Gold trade in East Africa: A den of Robbers?
Gold trade in East Africa is interesting: Countries that produce gold in thousands of Kilograms export tons of gold. Countries that do not feature among the top gold producers in Africa, produce more gold than countries listed as top gold producers. Three years ago, this publication noticed that Tanzania exported a lot of Gold to Burundi and Uganda between May 2020 and June 2021. At the height of Covid-19 lockdowns, the two countries’ exports outside EAC were in negative territory. Burundi’s extra EAC trade was negative 7 percent in May 2020 while Uganda’s was negative 54 percent. Then in June of that same year, Burundi’s extra-EAC trade rose sharply to 67 percent, and an astonishing 804 percent in July, before declining to 54 percent in September, according to a Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) Report. Uganda’s exports too, rose from negative 54 percent in May 2020 to 15 percent in June, 31 percent in July, and declined to 16 percent in October. The sudden increase...