I am glad to be with you here as we commemorate the EAC’s Silver Jubilee (25th Anniversary). During this season, as we commemorate the 25th Anniversary, we hope to take the message of integration to all stakeholders and East Africans at the grassroots who are the true owners of the integration process.
The climax of the celebrations will be on EAC Day on 30th November, 2024 when the Summit of Heads of State are expected to hold their 24th Ordinary Summit.
Preceding the Summit meeting will be a High-Level Side Event on 29th November, 2024 focusing on the journey the Community has travelled over the past 25 years and role of digital transformation in the integration process.
The celebrations will continue until 30th June, 2025 with a number of activities outlined at both the national and regional levels.
The theme of the Silver Jubilee celebrations is: EAC@25: Promoting Trade, Sustainable Development, and Peace and Security for Improved Livelihoods.
We will be celebrating two and a half decades of steady growth and expansion of the Community that has expanded from three (3) Partner States at its current formation to eight (8) Partner States.
During that period, we have seen the EAC Common Market stretch from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean and increased opportunities for the private sector, the engine of economic growth in the bloc.
The political leadership of the EAC Partner States with the Summit of Heads of State at the apex are well aware of the benefits that accrue from an expanded market and baking a bigger cake at the regional level.
The Customs Union has over this period been transformed into a Single Customs Territory with the Common External Tariff being raised to 35% as part of efforts to promote the growth of local industries and in the same breath increase the region’s share of international trade.
On the East African Monetary Union (EAMU), we are edging closer to the establishment of a single currency that will ease intra-regional trade and transactions across East Africa.
The East African Monetary Institute is already in place with three (3) more institutions as envisaged in the EAMU Protocol also at advanced stages of establishment. This will ensure that we have the single currency in place by the year 2031.
Under the Political Federation, the bloc has also made steady progress with the Committee of Experts tasked with drafting the Constitution for the EAC Political Federation having so far concluded consultations with stakeholders in the Republics of Burundi, Uganda and Kenya. We look forward to expediting these consultations with the remaining Partner States by 30th June, 2025 as desired by the Summit.
Trade is the driving force behind the integration process and will work better when the bloc attains a common political arrangement.
The Summit has consistently highlighted the need for the Community to raise the visibility of its policies, programmes and projects, and also educate East Africans on the benefits of the integration.
We will therefore dedicate these Silver Jubilee celebrations to sensitising East Africans on what has so far been achieved on the integration journey and how these successes have positively impacted on their lives.
I appeal to all East Africans to join us as we celebrate 25 years of the existence of the Community. EAC remains the fastest integration bloc on the African continent and the most natural bloc with the people determined to come together irrespective of borders established by our former colonial powers.