The Marenyo Community Cereal Bank (CCB), located in western Kenya, was formed in 2006 as part of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). MVP’s main goal was to help Marenyo CCB rise out of poverty and become more food secure. Five years later and with additional interventions by USAID/EA Competitiveness and Trade Expansion Program (COMPETE), Marenyo CBB is not only food secure, but they have also gained access to financing and have become traders in a regional market.

In 2010, USAID COMPETE built on MVP’s work by supporting the Agricultural Market Development Trust (AGMARK) to help Marenyo CCB organize and aggregate for the market. USAID COMPETE/AGMARK’s support included post harvest handling training and equipment (moisture meters, weighing scale, storage bags etc) and introducing the Marenyo CCB to the WFP P4P program and to agro dealers in the area. The agro dealers provided the Marenyo CCB with timely inputs, storage, and access to markets. The AGMARK trainings and agro dealer links helped the Marenyo CCB raise the quality of their produce. Before AGMARK intervention, Marenyo was growing a type of bean called Roscoco and attracting about 40 – 45 Kenya shillings per Kg. After AGMARK, Marenyo was growing the same kind of bean, Roscoco, but now attracting an average of 65 Kenya Shillings per Kg. The increase in price reflected quality, not market fluctuation.

Fast forward another two years, to 2011, and Marenyo CCB has taken their quality beans to the bank, literally. With support of USAID COMPETE and WFP P4P, Marenyo CCB and Equity Bank has signed a Purchase Order Finance (or line of credit deal) for KSH 2.1 million (USD 23,000) for purchase of 56 MT of beans against a contract issued by WFP. This is the first time that POF has been used in a WFP contract purchase and stands to set a groundbreaking precedent for smallholder farmer groups to get access to finance.

In just five years, Marenyo FBO has gone from struggling to put food on their table to entrepreneurial traders who have support from one of the largest and most progressive banks in town.  Marenyo CCB is now focused on diversifying their product and expanding their list of buyers. They have their sights set on a larger storage facility and their own truck for aggregation. “Our vision is to be able to get financing to buy maize from Uganda/Busia when we are facing shortages this side of the border and supply schools, hospitals and traders at a time when profit margins are better” (Mary Asiko, Chairlady of Marenyo CCB). With increased storage, a new truck, and their current financing scheme, Marenyo CCB will succeed in their vision.

Working with the EAC and national revenue authorities, COMPETE is developing both the policy and the platform for improved regional customs information exchange. The Revenue Authorities Digital Data Exchange (RADDEx), developed under a USAID Program in 2006, is the first largely successful implementation of customs connectivity in Africa. Its goal is to lower transportation costs through decreasing operational delays at border crossings. Since 2009, COMPETE has carried on the success in the initiative providing increased support to regional customs business processes as well as an updated and centralized electronic platform for exchange: RADDEx 2.0. RADDEx 2.0 includes improved operational support for border crossing stakeholders in tracking of customs declarations, tools for regional risk management and fraud detection, a customs messaging tool, workload projections and elimination of duplicate data entry. In addition, RADDEx 2.0 will provide a comprehensive reporting engine for trade statistics and trends based on real time customs transactions.

COMPETE has procured state of the art hardware to optimally power RADDEx 2.0, while tailoring the specifications to the individual needs of the revenue authorities. This hardware has landed in Kenya and is currently en route to its final destinations. It includes servers for each of the five EAC revenue authorities and the EAC Secretariat. Provision of the hardware will allow a timely, regional system roll out, without the weak links in infrastructure and capacity experienced during the initial RADDEx implementation as well as increased overall reliability. In addition, it provides enormous additional ICT capacity to the revenue authorities and a commitment to the success of RADDEx 2.0.

Over the past year, COMPETE has worked closely with the EAC Secretariat to coordinate and sponsor a series of regional customs and ICT workshops for the five national revenue authorities which will result in a regional pilot implementation of RADDEx 2.0 by early 2012.

USAID COMPETE recently supported EAFCA to draft an MOU that can be used with national focal points, such as coffee boards or exporters associations. The MOU will enable EAFCA to formalize its relationship with ToH countries and ensure the support and leverage of key organizations for critical activities like promotion and event marketing.

COMPETE also helped to overhaul Taste of Harvest procedures and protocols and develop a Taste of Harvest “implementers” manual that EAFCA can distribute to its national chapters and national ToH committees.  The step-by-step guide will help facilitate event preparation and implementation and make it easier for national organizers to promote and market the event.

Finally, COMPETE helped to update/create ToH marketing materials and dissemination documents that reflect the new expanded ToH as outlined in EAFCA’s five year strategic plan. All ToH documents now reflect the new vision of ToH and can more effectively communicate EAFCA’s and ToH’s value proposition to country-level stakeholders.

High logistics costs are a major barrier to East Africa’s competitiveness and to the region’s prospects for accelerated economic growth. High transport costs are a function of a number of factors, among them, multiplicity of institutions, processes and documentation in the cargo clearance process from the port of Mombasa in Kenya to the hinterland countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan. The multiplicity of players in the logistics supply chain in East Africa also breeds an environment for corrupt practices owing to lack of transparency.

Women play an important role in advocating for a corruption free trade environment particularly in trade logistics. In the past, women in East Africa lacked a platform to engage with policy makers. This has changed with the formation of the Women in Maritime in Eastern and Southern Africa (WOMESA). WOMESA was born out of the United Nation’s “Women In Development (WID)” initiative which is a world-wide initiative to empower women to drive development. WOMESA covers twenty four (24) countries in Eastern and Southern Africa and has its Secretariat in Mombasa, Kenya, at the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA). The current Chairperson of WOMESA is Nancy Karigithu, the Director General of KMA. The Kenya Chapter of WOMESA is headed by Evelyn Mwamure, Manager, Conventional Cargo, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

WOMESA is a potential partner for USAID in addressing issues impacting on trade logistics and competitiveness including anti-corruption. As part of cementing this partnership, the COMPETE Transit and Grants Team met with the Executive Committee of the Kenya Chapter of WOMESA to define modalities for a possible regional workshop for women in trade and logistics in East Africa. The ground breaking workshop is scheduled for the first quarter of 2012.

“Commodity Exchanges in Africa: Realizing the Potential and the Promise,” hosted by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) took place November 8 - 10, 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Steven Humphreys, Victor Gitobu and Ian Goggin represented COMPETE in Addis Ababa at the gathering that included nearly 400 participants from across Africa and the globe. Participants came from government, commodity trading, exchanges, regulators, technology solution providers, bankers, farmers’ groups, and development agencies. They all offered different viewpoints and engaged in honest dialogue with the help of BBC World News moderator, Komlar Dumor. It is hoped that the convening dialogue will lead to more interaction between national exchanges and greater trade opportunities in Africa.

http://www.commodityexchangesafrica.com