The East Africa Business Council (EABC) is undergoing a leadership transition with Adrian Raphael Njau from Tanzania appointed as the new Acting Executive Director, taking over from John Bosco Kalisa.

Kalisa, a Rwandan national, took up the reins of the EABC in June 2021 from his predecessor, Peter Mathuki, who was appointed to the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat.

His term began during the troubled Covid-19 pandemic period.

Despite taking over the EABC during the unprecedented Covid-19 period, Kalisa told The New Times that he is proud to leave the organization that has built its reputation beyond the region.

As the umbrella body for the private sector in East Africa, EABC is tasked with ensuring that there is a conducive business environment in the region, through policy advocacy.

"I pushed for the adoption of 35% as the fourth band top rate of the EAC Common External Tariff, which ensured the protection of regional industrial capacities, thus driving the industrial agenda in the region,” Kalisa said.

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Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and protectionism at the national level have long impeded the growth of intra-EAC trade. However, Kalisa said that during his tenure a significant number of NTBs were eliminated and intra-regional trade deepened.

"During my tenure, we were able to eliminate 200 NTBs and this facilitated the growth of intra-EAC trade which moved from 13% when I took over, to around 23% currently, taking into account the informal trade in the region,” he said.

Kalisa is also credited with the growth of EABC membership from 90 to 200 members within a period of two and half years, while revenue from membership contributions grew from 15 per cent to 32 per cent.

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Unfinished business

Though boasting many achievements, Kalisa said that there still remains unfinished business at the EABC, much of which he hopes his successor will handle.

Kalisa said he had hoped to see EABC achieve financial sustainability.

"I wanted to ensure that 80% of EABC revenue comes from membership contributions as opposed to the current situation where 70% of the organization's revenue comes from donor funding,” he noted.

He had envisioned that one of the ways through which that would have been achieved would have been through developing two plots of lands offered to EABC by the governments of Rwanda and Tanzania, which he believes would ensure that the organisation gets a stable source of income.

The new EABC roadmap, published on July 4 2024, shortly before Kalisa's departure from the organization, seeks to push for member states’ intervention to remove some of the major barriers to the flow of trade in the region.

The free movement of goods and persons within the EAC has remained a challenge, despite member states having signed the common market protocol more than ten years ago.

Kalisa said that the new roadmap outlines this and many other problematic areas that need urgent attention and sets new deadlines for solutions.

"We have been advocating for the free movement of people and goods across the region, open skies, a borderless continent, the One Area Network and other initiatives outlined in the roadmap, to ensure that the region prospers through trade,” he said.

Kalisa is optimistic that his successor, who has been at the EABC for 15 years and worked closely with him, will use his experience and expertise to take the organisation to the next level.