Posted in Press Release
The East African Community (EAC) Secretary General, Amb. Dr Richard Sezibera, today officially opened a two-day Regional Trade and Feed the Future Coordination Conference organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the EAC.
The two day conference, which is taking place at the Kibo Palace Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania is aimed at enhancing collaboration and information sharing among USAID missions and Partners to improve integration, innovation and scaling up of results, will focus on the implementation of policy priorities and sharing lessons learned from across the region and initiatives.
Amb. Dr Richard Sezibera said that the EAC and US government have built and sustained a mutual and strategic partnership dating back to the EAC’s inception.
"The partnership continues to grow from strength to strength through common development objectives and funding for various programs including trade and investment, agriculture, environment, Health and institutional support," said Dr Sezibera.
"I wish to acknowledge and appreciate the tremendous contribution and investments that USAID has made in advancing regional integration particularly in the EAC Region," he added.
The Secretary General disclosed that in 2015, the EAC concluded a Cooperation Agreement on Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), adding that the implementation of the agreement would strengthen the capacities and enhance competitiveness of the EAC Partner States in areas of trade and agricultural development.
On his part, the USAID/Kenya and East Africa/Regional Economic Integration Office Director, Mr. Matthew Rees, hailed the efforts that the Community has made in implementing policy priorities, adding that this has promoted prosperity in the region.
Present at the conference were USAID mission staff, representatives from other US Government Agencies (USDA), implementing partners as well as officials from the EAC Partner States.
Posted in Press Release
The Secretary General of the East African Community, Amb. Dr Richard Sezibera today received Mr Sam Nkusi, Group Executive of Liquid Telecom, the leading independent data, voice and IP provider in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. The Secretary General, who was accompanied by Eng. Robert Achieng, EAC Senior Engineer in charge of Planning and Communications, warmly welcomed the Liquid Telecom Group Executive to the EAC Headquarters.
Mr Nkusi briefed Amb. Sezibera on the operations of Liquid Telecom and said the company was embarking on a project to build a new submarine cable infrastructure that will provide a cost-effective and reliable link for landlocked, southern, central and east African countries to the Internet and to the world.
“Leveraging Liquid Telecom's 20,000km-long fibre optic terrestrial network, this pan-African private sector project will support fast growing needs for Internet connectivity and help Africa’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector leapfrog towards achieving its Sustainable Development Goals” noted the Liquid Telecom CEO.
Mr. Nkusi reiterated that the cable, running along the East coast of Africa and into the Red Sea, will take a less congested route to Europe, and will interconnect with all existing networks and with other international submarine cables. According to Liquid Telecom, this will also address the need for mobile operators to increase internet speed delivered over their mobile broadband networks.
He said the project was a major step towards fulfilling EAC’s mission to widen and deepen Economic, Political, Social and Cultural integration in order to improve the quality of life of the people of East Africa.
The Secretary General hailed the private sector-led initiative and affirmed the Secretariat and the Community’s support to the project and urged Partner States to support the project. He noted that the biggest support EAC could provide towards the overall implementation of the project would be to provide a Cross-Border Inter-Connectivity Regulatory Framework in order to guide and facilitate inter-connections across borders within the EAC, and could possibly be shared with other regional economic blocks in Africa.