East African Integration moving closer to reality with the signing of the Monetary Union Protocol this week

East African integration is moving closer to reality with the signing of the East African Monetary Union Protocol during the Heads of State Summit to be held later this week in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

After the endorsement of the East African Monetary Union Protocol, the next 2 years will see the passage of bills to support it. The introduction of a single currency will be spelled out in these bills, and methods and processes which member states can join the monetary union and use the currency as legal tender.

The Heads of State Summit is expected to announce the dates for the commencement of the single currency. It is expected that the start will be upon ratification by all 5 partner states namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

According to senior officials in the East African Community, there are still bottlenecks to be cleared for the trading bloc to have a properly functioning monetary union. It is expected that it will take about 10 years for the protocol to effectively start working.