East African countries are driving economic recovery through sustained public spending on infrastructure, improved performance of the agricultural sector, and deepening regional economic integration.According to a recent African Development Bank report, Covid-19 containment measures and global supply and demand disruptions hit businesses and livelihoods hard and increased poverty across the region, while political fragility in some countries and limited economic diversification in others were significant impediments to growth.Despite the many setbacks, the outlook for the region remained bullish, said Duncan Bonnett, a director at Africa House.“It is a region that is intent on working together to bring about change. Economic integration is a concept that has been at the top of the agenda and it is taken very seriously by the various governments who understand the importance of a regional approach.”Bonnett said efforts to reduce non-tariff barriers and improve harmonisation between countries were ongoing.“The collaborative approach in East Africa is resulting in real benefit. It also does not always require major policy changes or the implementation of technology solutions,” he said, referring to the region’s successful reduction in transit times between Mombasa and Kampala by simply reducing the number of checkpoints and roadblocks for trucks.“The region also understands the importance of increased trade amongst itself and is continuously working towards improving intra-regional trade.”Bonnett said the Great Lakes remained key trading areas and transit points in East Africa, with some 30 million people living around the edges of these waters in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.“Efforts are under way to improve infrastructure in the Great Lakes to ensure improved trading conditions and to create more opportunity. We are seeing investments in road, rail and port facilities on all of the major lakes, as well as upgrading of current facilities to increase the regional trade and unblock the bottlenecks.”According to Bonnett, the region is working hard toward breaking down trade barriers while creating a greater sense of integration regionally. Efforts were also being made to create smaller trade hubs between the bigger cities to reduce the long distances between major hubs and increase opportunities for smaller traders.“No doubt the region has challenges and still a long way to go in certain regards, but the developments that we are seeing are very positive,” he told Freight News.Regional trade integration has been a cornerstone of the East African Community (EAC) Partner States’ trade policies for some time now. With a market of more than 145 million consumers, there are many benefits to countries to increase trade among themselves.He said a number of ports around Lake Victoria, Lake Albert and Lake Tanganyika were being upgraded, while more warehouses and storage facilities were being created. This would already improve the region’s ability to trade with itself.“These upgrades are the keys to increased trade. The southern tip of Lake Tanganyika is in Zambia and the northern tip is in Burundi. Increasing trade along this lake alone will be beneficial.”
