By Kei Emmanuel Duku
Participants in the 24th East African Community Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Trade Fair have commended South Sudanese authorities for providing a secure and conducive environment for the event.
The trade fair, which concluded on December 5th at Freedom Square in Juba, focused on promoting innovation and skills development among member states.
Traders from across the region praised the South Sudanese government for facilitating their travel and operations, ensuring their safety, and contributing to the overall success of the event.
Uibbi Jafaiary Kiwanga, a business person from Tanzania dealing in groceries stated that right from Nimule border town they traveled in a convoy led by a team of security officers to Juba City and were briefed on security and safety within the City.
“Everything was simple and well organized, at the border (Nimule) everything was arranged and we didn’t take an hour, we just presented our travel documents and they were stamped,” narrated Jafaiary.
Meanwhile, Souveur Mbonimana, a businessman from Rwanda dealing in African Clothes said he arrived in Juba two days before the trade exhibition, and while at the border he did not face any challenge from the customs officials.
He added that despite security being provided to the traders within the exhibition center and exhibitors from Nimule up to Juba, some traders lost their money and phones in their handbags to Toronto nagas within the streets of Juba.
“Everything was okay, however, the insecurity along in the streets of Juba was too much, our collogue had the bag snatched by some young boys riding on a motorcycle, youths should learn to work hard to avoid such acts of robbing or stealing from visitors,” said Mbonimana.
Paul Ainebyona, the Managing Director of Pearl of Africa Cheese from Uganda described the demand for dairy products as a Win-Win market situation between Uganda and South Sudan.
Ainebyona stated that in the last week, his daily sales have not decreased, attributing it to many South Sudanese liking Cheese and Yogurt.
“Much I was able to meet my daily target, my core interest in coming for the trade exhibition was to create/expand our market, I have been showcasing my products in countries other than South Sudan so this is a big opportunity to boost our market network, demand here 50:50 but is still want tape into the virgin market in South Sudan,” stated Ainebyona.
Despite the positive experiences, Ainebyona raised concerns about customs procedures at the Nimule border and Gumbo-Shirkat.
He questioned the imposition of tariffs on exhibition goods, particularly in light of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
The (AfCFTA) agreement aims at increasing socioeconomic development, reducing poverty, and creating competition among producers.
Ainebyona added that the initial stock he came with for the exhibition was finished before the trade fair could end and when he ordered more stock from Kampala Uganda, he faced some challenges from the customs authorities in Gumbo-Shirkat, in collecting his cargo for the exhibition.
“Since we are under the East African Community, we were given documents, and even after presenting these documents some customs officials have the guard to ask for money, in future government should have discounted figures for such events to avoid delays in supplies,” he explained.
Ainebyona said he had to charge a relatively high price for his product to cover the 20,000 Pounds customs tariffs and other losses that would arise from unstable exchange rates of the South Sudanese Pounds against the US dollar.
Some of the countries that participated in the trade fair include Kenya, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia.