Periods of crisis are generally conducive to the return of protectionist policies, a temptation that in Africa has always traditionally been high. The government of Kenya is reported to have banned on Saturday 29 July international firms from engaging in clearing and forwarding business related to provision of land transport services in the country. The reason seems to be the fact that logistics firms in Kenya cannot compete with international shipping lines that operate land-based logistics services. According to the government, already 50 nations have enacted laws restricting foreign access to domestic transportation. But the question now is, will this measure increase logistics costs in an economy that has already experienced a sharp surge in the last years, especially after the increase of fuel prices? Logistics costs are typically incorporated by importers in the prices of goods to consumers, so the risk is that this restriction will further inflate prices in the country is high.

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In 2021, the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport issued the much contested Multimodal Transport Operators Commercial Licensing and Competency Certification Directive no. 802/2021 (MTO Directive) to open up the multimodal business sector, currently reserved to the state-owned Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Service Enterprise (ESLSE). The directive allows the provision of multimodal transport services (i.e. the offer of combined maritime-road-air-rail transport services under a single contract), only to those operators that are granted with a license issued by the Ethiopian Maritime Authority (EMA).

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