On Tuesday March 29 ,the Heads of State from the East Afica agreed to allow Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to join the East African Community (EAC) as a member. This was done through a zoom meeting .
While addressing journalists at the Minister of East Africa Community Affairs offices in Kampala ,Rt.Hon .Rebecca Alitwaala Kadaga reaffirmed DRC joining EAC.
On April 14 ,the President of DRC, His Excellence Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo and President of Kenya ,His Excellence Uhuru Kenyatta who is the Chairman of EAC will meet to sign the treaty of accession .
This treaty will be signed so that DRC will undertake to accede to the treaty,protocol,agreement between EAC,COMESA and SADC and all MOU made by the EAC.
The objective of the COMESA-EAC-SADC tripartite group is to strengthen economic integration of the southern and eastern Africa region through joint planning, design, coordination, and implementation of policies and programmes across the three blocs.
After the accession of the treaty they will be given six months in which DRC complete their internal processes for instruments of identification through the following:
To go to their parliament to domesticate their treaty. Domestication of a treaty means the process of incorporating the provisions of a treaty into the extant laws of a country to give it force of law in that country.
Give an indication when they will join the customs union,common market ,joining in full or in phases.
And once they join the instruments will be received by the Secretary General of EAC will be reqiured to take them to UN ,AU to indicate that a new member has joined the community.
If all goes as planned DRC is expected to join the union by October 1,the delegations of DRC will be able to take their seats in EAC legistative assembly ,attending meetings of the ministers,officials and also the summit.
Kadaga adds that the ministry is deligted that the EAC is now spreading from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean whic creates opportunities to the member states for trade.
DRC joining the EAC will boost trade in the community which will boost the economy of the member states .
At the time DRC accepted to join the EAC ,there has been alot of insecurity in DRC with constant attacks from ADF rebels which have killed number of citizens .And with this EAC will join aid from member states to support DRC to fight insecurity in Congo.
In additon ,by 2023 EAC is expected to have one common currency .There was an act to establish a monetary union and about two weeks ago the verification team visited the member states to find out the most suitable country that can host the East African Monetary Union and the East African Central Bank .
The ministry is steadily waiting for a report from the team.