EAC member states to postpone launching monetary union, single currency rollout

A special task-force has proposed to delay the implementation of the East African Monetary Union (EAMU) until 2031 from initial date of 2024, saying it is too soon considering members have not attained all requirements.

The proposed delay is an indictment on the members’ commitment to achieve EAMU, a key pillar of integration. The EAMU is the third pillar of the East African Community (EAC), others being the Customs Union and the Common Market Protocol. The region, under EAMU, was originally expected to adopt a single currency by 2024. “We have a roadmap that was supposed to be implemented between 2013, when the Monetary Union protocol was signed, and 2024. But we did not manage to implement most of the activities in that roadmap,” Pantaleo Kessy, EAC’s principal economist commented.

However, the review conducted by the task-force has shown that all the partner states, namely Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan, are behind schedule. According to the EAMU roadmap, four broad prerequisites need to be achieved ahead of the establishment of the Monetary Union and the first one includes the full implementation of the Customs Union and Common Market protocols. However, both the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols are currently under implementation.

Although much progress has been made, the protocols are not yet fully implemented because partner states are at different levels of implementation. Another obstacle hindering the progress toward the EAMU stems from the fact that not all partner states have attained the four macroeconomic convergence criteria, for the implementation of the monetary union.