening of the workshop, said the Design
Studio would contribute immensely in the
production of market driven value added
products, which would assist the region to
promote both intra and international trade.
“Most SMEs in the region lack basic design
skills and as such, have no software and
hardware infrastructure to support product
development through designing,” Mr Ngwenya
observed.
not include the finished leather which is used
in upholstery for automobiles and household
furniture as it cannot be easily ascertained
in trade figures and the value it adds to the
prices of vehicles and furniture.
“The result is that production process is based
on rudimentary copying of other brands,
that impact on them producing substandard
products.”
Africa holds great potential in developing the
sector, on both the supply and demand side
of the leather value chain with approximately
26% of the global livestock population and
footwear consumption estimated at between
878 million to 1.1 billion pairs per annum.
He said the setting up of a Design Studio would
close this gap, and empower the small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) to manufacture
leather footwear and goods of the highest
quality, which would be able to penetrate
regional and international premium markets.
“The project has the potential of transforming
the Leather Value Chain in the COMESA Region
and bring it at par with global leaders whilst,
for the first time, exposing our top notch
designers and producers in Africa to the elite
in the leather sector,” the Secretary General
said.
The leather value chain globally is estimated at
more than US$ 100 billion and this figure does
The Secretary General said the selection of the
leather sector was based on its potential in the
transformation of the development landscape
in selected countries, region and Africa.
“The lessons learnt in the implementation
of this project would feed into the Industrial
Pillar of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite and
Agenda 2063 of the African Union,” he said.
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary , Ministry of
Industry, Investment and Trade Hon. Adan
Mohammed, Dr Rashmi Banga of the
Commonwealth Secretariat and Professor Dr
Mwinyihija Mwinyikione, Executive Director of
LLPI addressed the meeting.
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Political will is the last hurdle to free movement of persons in the region
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dominate discussions on migration,” the
Director General said.
He observed that boosting intra-African trade
required the adoption and implementation of
coherent and efficient trade policies.
He said Intra-Africa trade has remained
consistently low averaging about 10 to 12
percent of Africa’s total trade with over 80
percent of Africa countries exports destined
for market outside the continent, and a similar
amount of the continents imports coming from
external sources.
(L_R) Amb. Olawale Maiyegun (AU) Amb. William Lacy Swing Swing (DG-IOM) Hon. Davies Mwila (Minister) Amb.
Nagla el Hussainy (COMESA), Dr Chileshe Mulenga(PS- Zambia)
A
frican leaders have been urged to back
their stated commitments to the Protocols
on Free Movement of People with the political
will to implement it, as this remains the last
hurdle towards its actualization.
Keynote speakers at the 2nd Intra-Regional
forum on Migration in Africa that took place
in in Lusaka, Zambia 4 - 6 May 2016 noted
that most countries in the continent have
committed to measures aimed at supporting
the implementation of the protocols but were
not implementing them.
“The difficulty resides in a lack of political will
and capacity of African countries to implement
the decisions taken at the Ministerial level
in different Regional Economic Communities
(RECs),” Assistant Secretary General in charge
of Administration and Finance (COMESA) Amb
Nagla El Hussainy observed.
Director General of the IOM Mr William Lacy
Swing, said although governments have been
willing to open their borders to trade, they
have not been so liberal in their immigration
policies owing to inherent fears.
The two were speaking at the forum which
was co-organized by the African Union,
International Organization for Migration (IOM),
United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa (UNECA), COMESA and the Government
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of Zambia. The theme fot eh forum was:
“Fostering Regional Integration:
Facilitating Trade and Human Mobility
through enhanced border management.”
Its objective was to contribute to the
implementation of the African Union Common
Position on Migration and Development
adopted in 2006 in Banjul, Gambia.
Amb El Hussainy attributed the slow growth
of intra-Africa trade to restrictive immigration
practices hence the persistent calls to member
States to facilitate movement of persons as key
to deepening regional integration.
“The AU Assembly of Heads of State and
Government should urge member States who
have not yet ratified the existing protocols
on free movement of person in the continent
to do so,” she said adding that the process
should also be subjected to the African Peer
Review Mechanism.
Mr Swing cited inherent fears among States as
the key inhibitor to free movement of people in
the African continent.
“All too often, security concerns, fear of being
overwhelmed by irregular migrants and foreign
workers and tensions with nationals especially
in periods of significant unemployment and
socio economic instabilities continue to
“At the very least, boosting intra-African
trade requires that the trade policy of African
countries be designed or differentiated in such
a way that no other country would receive
a less favourable treatment than is given to
a non-African country whether the latter is
developed or developing,” he said.
The concept of border, he said, needs to
change so that they cease being perceived as
barriers to people movement but as spaces of
exchange where neighbouring states manage
the flow of goods and people to mutual
benefit.
Amb El Hussainy informed the forum that
a number of COMESA Member States have
attained high levels of implementation with
Rwanda, Mauritius and Seychelles taking the
lead by removing visa requirement for majority
of African countries.
Zambia Minister for Home Affairs Hon. Davies
Mwila the Director of Social Affairs at the AU
addressed the forum.
About 400 delegates from the eight African
regional economic communities, the AU, senior
officials and experts from relevant government
ministries, the UN and international
Organizations, Civil society and the private
sector participated in the forum.
The forum closed on Friday 6 May 2016.
South Sudan Joins the COMESA Regional Customs Scheme
S
outh Sudan has joined the COMESA Regional
Customs Transit Guarantee (RCTG) Scheme
after signing the legal instruments of accession.
