Kampala. East African Community (EAC) leaders
finally signed the Monetary Union Protocol (Eamu) yesterday but once
again decried a host of barriers that continue to slow down regional
integration.
“This is a very important step because we already
had customs union and common market protocols. But our weakness has
always been implementation,” said the outgoing chair of the EAC heads of
State Summit, President Yoweri Museveni.
Presidents of the five member countries of the
bloc signed the document at the Speke Resort Munyonyo on the outskirts
of the Ugandan capital at 4:20 pm as hundreds of their countries’
delegates and foreign diplomats watched.
The protocol is the third pillar of the East
African integration process after the customs union and the common
market protocols but may take much longer time (up to 10 years) to be
fully realised.
The event signalled unity among the five partner
states — Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda — after the recent
scare caused by the coming onto the scene of Coalition the Willing (CoW)
encompassing Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya.
The presidents and other speakers avoided touching
on the coalition which has been criticised by Tanzania and Burundi and
other groups and instead focused their speeches on strengthening the
Community.
President Uhuru Kenyatta who took over the chair
from Mr Museveni indirectly warned that East Africans must avoid “rumour
mongering” in pursuing their integration goal, a remark seen as being
directed to defuse concerns on CoW.
Though set to be fully realised in 10 years’
time, the implementation of the monetary union protocol will start in
January next year with the process to create institutions to oversee the
new monetary arrangements in the bloc.
These, according to EAC secretary general Richard
Sezibera, will include the East African Monetary Institute which will
later be transformed into the East African Central Bank.
Other proposed bodies are the East African
Statistical Bureau to be responsible for statistics and the East African
Financial Services Commission which will be mandated to oversee the
financial services.
The fourth one is the East African Surveillance,
Compliance and Enforcement Commission which will be responsible for
surveillance, compliance and enforcement of Articles under the Protocol.
The summit directed the EAC Council of Ministers
to develop bills for establishing the institutions provided the protocol
for consideration by the East African Legislative Assembly as provided
in the road map.
It was resolved that all the five partner states should conclude ratification of the Eamu protocol by July next year.
A tentative road map on the implementation
indicate the single currency will be attained in 10 years. Yesterday was
the first time an EAC protocol was signed outside Arusha, the community
headquarters.
The customs union and common market protocols were signed there on March 4, 2004 and November 21, 2009 respectively.
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