Consumers set to benefit most from protocol

Thousands of East Africans are already benefiting from cross border trade and movement in the region. And the number is set to increase sharply with Thursday’s launch of the Common Market Protocol.

In Nairobi today, for example, fish and matoke (banana) from Uganda are widely available in restaurants. At the city’s leading open air market, Gikomba, Tanzanian mitumba (second hand clothes) sellers almost outnumber their Kenyan counterparts. At the grassroots level, East Africans are interacting with each other every day.

Biggest beneficiaries

And consumers are set to be the biggest beneficiaries of East Africa Community Common Market Protocol. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers and Consumer Information Network were in agreement that consumers would now have more choice and more market for various goods.

And food from Tanzania and Uganda is helping to stabilise prices in Kenya. A survey by the Nation also indicated that many Tanzanian and Ugandan businessmen were now engaged in small businesses in Kenya, especially in Nairobi due to ease of travel requirements.

KAM official Vimal Shah says it is the Customs Union which started in January that highly benefited manufacturers and that the common market will greatly benefit consumers. “Allowing free trade and free movement will make a big difference. Stage by stage it will open up the region. It is a signal we are moving in the right direction of the integration.

“From January we have been having free trade in goods but from tomorrow (today), we shall be having free trade in services,” Mr Shah said in an interview. He said Kenyan manufacturers keen on benefiting from the common market would now have to plan for the region’s 126 million population.

Investments have to be big to cater for the expanded market, as it becomes a more attractive destination for ventures.

Operate everywhere

The businesses will further be able to operate everywhere in the region without any hassle. Free movement of people would however be hindered for sometime as Uganda and Tanzania had no national identity cards. Rwanda, which has since allowed Kenyans to work there without permits has developed a new generation machine readable ID card while Kenya, is in process.

Mr Shah said Kenya was enjoying huge supplies of soya beans and sunflower seeds from Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya on the other hand supplied detergents, margarines, cooking fat and baking powder to the neighbours. Supplies of popular Uganda alcoholic drink — Waragi — have also increased in Kenya.

Mr Shah said goods from outside the region would now enter with same tariff and that EAC ministers could only change the taxes if they all agreed. The EAC countries are, however, yet to harmonise their taxes. East Africans can now get jobs in any of the five countries, a proof that opportunities were on the increase.

“The common market will grow all economies with companies operating wherever they felt competitive. Uganda and Tanzania have been growing faster than Kenya. Kenya will also have to look at ways of cutting its electricity costs as they are higher than in Tanzania and Uganda,” Mr Shah said.

The official was happy that the region would also become one big tourist destination. Farming would be productive, as residents would be allowed to lease land anywhere. A human resource consultant, Mr Peter Ouma, said Kenya stood to benefit a lot from jobs in the region as it has a high number of trained and skilled personnel.

Mr Ouma, of Swift Management Consultants in Nairobi, said Kenyans should capitalise on the common market, seek jobs in EAC countries and remit money home for development. Consumer Information Network chief executive Samuel Ochieng said the prices of various products and services would go down.

“We should however safeguard against infiltration of substandard products. We need consumer interests mechanism established in the integrated market,” Mr Ochieng said. A consumer protection law being established in Kenya, he said, would soon be taken to the Attorney General for final draft.

“We want quality goods and fair prices,” he said and expressed happiness that a lot of food was now coming from Tanzania. He cited sugar, wheat and maize flour as other products whose prices were expected to go down due to the expanded market.

In a statement posted on EAC website, secretary general Juma Mwapachu said the start of Common Market Protocol was a complex and long process. He said the process was complex in terms of what was required to be undertaken at the levels of the partner States and EAC.