Burundi deposited the instruments of ratification of the AfCFTA agreement in 2021 and has put in place facilities to integrate this vast market. This was said at the beginning of July in a workshop on AfCFTA organized at the EAC level in Bujumbura. Burundian economic operators are invited to appropriate it as a market for distribution
Jean Marie Bobby Ndizeye, Director of Customs, Trade, Industry and Investments at the Ministry of East African Community Affairs, Youth, Sports and Culture: “Burundian economic operators must focus efforts on quality because it is difficult to compete in terms of quantity with large countries.”
According to Jean Marie Bobby Ndizeye, Director of Customs, Trade, Industry and Investments at the Ministry of East African Community Affairs, Youth, Sports and Culture, economic operators have an obligation to make trade profitable at the African level.
He recalls that since 2021, the African Union (AU) established the Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in March 2018. This provides for protocols on trade in goods, services, investment, intellectual property rights and competition policy. It is this area or this vast market, insists Mr. Ndizeye, that economic operators are called upon to make at the continental level.
The government’s will is manifested
Mr. Ndizeye says governments do not do business. For him, they are responsible for putting in place policies, regulations to facilitate business.
“The government has put in place a national strategy for the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement since January 2024. On May 28, 2024, a presidential decree established a national committee responsible for the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement,” he said. This shows the government’s desire to facilitate trade at the continental level. This is called the guided trade initiative.
And to hammer home: “The government will not sit back. It will continue to support the efforts of the private sector by strengthening the capacities of stakeholders in order to promote the conquest of this large market.”
Mr. Ndizeye informs that the government’s will is that Burundian businessmen are able to face any market at the continental level. Currently, he announces, there are instruments that guide the African market such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the African Trade Observatory (ATO) serving as a repository of data and commercial information. It allows to follow in real time the progress made in terms of commercial and economic integration in Africa.
He also cites Trade Map, an instrument that provides in the form of tables, graphs and maps, indicators on export performance, international demand, alternative markets, competing markets, as well as a directory of importing and exporting companies.
“With these instruments, today a Burundian trader can be aware of the conditions that guide an African market while in the country,” says Mr. Ndizeye.
Lack of transport infrastructure and single currency, a widespread challenge
Mr. Ndizeye deplores a lack of transport infrastructure and direct aircraft connections as well as a single currency on the African continent. This despite so many initiatives.
For example, he explains, Kenya and Tanzania tried to transport containers to African countries. “The journey took between 40 and 60 days to reach the destination,” he worries without being pessimistic. This is because, to a generalized challenge, we seek a solution together.
As for the narrowness of the country’s surface area, Mr. Ndizeye advocates the concentration of efforts on quality because it is difficult to compete in terms of quantity with vast countries.
Double taxation, a thorn in the side of economic operators
Mr. Ndizeye acknowledges that there are taxes collected by the OBR, the municipal administration or the town hall.
“A trader therefore finds himself faced with three state institutions which collect the same taxes,” he wonders.
He admits that the municipal tax is paid for a product sold in the same municipality. It is not collected by the municipality of origin of a product but rather by the municipality where the consumer market for this product is located, i.e. the destination municipality. Which is not always the case.
Despite this, Mr. Ndizeye wants to be reassuring. He states that since 2021, the general secretariat of the East African Community (ECA) has initiated work which consists of identifying all taxes, fees, and taxes having an equivalent effect.
National committees responsible for identifying these taxes have already drawn up a report. “The list is not exhaustive. After completing the identification, we will proceed either to harmonize or eliminate certain taxes,” he concludes.
A taxpayer from the region will be taxed with the same taxes in his country. In the territory of the ECA, there will be harmonized taxes throughout the community in accordance with the law.
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