EU Gives Comesa Countries Sh70b for Development
The Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) has received Sh70 billion from the European Union (EU) to fund various development projects secretary-general, Mr Erastus Mwencha has said.
Speaking in Nairobi on Wednesday, Mwencha said the EU is expected to release the money to the fund next month.
The fund, to be administered by the Lusaka-based Comesa secretariat, was created last year and approved by Heads of State during a summit in Nairobi last month.
Mwencha said most donor agencies had given money to countries under bilateral terms, but the funds were never disbursed due to bureaucracy and complex procedures of the donor agencies.
Sources say the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries had failed to use over Euros 22 billion (Sh1980 billion) from the European Development Fund in the last 15 years
"The first estimate of the development matrix, on which the European Commission has agreed to work jointly with us, indicates that additional resources will be required," Mwencha told a group of donors during a partners' meeting in Nairobi.
"Aid administration can be expensive to individual recipient countries and that is why we want our own regional account where such funds can be channelled through," he said.
Mwencha said the funds are in addition to those allocated to the region under the initiative.
The entire East and the Southern African region is expected to receive over Sh450 billion from the fund that has set aside Euros 22 billion to the ACP countries.
Most Comesa member States are negotiating a new trade arrangement with the EU to replace the existing Cotonou agreement between the block and 79 other ACP countries.
The proposed agreement, under the on-going Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), has categorised the ACP nations into groups as a way of promoting regional integration.
Kenya is grouped together with 15 other countries.
EPAs is expected to become effective from January next year for the East and Southern African (ESA) grouping.
"Particular attention will be paid to the negotiation process where development co-operation stands out as one of the main pillars together with market access," he said.
However, Mwencha said trade within the region and with the EU would help the region reduce poverty and meet other Millennium Development Goals agreed in New York seven years ago.
Trade and Industry PS, Mr David Nalo said with proper facilitation, the region could increase trade volumes by over Sh70 billion annually.
"In order to achieve this, key issues have to be addressed and among them is the removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in the intra regional trade," he said.
He said NTBs had contributed to the reduction of gains from trade by restricting domestic market access to regional exporters.