EAC single currency set for use next year

ARUSHA, Tanzania

The East African Community (EAC) member states are scheduled to start using the single currency from early next year.

The community Secretary General, Dr Peter Mathuki, said here yesterday that the technical process to that effect will be fast-tracked in order to be completed before the end of this year.

“We are late and need to run,” he said.

He was addressing a CEOs Roundtable breakfast engagement on East African regional integration organized by the East African Business Council (EABC) in conjunction with KCB Bank here,

A single EA trading and investment area will only have meaning if the biggest barrier to trade, that is different currencies, is removed into one currency, acceptable across all borders, he said, referring to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as well as Rwanda, Burundi and South-Sudan.

Back in 2015, central bank governors from the five EAC states (before South Sudan joined), during the 18th ordinary meeting of the EAC monetary affairs committee projected that the EAC single currency will start circulating in 2024.

The quest to form a single currency requires establishing a joint central bank as the crucial step towards the new currency, and onwards to the East African Political Federation.

John Bosco Kabisa, the EABC CEO said that the roundtable meeting was themed ‘enhancing a private sector-led integration and emerging opportunities in East Africa.”

Judith Lubuva, the KCB regional manager said financial institutions like KCB Bank have already taken the pioneering step towards regional monetary union as their clients can deposit and draw money in any of their branches across the sub-region with ease.

EABC, in supporting the speeding up of the monetary union, sought for resolution of pending issues like the finalisation of the comprehensive review of the common external tariff (CET), harmonization of domestic taxes, harmonization of product standards, and activation of the EAC Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Dr Mathuki underlined.

Regional Commissioner John Mongella said at the roundtable that EAC intra-trade has been rapidly improving in the past six months. - IPPMedia