The East Africa Enterprise Council (EABC) is present process a management transition with Adrian Raphael Njau from Tanzania appointed as the brand new Performing Govt Director, taking up from John Bosco Kalisa.
Kalisa, A Rwandan nationwide, took up the reins of the EABC in June 2021 from his predecessor, Peter Mathuki, who was appointed to the East African Neighborhood (EAC) Secretariat.
His time period started through the troubled Covid-19 pandemic interval.
Regardless of taking up the EABC through the unprecedented Covid-19 interval, Kalisa instructed The New Occasions that he’s proud to go away the group that has constructed its popularity past the area.
Because the umbrella physique for the non-public sector in East Africa, EABC is tasked with making certain that there’s a conducive enterprise setting within the area, by coverage advocacy.
“I pushed for the adoption of 35% because the fourth band high price of the EAC Widespread Exterior Tariff, which ensured the safety of regional industrial capacities, thus driving the economic agenda within the area,” Kalisa stated.
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Non-tariff obstacles (NTBs) and protectionism on the nationwide stage have lengthy impeded the expansion of intra-EAC commerce. Nonetheless, Kalisa stated that in his tenure a major variety of NTBs had been eradicated and intra-regional commerce deepened.
“Throughout my tenure, we had been in a position to remove 200 NTBs and this facilitated the expansion of intra-EAC commerce which moved from 13% after I took over, to round 23% presently, bearing in mind the casual commerce within the area,” he stated.
Kalisa can also be credited with the expansion of EABC membership from 90 to 200 members inside a interval of two and half years, whereas income from membership contributions grew from 15 per cent to 32 per cent.
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Unfinished enterprise
Although boasting many achievements, Kalisa stated that there nonetheless stays unfinished enterprise on the EABC, a lot of which he hopes his successor will deal with.
Kalisa stated he had hoped to see EABC obtain monetary sustainability.
“I wished to make sure that 80% of EABC income comes from membership contributions versus the present state of affairs the place 70% of the group’s income comes from donor funding,” he famous.
He had envisioned that one of many methods by which that might have been achieved would have been by growing two plots of lands supplied to EABC by the governments of Rwanda and Tanzania, which he believes would make sure that the organisation will get a secure supply of revenue.
The brand new EABC roadmap, printed on July 4 2024, shortly earlier than Kalisa’s departure from the group, seeks to push for member states’ intervention to take away among the main obstacles to the move of commerce within the area.
The free motion of products and individuals inside the EAC has remained a problem, regardless of member states having signed the frequent market protocol greater than ten years in the past.
Kalisa stated that the brand new roadmap outlines this and plenty of different problematic areas that want pressing consideration and units new deadlines for options.
“We’ve been advocating for the free motion of individuals and items throughout the area, open skies, a borderless continent, the One Space Community and different initiatives outlined within the roadmap, to make sure that the area prospers by commerce,” he stated.
Kalisa is optimistic that his successor, who has been on the EABC for 15 years and labored carefully with him, will use his expertise and experience to take the organisation to the subsequent stage.
