Going gets tough for small-scale traders

Busia. Small-scale traders, conducting cross-border businesses across East Africa, are being negatively impacted by some of the decisions made by some member countries within the trading bloc.

As a result, they are unable to yield maximum benefits from the presence of the East African Community Common Market (EAC-CM) which provides for free movement of goods, labour, capital and services.

Speaking here during a training for trainers on the simplified guide for micro and small scale women cross border traders and service providers within the EAC this week, the traders said decisions on change in tariffs and repeated trade bans among member states were now the leading stumbling block to doing business in the region.

The German Development Cooperation (GIZ) is supporting the sensitization of the simplified guide with a view to supporting the EAC towards realising its strategic vision of growing the capacity of cross border micro and small women enterprises.

“Small scale business women and underprivileged groups are highly entrepreneurial and are expected to be the biggest beneficiaries if EAC expands awareness on current EAC cross border laws. Women form the core of the agricultural labour force, they own and operate the majority of businesses in the informal sector especially border points” said the GIZ cluster coordinator in charge of the EAC, Dr Kirsten Focken.

According to Dr Focken, the cross border capacity development programme which was launched in Busia this week was an important initiative to bridge the gender income inequality gap that has existed for over two decades in EAC.

According to the chairperson for the Kenyan side of the Busia Cross-border Traders Sacco, Ms Florence Atieno, when decisions are made by some member states, information reaches traders too late so much that they end up losing money in the process.

Ms Atieno, who chairs a Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (Sacco) that has a total of 600 members, said governments need to inform small scale cross border traders in advance before making decisions that will impact on their businesses.

Ms Joyce Ndossy, the Kilimanjaro Regional chairperson for Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce (TWCC), shared similar sentiments, narrating how maize farmers in the country (Tanzania) suffered due to an abrupt ban on maize exports.

Currently, a bag of maize in Tanzania goes for between Sh18,000 and Sh25,000 but according to Ms Ndossy, this would not have happened if the government had not banned exports.

“As soon as our government announced the ban, Kenyan traders shifted to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). They imported maize from Malawi, Uganda and Zambia…By the time we realized that we were losing out, the price for a bag of maize has gone down drastically from as high as Sh70,000 each,” she said.

Much as the ban might have been informed by genuine reasons, lack of information to traders put them on the losing end.

Small scale traders are on the losing end when countries engage in trade wars, including a November 2017 decision by Tanzania to burn 6,400 chicks worth Sh12.5 million that were illegally imported into the country.

That was followed by troubles at the Holili/Taveta One Stop Border Post with Kenyan traders complaining that they were being harassed by Tanzanian authorities. Sometime later, Tanzanian traders were reportedly arrested by Kenyan authorities on allegations of conducting their businesses without possessing valid documents.

“This does not go down well with the integration agenda,” said Ms Ndossy. According to the chairperson for the Uganda side of the Busia Women Cross-border Traders Association, Ms Mariam Babu, Kenya’s 2017 ban on poultry products from Uganda devastated them. Fifteen months later, a comprehensive analysis was undertaken which established that Uganda had become free of avian influenza disease that had precipitated the ban in the first place.

“We were happy when the ban was lifted and after ascertaining that Uganda was free from the disease but later, we were told that the lifting of the ban applied only to three Ugandan companies. That dealt us another blow,” said Ms Babu.

The three companies were Hudani Manji Holdings-Rainbow which deals in wholesaling and retailing of the products in Uganda, South Sudan, Congo and Rwanda as well as SR Afrochick and Kukuchic.

With limited education and a lack of awareness for their rights, most small scale traders are also exposed to harassment which forces them to issue some form of bribery, including sexual inducement, to security officials at the border.

“This is very common at the Busia Border and it involves security officials from both countries,” said Ms Babu whose association has a total of 1,200 members. The members are grouped in accordance with the type of products that they export including Fruits and Vegetables, Cereals as well as poultry products.

A customs official from the Uganda Revenues Authority (URA), Mr Reagan Basoga asked women to ensure that they present their grievances against security officials to relevant authorities so they can be dealt with once and for all.

“Through a join programme by the World Bank and Comesa, a manual has been developed that is used in training cross border traders and officials so that each player knows his limits,” he said, noting that being one of the top players in cross-border businesses, they stand a chance of dealing with many forms of complaints from the traders.

A member of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) from Rwanda, Ms Francoise Uwumukize said she would take the highlighted challenges to the regional law making body, exuding confidence that her legislators will give the issues the importance that they deserve.

“What these discussions tell us is that all governments within the region have not been able to meet the aspirations of cross-border traders…I will bring the issues to the Eala gender caucus and ensure that the challenges are discussed and dealt with,” said Ms Uwumukiza who is a member of Eala’s General Purpose Committee.