02 Sep, 2025 – On the same day maize prices in Nairobi hit a record high in mid-2024, truckloads of surplus grain sat unsold in Zambia.
Farmers complained of rotting stocks while, just across borders, families queued for relief food.
When Impact AI News visited Bujumbura last October, we witnessed the price of sugar almost triple in Burundi as compared to countries like Kenya, and buyers scrambling for the little that was already in short supply.
A kilogram for retailers jumped from $1.17 (3,500 Burundi francs) to $2.68 (8,000 francs).
Managers at Moso Sugar Company (SOSUMO), the only state producer, blamed rising costs, while businesspeople hoarded stock.
However, while sugar in Zambia commanded low demand due to excess supply according to retailers we talked to.
This paradox, surplus in one country, shortages in another, remains a defining challenge for Eastern and Southern Africa.
COMESA Secretariat’s Dr. Dennis Mutanda praised the bloc’s efforts to design tools addressing such unique economic hurdles.
He lauded the newly launched Inclusive Digitization for East and Southern Africa (IDEA) programme as progressive move made by the bloc.
Secretary-General Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe stressed that COMESA must leverage its collective strengths: “Everything we do must have a positive impact on the regional population.”
The problem isn’t just erratic weather or droughts; it is information gaps and poor coordination.
For decades, governments have planned costly imports without knowing what’s available nearby, while traders lack visibility into surplus markets.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) believes it has a fix: a mobile application for the Regional Food Balance Sheet (RFBS) under the IDEA programme.
RFBS is and AI-driven innovation that supports regional food system who aim is to accelerate and provide forecasts for major food commodities.
“We must work together for win-win cooperation to share weal and woes,” said COMESA Chairman and Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye.
Launched first as a web-based platform for policymakers, the RFBS consolidates data on food production, reserves, and trade across COMESA’s 21 member states.
The new app will extend this to farmers, traders, millers, and consumers, using machine learning models.
“This app is not just a government tool. It’s a regional compass for anyone in the food supply chain,” said a COMESA agriculture official.
“It will allow us to see who has what, where, and at what time.”
The mobile dashboard aggregates data from ministries, surveys, trade records, map surpluses and deficits across borders.
AI algorithms will also trigger early warnings when staple stocks run low and facilitate trade by linking surplus zones with deficit markets.
Trade and Development Bank (TDB) President and CEO Admassu Tadesse emphasized that COMESA’s agenda is to create opportunities for people to be productively engaged: “We want to go the extra mile to ensure things work for all those in regional trade.”
In practice, a Kenyan miller could track Uganda’s maize surplus before buying from overseas, while a Malawian trader could anticipate shortages in Zimbabwe.
The desktop version has already saved money. COMESA says its data helped at least three governments reduce redundant wheat imports in 2023.
Analysts believe broader access, especially via mobile platforms, could multiply these benefits.
“This could be a game-changer if it reaches farmers and traders,” director of Tullia Tea Limited Company Patricia Kimani who is also a member of the COMFWB, told Impact AI News.
“We’ve seen too many cases where surplus maize in Tanzania rots while Kenya imports from overseas.”
For traders, the gains are personal. “I lose money when I buy at inflated prices, only to learn later there was cheaper stock nearby,” John Mwangi, a Nairobi grain trader told this writer
“If this app works, it means fewer blind guesses.”
The RFBS joins a wider wave of digital agriculture tools in Africa, from mobile weather apps to blockchain-based insurance.
What makes it unique is its regional scope in a fragmented trade environment.
The lesson so far: data is power, but only if shared broadly. COMESA’s pivot to mobile signals recognition that food security is everyone’s business.
But hurdles remain. Poor internet connectivity and expensive internet broadband in countries like Zimbabwe, Burundi, Zambia, DRC, Djibouti and Eritrea could lock out rural farmers. Updating reliable data across 21 countries remains both technical and political.
Critics also warn against over-reliance on digital fixes without better roads and storage.
“An app cannot move grain from Zambia to Kenya,” cautions economist Paul Muthui.
“It can highlight where food is, but without transport agreements and infrastructure, shortages will persist.”
COMESA concedes the point: “We are not claiming this is the silver bullet. But without information, every other intervention becomes guesswork.”
The app will be piloted in select states before wider rollout. If successful, it could serve as a model for blocs like ECOWAS in West Africa.
For now, the vision is modest but significant: reduce wasted surpluses, cut unnecessary imports, and ensure families don’t starve while food sits across the border.
As ICT expert Peter Okello puts it: “Rainfall is unpredictable. Politics is unpredictable. But information should not be. That’s the gap this app seeks to close.”
Since its formation 30 years ago, COMESA has grown to 21 countries, 640 million people, a GDP of $1 trillion, and trade worth $40 billion, according to dat on its website.
Yet intra-COMESA trade remains at just 10 percent, compared to 15 percent in SADC and 25 percent in the EAC.
“The onus is on us to do more and do it better,” saye COMESA Vice-Chair and Kenya’s president William Ruto.
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