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Tanzania: President Samia Steers Tanzania, Kenya Maize Business

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THE maiden visit by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to Kenya has paid handsomely to traders in Tanzania and consumers in Kenya.

President Samia met with her counterpart, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and discussed different issues including addressing challenges in business between the two countries after a stint of controversy.

The visit that was in early May has cleared the way for maize exports from Tanzania that was banned for a while by Kenyan authorities, with reports saying that volume of exports has surged to more than sixfold.

Authorities in Kenya have unveiled figures jumping from 16,137 bags in April to a monthly record of 118,329 in May after the bilateral deal eradicated the restraints that Nairobi had imposed on Tanzania’s maize export.

Longido District Commissioner (DC), Mr Nurdin Babu confided with the ‘Daily News’ that Tanzanians have tapped the business opportunity wisely and that a lot of trucks are crossing the border with the cereal. “After the visit to Kenya by our president, things have greatly changed.

Traders from Tanzania have been blessed by her move to clear the hurdle by talking to Kenyan president. We, at Longido, witness the way trucks cross the border exporting maize. It is a great opportunity for business, but also a means of life for Kenyans,” said Mr Babu.

He noted that despite the huge maize export, Tanzania still has enough stock that will not leave it vulnerable to famine, adding that there should not be any fear in the public.

In a related development, the DC noted that security on the ground along the borders is normal and traders are exploiting the opportunity to mint extra coin.

Earlier, Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture had banned imports of maize from Tanzania and Uganda alleging that they had high levels of aflatoxins.

Though Kenya is a large importer of maize to address deficit in the country, it started mending fences with Tanzania shortly after President Samia physically made a trip to Nairobi and met her counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta.

And their trade ministers meeting in Arusha just weeks after the visit to address other underlying trade issues too, trade between the two countries has greatly picked up.

Reached for a comment, government officials at the Namanga Border post on Tanzania side, who preferred anonymity, said after implementing the State orders, business has been flowing well and enriching the nationals. On the other side, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Manager at Namanga, Mr Joseph Moywaywa said Tanzanians are free to sell maize in big quantities as they can without experiencing bureaucratic hitches. On his part, East African Community (EAC) Secretary General, Dr Peter Mathuki called upon the various government agencies at Namanga border to hold regular consultative meetings with traders to identify and address factors that may still affect intra-regional trade. The flow of goods and services at the Namanga border has now come back to normal with goods moving both ways. Trade is the major driving factor of the EAC integration, and thus the need to ensure businesspeople in the region could transact business without any hurdles. Currently EAC intra-regional trade is under 20 per cent, and it is Dr Mathuki’s mission to ensure that it grows to at least 50 per cent in the next five years. To achieve that, Dr Mathuki urged border management officials to hold regular consultative meetings with stakeholders as well as conduct quarterly reviews to track trade volumes. After Kenya slapped a ban on Tanzania maize export, the exporters returned home maize that was already cleared at Tanzania’s side of Namanga Border. Tracing back, the dispute started on March 5th this year, when the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) on the Kenyan side slapped a ban on imports of maize from Tanzania and Uganda on the pretext that they contain high levels of Mycotoxins. Despite samples being taken for tests, no results have been returned, a month on. Although after a week the ban was lifted with conditions on importers being required to be registered, the consignments were tasked to be accompanied with certificate of conformity on aflatoxin levels, and traders issue details of their warehouses, Tanzanian trucks were returned home with maize. Some 22-trucks checked in since March 5th this year, but some 18 trucks that were denied entry applied to and returned to Tanzania with maize, with four trucks owned by Kenyan Mama Millers Ltd remaining at the border with maize and the ‘Daily News’ witnessed the trucks packed on the Kenyan side of the border by April 5th.