The RCTG popularly known as the CARNET is a
component of the COMESA Protocol on Transit
Trade and Transit Facilitation which provides a
uniform basis for transit movement throughout
the region, where only one Guarantee is used
for the transit of goods throughout all transiting
Member States
The signing ceremony took place during
the 9th Meeting of the Management of the
RCTG Scheme which was opened by COMESA
Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya, Thursday,
4 May 2016 in Mombasa, Kenya. This bring to
two the number of COMESA instruments that
South Sudan is implementing including the third
Party Insurance Scheme known as the COMESA
Yellow Card
Prior to the signing, the Government had already
designated Speed Insurance Company as the
National Surety and authorized the National
Surety to sign the Inter-Surety Agreement to
become a member of RCTG Council.
The scheme has recorded significant progress
in countries in the Northern Corridor (Kenya,
Uganda, and Rwanda), Central Corridor
(Tanzania, Burundi and DR Congo) since its
commencement in 2012. Tanzania and now
South Sudan are the non-COMESA Member
States in the scheme.
Mr Ngwenya told the meeting that States and
stakeholders participating in the scheme have
derived benefits from savings in the cost of
transit and transport by average of 30 percent.
“The number of RCTG Bonds issued for goods in
transit has reached 548 RCTG Bonds worth US$
400 million,” he said.
Other benefits include: the increase in the
number of RCTG CARNET issued, from 17,000 to
34,000; the number of Clearing and Forwarding
Agents and Sureties participating in the scheme
has reached 548 and 46 respectively. And 90%
of the 548 clearing and forwarding agents are
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).
In addition, the RCTG-Management Information
System has been fully integrated with ASYCUDA
World of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, with
Photo/ Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya with delegation from South Sudan
SIMBA of Kenya and TANCIS of Tanzania.
Several revenue authorities have replaced their
national transit bonds with the RCTG Bond.
Two other countries namely, Burundi and DR
Congo are expected to commence operations of
the RCTG in May and June this year respectively.
Despite the encouraging progress in the
Northern, Central and Dar Corridor countries,
the Secretary General said challenges in its
implementation were being experienced in the
Djibouti Corridor and the North-South Corridor.
“Ethiopia and Djibouti National Sureties are
yet to agree on sharing of premiums on RCTG
Bonds on Carnets issued. This has contributed
Regional Annual
Inflation Rate at 9%
T
he year on year inflation rate for the COMESA
region as measured by the Harmonised
Consumer Price Index (HCPI) stood at 9% for
the month of March this year recording a 10
percent decline compared to the same month
in 2015.
Several factors contributed to the reduction in
the annual inflation rate according to the latest
HCPI-COMESA monthly News Release: price
changes in food and non-alcoholic beverages,
alcoholic beverages and tobacco, clothing and
footwear, housing, water, electricity, gas and
other fuels, furnishings, household equipment
and routine household maintenance.
Other areas such as health, transport,
communication, recreation and culture,
to the delays in the implementation of the RCTG
CARNET in the Djibouti Corridor, which also
include Sudan and South Sudan,” he said.
In the North-South Corridor, Zambia is in the
process of engaging its stakeholders to join the
scheme. This will enable other member States
in the Corridor, namely, Zimbabwe and Malawi to
move forward in the implementation process of
the scheme.
Mr Ngwenya commended the Commissioners of
Customs, the National Sureties and the Clearing
and Forwarding Agents for their dedication in
the administration of the RCTG CARNET.
education, restaurants and hotels including
miscellaneous goods and services also
registered price changes which had a negative
effective on the rate of inflation.
The decline means that prices of goods and
services as measured by HCPI-COMESA
increased by an average of +9.0% in the
region between March 2015 and March 2016.
Of the participating COMESA countries, Zambia
recorded the highest month on month inflation
rate of +2.1% whilst Malawi recorded the least
change at -1.5% during the period under review.
Based on the main components of expenditure,
the restaurants registered the highest annual
inflation rate of +15.1% whilst housing, water,
electricity, gas and other fuels recorded the least
average change of +1.2%.
The annual inflation rate was at 10.7% for the
year earlier (March 2014- March 2015).
COMESA Secretariat produces the HCPI indices in
collaboration with Member States.
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Bank of England collaborating with CMI to
build capacity of regional banks.
T
he COMESA Monetary Institute (CMI) is
collaborating with the Centre for Central
Banking Studies of the Bank of England to train
staff from Central Banks in COMESA Member
States.
The latest training programme was on Advanced
Training on Macroeconomic Modeling and
Forecasting which was conducted from 25th to
29th April, 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya.
This is the second year that the two institutions
are hosting a joint programme.
The key objective of the training was to provide
state of the art tools that can be applied by
member countries in designing, formulating
and implementing economic policies in their
respective economies.
“The training will contribute to knowledge
sharing and networking between COMESA
Member States on macroeconomic modeling
and forecasting,” the Director of the COMESA
Monetary Institute Mr. Ibrahim Zeidy said during
the opening of the training.
Further, he said it will enable member states’
Central Banks to have a reference tool that can
be applied in developing small macroeconomic
model and specific models of inflation, exchange
rate, consumption, investment, monetary
transmission mechanisms and fiscal deficit
management.
The training will enhance the understanding of
the practical interface between theory and real
economic situation and strengthen CMI’s efforts
to impart knowledge in modeling and forecasting
in the region as an integral component of
COMESA Monetary integration Programme.
Mr Zeidy thanked Bank of England for its
invaluable support.
Participants were drawn from 12 Central Banks
of COMESA Member States namely: Burundi,
D R Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Madagascar, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia,
and Zimbabwe.
USAID collaborating meeting with COMESA’s photot focus
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