TANZANIA TOPPLES SOUTH AFRICA AS KENYA’S TOP SOURCE OF IMPORTS IN AFRICA

Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) and his Tanzania counterpart President Samia Suluhu Hassan having a word during Kenya-Tanzania Business Forum at Serena Hotel on May 5, 2021.

Tanzania has become the largest source market for Kenya on the continent after overtaking South Africa, partly on the back of increased orders of maize and rice by millers.

Official trade statistics show expenditure on goods trucked from Tanzania nearly doubled last year to Sh54.47 billion from Sh27.88 billion the year before.

The 95.38 percent, or Sh26.59 billion, bump in imports catapulted Tanzania to the top position in Africa after orders from South Africa fell 3.72 percent to Sh44.08 billion, according to data collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

“Imports from Tanzania nearly doubled from Sh27.9 billion in 2020 to Sh54.5 billion in 2021 partly attributable to increase in imports of maize and rice from this country,” KNBS analysts wrote in the Economic Survey 2022.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and his counterpart Samia Suluhu in May last year pledged to end persistent strained trade relations between the two largest economies in the six-nation East African Community bloc which have, for years, hindered the smooth flow of goods and services.

Ms Suluhu’s visit to Nairobi touched off a series of joint trade meetings aimed at flattening barriers to the flow of goods.

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