KINSHASA, DR Congo
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs (EAC) Rebecca Kadaga has said that if everything goes according to plan, the East Africa Community will by 2024 have a Single Currency.
Speaking during the Uganda-DR
Congo Business Summit in Kinshasa, Ms Kadaga said member states are now working
on the finer details to choose a country to host the East African Monetary
Institute that will later become the East Africa Central Bank
“By the end of this year, we
should be knowing which country is hosting the monetary institute. The
institute will be the East African Central Bank … We expect that if we
move according to plan, by 2024, we shall have a Single Currency,” she told
more than 200 delegates at the summit.
Already, Ms Kadaga noted
Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya have submitted requests to host the
institute and the four countries are being reviewed for a decision.
Ms Kadaga, was responding to a
concern in which traders had said they were finding difficulties to trade in
certain currencies.
The EAC now has
seven member states including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi,
South Sudan and DR Congo, which formally joined the bloc in April. However,
only four, apart from DR Congo, have so far ratified the Single Currency
Protocol.
South Sudan remains an
observer state because it has not yet harmonised internal laws and still has
laws that prevent free movement of people.
The Monetary Union is the
third step in the EAC regional integration that is expected to be capped by
Political Federation. Already, EAC member states have been working on full
attainment of a Customs Union and a Common Market, amid a number of challenges
which include non-tariff barriers, trade blockades and closure of border
points.
Whereas the EAC has set 2024
as the year of attaining the Monetary Union, a 2020 report by United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa noted that divergences in monetary policies
continue to stand in the way of attaining the single currency.
“It is critical to examine how
economies are converging before forming a monetary union,” the report said,
noting that an assessment of ceilings for inflation, fiscal deficit, a gross
public debt and a sufficient level of foreign exchange reserves had returned a
lot of convergencies, which partner states need to align before forming a
Monetary Union. Speaking during the same summit, Mr David Livingstone
Ebiru, the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) executive director, said
Uganda will ensure that all goods that are exported to DR Congo meet required
standards.
The Uganda-DR Congo Business
Summit, organised by Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and the Office of
the Presidential Advisor - Special Duties, seeks to help Uganda investors find
investment opportunities in DR Congo.
Mr Stephen Asiimwe, the PSFU
executive director, said the event is a reflection of what the business
community in the two countries want to engage in.
No comments:
Post a Comment