Nakumatt Acquires Uganda's Payless Supermarket

Nakumatt Holdings has acquired three branches of a Kampala-based Payless supermarket for 52 million shillings. Nakumatt took over the three branches in Bugoloobi, Bukota and Kabalanga.

Kenya’s leading supermarket chain recently snapped Payless Supermarket’s three branches in Bugoloobi, Bukoto and Kabalagala, in a transaction valued at $650,000 (Sh52 million).

Nakumatt has retained 80 former payless employees and they are doing infrastructural improvements to bring the premises up to Nakumatt standards.

Nakumatt opened its first store outside Kenya in Kigali in 2008. Nakumatt has over 23 stores in major towns in Kenya.

EAC Outlines Plans to Promote Industrialisation in the Region

Kenyan Minister for Industrialisation Hon. Henry Kosgei opened the Regional Validation Workshop on the proposed EAC Industrialisation Policy and Strategy today with a call on Partner States to institute joint and coherent policies to accelerate industrialization in the region.

The one-day workshop held at the Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya was convened to provide a platform for stakeholders from EAC Partner States to brainstorm broadly on the Final Draft Policy document and to make specific recommendations on a number of key policy areas.

These key policy areas include considerations for establishment of regional industries, industrial promotion and cooperation; infrastructure and necessary institutions to support efficient operations of regional industries; financial mechanisms to support investment in the regional industries; and an institutional framework for coordination and implementation of the recommendations.

Delivering a keynote address, Hon. Kosgei decried the poor performance of the EAC manufacturing sector relative to regions such as East Asia. As such he asserted that “we need to collectively as a region and individually as Partner States embark on a long term process of modernizing our economies through joint and coherent policies and programmes geared towards supporting accelerated industrialization”.

The Minister went on to outline these policies and programmes as diversification of the production base and attainment of minimum value addition; infrastructure development; development of human resource skills levels and strengthening innovation; providing supportive regulatory frameworks and mobilizing resources for industrial development. He noted that the region only needed to set its priorities right.

Hon. Kosgei also remarked that accelerated industrialization in the region had become possible “thanks to the integration efforts that have culminated into signing of the Common Market Protocol and its subsequent ratification”.

He cautioned however that the region must create a stable business and regulatory environment that fosters the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which he described as a major cog in the wheel for employment and income generation in the region.

The EAC Deputy Secretary General (Productive and Social Sectors) Mr. Jean Claude Nsengiyumva said the workshop was a crucial milestone towards the continued quest for a regional framework that supports sustainable, competitive and balanced industrial development in the region. This, he added, would maximize the opportunities presented by the Common Market and further consolidate the gains achieved under the Customs Union.

The key thrust of the proposed EAC Industrialisation Policy and Strategy is to create framework conditions to support establishment of regional industries and to drive efforts to ensure balanced industrial development in the region.

Some of the sectors considered as regional industries include: pharmaceutical manufacturing, agricultural machinery & equipment, iron & steel mills; computer & ICT manufacturing and mobile telephony.

Other key policy objectives include full mechanisation of agricultural production; reorientation of the regional manufacturing sector to embrace advanced technology and high value addition production; promotion of mining and mineral processing activities; and facilitation of programmes to upgrade Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The Policy also aims to facilitate industrial land leases; foster development of the necessary human resources; create capacity for industrial research and development; and provide adequate industrial finance through public-private approaches and the development of a regional capital pool to facilitate development of priority regional industries.

The recommendations of the workshop will be incorporated into the Draft Policy and Strategy and thereafter the documents will be presented to the Council of Ministers for adoption.

Representatives of Government agencies concerned with industrialisation and trade, manufacturers, manufacturing associations, private sector associations, business organisations, academia and development partners attended the workshop.

Background/Additional Information

Industrial development is a key area of co-operation by Partner States as outlined in Article 79 and 80 of the Treaty; and Article 44 of the Common Market Protocol.

Cooperation in Industrial Development is aimed at contributing to the achievement of the Community’s broad objectives and more specifically, attainment of sustainable growth and development of the Partner States by promotion of a more balanced and self-sustaining industrial growth in the region.

To this end, the Partner States undertook to improve the competitiveness of the industrial sector so as to enhance the expansion of trade in industrial goods within the region as well as export of manufactured products from the EAC; to further develop an EAC Industrialisation Strategy that will promote linkages among industries through specialization and complementation, facilitate the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and ensure the establishment of capital & intermediate goods industries that take advantage of economies of scale arising from the integrated market. The development of these industries would ensure that there is overall improvement in the intra-EAC trade.

The EAC Heads of State, at its Sixth Extraordinary Meeting held in August 2008, gave further impetus and urgency to the development of industrial policy and strategy. The Summit called upon the Secretariat to urgently formulate an EAC Industrial and Investment Strategy supported by an effective institutional decision making framework with a view to promoting equitable industrial development in East Africa.

Further to the Summit directive, the Secretariat engaged Log Associates, to develop an EAC Industrial Development Strategy and Policy in accordance with the Terms of Reference approved by the Council at its 12^th Meeting.

EAC Addresses Governance Issues as Integration Deepens

East African Community Secretariat, Arusha, 17 August 2010: More than 100 participants drawn from the East African Community Partner States’ key ministries and Government institutions, regional and international organizations and civil society will this week attend the EAC Conference on Good Governance in Nairobi, Kenya.

The conference, whose theme is “Good Governance for Sustainable Integration, Stability and Development” is slated to take place 19-21 August at the Nairobi Hilton Hotel. It is organized by the EAC Secretariat and will build on the momentum of the first conference held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in January 2009.

The issues to be discussed at the conference include Human Rights, Corruption, Electoral Processes, Rule of Law and Administration of Justice and how these affect stability and development in the region.

"The EAC programme on Good Governance is an attempt to harmonize national instruments and efforts in place with a view to upgrading them to the national level in conformity with best practices," EAC Deputy Secretary General (Political Federation), Hon. Beatrice Kiraso, said.

"Like all other policy issues, the EAC is trying to set similar benchmarks and standards of governance and democracy-related issues," she underlined.

"The EAC is in the process of developing a Protocol in consultation with various agencies, including Electoral Commissions, Anti Corruption Authorities, the EAC Chief Justices Forum, Civil Society Organizations and Political Parties, among others," Hon. Kiraso added.

The Good Governance Draft Protocol will be discussed widely by a range of stakeholders before it is concluded and signed by the Heads of State.

The Nairobi Conference will be attended by Ministers for Home /Internal Affairs, Foreign Affairs, EAC Affairs, Justice/Constitutional Affairs, Finance and Attorneys General.

Also Human Rights Commissions, Electoral Commissions, Speakers of National Assemblies, Members of National Parliaments, East African Legislative Assembly, East African Court of Justice, East African Law Society,Anti-Corruption authorities, Governors of Central Banks, Directors of Public Prosecutions, Auditors-General and the Media will attend.

International bodies that have confirmed participation include the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP), UN-International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, African Union (AU), UN High Commissioner for Refugees, AU Human and Peoples’ Rights Court and the European Union.

Major discussions are expected to address Strengthening Administration of Justice and Upholding the Rule of Law in East Africa; Promotion and Protection of Human Rights as Prerequisite for Good Governance; and Combating and Preventing Corruption and the relationship between governance, peace and security and development.

The conference will also address the Upholding Democracy: Regular, free and transparent elections as an anchor to democratic governance as well the Role of Media in Promoting Good Governance.