EAC Plans Sensitisation Drive

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

24 April 2011

Arusha — The East African Community (EAC) secretariat is mobilising resources to sensitise people on the Monetary Union negotiations.This follows pleas made by the High Level Task Force (HLTF), now spearheading the talks, which feels many East Africans were not aware of the process. The secretariat has also been urged to prepare the necessary arrangements to enable the task force to share experiences with other regional economic communities (RECs) that have a monetary union.

“This would enrich the proposed EA Monetary Union,” said a statement issued in Arusha yesterday by the Directorate of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. It added that the secretariat was still mobilising resources to facilitate both activities as the negotiations progress to another level.

The third meeting of the HLTF comprising senior officials from the five EAC partner states is slated to take place in Mwanza from April 26 to 30. They are expected to, among others, consider the provisions of the draft protocol in four areas – macroeconomics, statistics, financial sector and payment and settlement system.

Senior officials from the EAC member countries are drawn from the ministries of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and EAC Affairs. Others are representatives from the central banks, capital markets authorities, insurance and pensions regulatory agencies, and national statistics offices. The inaugural meeting to negotiate the EA Monetary Union (Eamu) Protocol was held from 17 to 21 January 2011 in Arusha.

This was followed by the second meeting held in Bujumbura, Burundi from 28 February to 4 March 2011.The latter meeting considered the structure of the proposed Protocol.A monetary union is deemed crucial for the future prosperity of East Africa, and pertains to the role which East African economic integration will play in spurring economic growth and development in this region as well as how the region relates to the rest of the world.

The current drive towards economic integration in the EAC began with the implementation of the customs union in 2005. This was followed by East African common market, beginning in 2010, under which there is free movement of goods, services, labour and capital within East Africa. The primary rationale for the monetary union is to reduce the costs and risks of transacting business across the national boundaries of those countries comprising the monetary union.

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