Trademark (EA) asks leaders to act swiftly to contain Covid-19 3rd wave

By Tobby Otum

Trademark East Africa [TMEA] wants leaders of countries to come out and deal ruthlessly with the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

TMEA Research and Learning Director Anthony Mveyange said the common enemy of development at the moment is the outbreak of the deadly disease.

He emphasized for a common global approach in ruthlessly dealing with the pandemic.

“We must observe all protocols on health laid down by authorities of respective governments,” he said.

Anthony said they are very stringent in the management of COVID-19, and they are under a keen watch by their partners over the measures to contain the surge of the virus.

He spoke during the closing of a three day workshop on Technical Adoption of Kenya’s Strategy for Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) held at Paradise beach hotel in Mombasa county.

The TMEA Research and Learning Director reminded the participants that they must protect themselves so that they can live tomorrow and save a life.

Anthony said in his speech through their flagship Country Programme they have been supporting trade policy reform efforts and other trade facilitation measures since 2011.

He said they want to assure the government that their organization will stand with it and other partners to support actionable and implementable strategy that forms a reasonable basis for other countries.

“The journey is long, but worth embarking on as we are faced with low hanging fruits to harvest but we must tend to them to increase,” he pointed out.

The TMEA officer said the strategy provides a roadmap to follow and has a framework to monitor things are on course in delivering the AfCFTA mandates for Kenya.

Anthony said Kenya has potential to benefit from the AfCFTA and urged it to take every actor’s commitment, including leadership, businesses and the population at large.

He pointed out it will be unfortunate to let go of the potential AfCFTA benefits and urged the government to take advantage of the 1.3 billion market size that Africa offers.