Centre for Law Policy Innovation Initiative · Transcript · · Updated
KTA ANNUAL AFRICA TECHNOLOGY AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SYMPOSIUM - DAY TWO – Transcript
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- The East Africa Business Council recorded approximately 14 billion in intra-regional trade in 2024, while intra-EAC trade remains at 12.5%.
- The European Union and its member states Germany, France, and Estonia are investing around 28 million euro in grants to advance a digital market.
- The Uganda Revenue Authority is developing the new e-tax system 2, which will allow taxpayers to manage transactions directly on their phones.
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speaker and moderator and facilitator and participant who has taken part of this conversation. Thank you. I would also like to thank the team behind this event of course that made this possible. They put in a great deal of coordination and tireless nights. So I really thank you for that.
And lastly, thank you to all the people in this room. I know it's not easy to make time out of your day to come attend a conference all day. So thank you very much for coming. you are very much a part of this and we are very glad to have you in the room today. So today I encourage us to be open, engage honestly and share our experiences and think practically about how we can bring uh
the goal of an Africa's digital single market to a reality. Thank you. So to lead us in our first remarks this morning uh is a board director of East African uh business council and a commerciallydriven business development and marketing executive with over 20
years of progressive leadership across subsaharan Africa. uh Oscar brings a deep uh expertise in designing, executing and governing high impact growth strategies across complex and multi-country and multi- sector environments. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Oscar Kamukama.
Thank you, Mr. MC. for purposes of my German sister who is here. Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
Uh representatives of government, Africa continental free trade area, GIS and other ESC development partners. I thought my ancestors are speaking to me.
Uh sorry, Development Partners, business leaders, innovators, and distinguished delegates. My name is Oscar Kamama. I'm an East African resident in Uganda.
From the way Trac is looking at me, she's like, "This guy is a Ugandan." I'm an East African resident in Uganda because we are speaking matters regional integration. I bring you greetings from the EABC, East Africa Business Council. The East Africa Business Council is the apex advocacy body of all
>> our mandate is policy advocacy. reducing NTBs, non-tariff barriers, these are trade restrictions, and then promoting regional integration. Today, we are discussing two issues that are increasingly central to Africa's economic transformation. That's digital trade and intellectual property. For the private sector, technology is not simply about innovation. It's about opening markets. It's about reducing the cost of
doing business. It's about protecting ideas, attracting investment as well as creating employment. But our challenge is to ensure that African businesses do not simply consume technologies but also to create, own, commercialize and export digital products, services and intellectual property. DTO trading
and opportunity for East Africa. Ladies and gentlemen, the global digital economy presents enormous opportunities for African enterprises. Unique tad estimates that the e-commerce sales across 43 countries reached 27 million.
My sister from Fedback Africa and Namb will improve on my numbers, but that's the last time I checked. In Africa, in Africa today, we have four digital and crossber trade startups that are success stories. These are platforms that remove structural friction from the African trade by automating supply chains, digitalizing custom documentation and enabling seamless
crossber B2B transactions. The four companies are one anchor from Kodiva. We have matter MTA matter in Nigeria. Then Omni Retail Nigeria, Flatterwave and Korawich are pan African. For the ESC, the question is simple. How can our businesses capture greater share of opportunities available? The EABC recorded approximately 14 billion in intra
regional trade in 2024. Allow me to paint you a picture. The intra European trade that is countries in Europe trading with each other stands at 65%. Then the intraasia trade this is countries in Asia trading with each other stands at about 63%.
Intra North America trade that is countries in North America trading with each other stands about 53.5%. What about intra trade? IntraES trade is at is below 15%. It's actually at 12.5%.
So the eight partner states Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Dwandi, Diara, Congo, South uh Somalia if we are not trading with each other who is going to trade with us? 60% of what is produced in Europe stays in Europe. Over 60% of what's uh produced in Asia stays in Asia. Over 50% of what is produced in the North America stays in North America. And at ESC we
are below 15%. So and we have a very huge market size 33 million people. That's our market size at ESC. So we should be trading with each other. And we even have a combined GDP of $312 billion US.
So regional integration must go beyond fiscal borders. We must also integrate our regional markets. EABC therefore advocates practical measures simplify cross border trade, improve digital payment compatibility, harmonize relevant regulations and expand markets across ESC.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to announce that East Africa Business Council in collaboration with GISZ and the European Business Network is in process of establishing a digital trade sub community within the East Africa Business Council. The initiative will provide a platform for businesses, tech companies, fintech companies to share and collaborate experiences and advocate for an enabling digital trade environment across the ESC. The project
is actually the driver of that project is Mr. Rundo. The project is called DEP digital economy and e-commerce e- payment and public eervices program.
Our second priority is IP protection and commercialization. Across ESC interp entrepreneurs are developing brands, software, new products, creating creative works and innovative business solutions. Yet innovation alone is not enough. Businesses must also protect and commercialize what they create. A trade a trademark protects brand identity. A copyright protects original creative
works and software. A patent protects qualifying inventions. Industrial designs protect distinctive appearance of products. IP protection has historically been ra low and paper based in Africa. However, there's a new cohort of AIdriven legal tech firms automating trademark registrations, software licensing and contract compliance. We
have uh three good companies. There's case in Nigeria, legal doctrine in Algeria, in Kenya, it's Cavendries and then South Africa Creative Contracts. We must make IP protection accessible, affordable and commercially useful to African businesses. So what governments and private sector must do? Ladies and gentlemen, building building a competitive digital economy requires
strong PPPs, public private partnerships or private uh public private collaboration. I would like highlight four priorities. One, harmonize digital trade rules, improve crossber payments.
Three, empowermemes. Four, strengthen intellectual property. The opport the objectives should be to regulate for trust, innovation and growth, not to regulate the opportunity. The East Africa Business Council remains committed to facilitating dialogue between businesses, governments and regional institutions to barriers to address barriers that undermine competitiveness and digital trade. A call to action. Ladies and gentlemen,
our ambitions must not stop at the ESC border. We can trade domestically as Uganda but let's look at the export markets. Then of course we have the ESC eight partner states. Then we have the Africa cornetto free trade area. After has a market size of 1.4 billion people.
It has a combined GDP of four $3.4 trillion and Uganda we are already somewhere I think there is initiative we have in place. We are exporting powdered milk to to Algeria. The milk moves from Uganda to Mombasa. It takes about 30 days to algae. The government of Uganda has signed an MOU. Uh it's about 2,100 tons
of powdered milk. Uh the value is about $8 million, which is about 32 billion Uganda shillings. Now, Algeria spends 700 to $800 million per anam on powdered milk alone being imported from Europe.
So go government of Uganda and government of Algeria have signed an MOU with and Algeria is saying that they can actually send 500 million of that budget peram to East Africa and most you know principally to Uganda. So we are currently work in progress. We have at least $8 million.
It's a three-year contract. So after Africa free trade area is possible. It could be in baby steps but it will happen in the mighty name of Jesus.