A single currency for the East African Community (EAC) can be achieved within the next three or four years, Peter Mathuki, the bloc’s secretary general, has reportedly said.
"This year will are going to finalize where we will have the East Africa Monetary institute – the constitution that will create a roadmap for having one currency. Hopefully in the next 3-4 years will have a common currency," the official said.
The initial deadline for the project was 2024, but a technical working group later said that it should be moved to 2031. According to the secretary general's latest statements, the plan could be implemented sooner than expected.
"The single currency will ease business and movement of persons within the region. It is in line with our goal to make the region borderless so that people can move and trade freely as envisioned in the Common Market Protocol," Mathuki pointed out.
The Common Market Protocol has been in force since 2010 with the goal of creation of the common currency, and, in eventually, a full political federation.
Mathuki also stressed the positive trends in the development of intra-bloc trade, noting that the value of trade between member states reached $9.5 billion in 2022, compared to the 2019 figure of $7.1 billion.
It has also been reported that the EAC is sending a delegation to Somalia in connection with the country’s intention to join the bloc. Representatives of the Horn of Africa nation applied for Somalia's membership in the community in March 2012.
According to Mathuki, Somalia's entry to the organization could be of great value for the EAC.
"The exploitation of Somalia’s blue economy resources such as fish and the expansive coastline is also set to boost the regional economy," he noted.
East African nations have a long history of close cooperation. One of the successive regional organizations, the EAC was created in 1967 and was active before its dissolution in 1977. The bloc was reestablished in 2000, currently consisting of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda. Since 2008, the bloc has been part of a common free trade area with the Southern African Development Community and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.