When Rwanda and Kenya harmonised their calling rates under the East African Community’s One Network Area (ONA) in 2015 to free telephone communication, it was not expected that the dividend would be immediate or dramatic.
But within one year of the ONA implementation, call traffic between the two countries increased by a startling 900 times, bringing with it many economic benefits.
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It was a classic example of what liberalisation can do, opening up the market to everyone’s advantage.
The example was shared at the 55th African Airlines Association (AFRAA) Annual General Assembly in Kampala in November last year to illustrate how airlines and their countries stand to gain with the liberalisation of airspace.
The message to open the skies appears to have reached home, seeing that the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has just passed a motion seeking to remove restrictions imposed by member states on their airspace.
And, as if on cue after hedging for a long time, Tanzania has just indicated its intention to join the Single Africa Air Transport Market (SAATM) protocol, following Uganda’s recent announcement to do the same.
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Their declared intention is important and gives a nod to the EALA motion, which can’t be viewed outside the protocol.
SAATM is a key plank under the African Union Agenda 2063, a blueprint to transform the continent. It aims to advance the liberalisation of civil aviation and spur the continent's economic integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Kenya and Rwanda are the only two countries in the EAC to have already signed and ratified the protocol. They are also among 16 other countries under the SAATM Pilot Implementation Project (PIP) to gauge implementation successes and impediments and improve adoption.
If things should go according to plan, the project hopes to improve traffic operations across Africa from the current level of 14.5 per cent to 30 per cent by 2025.
Success, however, must begin with the regional economic communities.
Thus, the importance of EALA’s petition to its member states. It is more urgent than it might appear because of a persistent litany of issues hounding the Community that desperately need addressing.
Newspaper reports, for instance, explain how cargo volumes have largely stagnated in the EAC region due to the high cost of air cargo, lengthy bureaucracy in obtaining clearance, airline scheduling delays, and inadequate infrastructure like cold rooms and route restrictions – all of which make it difficult to access new markets.
They cite the East African Business Council (EABC) of which the region also seems comparatively worse off in the already lamented issue of expensive air travel within the continent.
On average, passenger departure charges account for 13 per cent of the ticket price for flights in the EAC and eight per cent for flights to other African countries outside the EAC.
Shocked by this finding, I was initially sceptical about a cited airfare comparison between a Kampala-Arusha flight and the longer Washington-Dallas in the US.
The comparison was to illustrate why it is costly to do business in the region. A Google search as I wrote this confirmed that a return flight between the two EAC cities costs a whopping USD 480 compared to the USD 220 between the two US cities.
The EABC findings further show that passenger departure and transfer fees also remain relatively high in the EAC compared to charges at airports in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Europe and the Middle East.
This places the East African Community at a gross disadvantage, with the obvious result that it might not hark it as AfCFTA pushes to enter full steam to integrate trade in the continent.
Yet, the issues hounding the EAC are symptomatic of the continent as a whole which must enjoin every country in their respective economic regions if everyone must gain.
Thirty-seven countries have so far signed up to the SAATM protocol, of which only 23 have ratified the protocol.
The thing to note, however, is that most of the countries are yet to sign up or ratify the protocol for fear that the competition it will bring to them may be too stiff, threatening the survival of their national airlines.
It is to these countries that the example of the 900 times improved telephone traffic in EAC One Network Area was directed.
It is also an example that each partner state of the East African Community must bear in mind. They should heed the call in the EALA motion.