Kagame calls for political will for EAC integration

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame while addressing the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in Kigali, called for the East African Community member states to have political will in order to implement the East African Community protocols.

“The EAC is currently under funded, delay in implementation of projects and programs, as partners we must work together to adopt sustainable financing mechanisms and take full ownership of our development with less reliance of external support,” said president Paul Kagame while addressing the East African Legislative Assembly in Kigali earlier this week.

East African Community budget continued to shrink by seven million dollars for the financial year 2020-21, with covid-19 impacting the region’s economy some member states didn’t meet their annual contribution to the community for the ending financial year.

“I think the president was very clear on the urgency to come up with a sustainable financial mechanism and also the fast-tracking on major decisions that are very critical for our integration,” said George Odongo an EALA member from Uganda.

The East African Community had for the last six years studied the modalities of how the community can self-fund without relying on donors, with the more preferable mechanism was to charge one percent of the goods imported in East African Community.

Low rate of absorption by Organs and Institution in respect of activities funded by the Partner States was attributed to movement due the Covid-19 pandemic, delayed remittance and non-recruitment of staff. The overall absorption rate stood at 27% of the FY 2020/2021.