East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 12th November, 2025: East Africans are trading more with each other and benefiting from an increasingly connected marketplace, with intra-EAC trade growing by 27%, from USD 14.2 billion to USD 18 billion between June 2024 and June 2025.
Within the same period, total EAC trade with the rest of the world increased by 22%, rising from USD 115.4 billion to USD 140.8 billion.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 11th November, 2025: In an innovative move set to revolutionise how people send and spend money across East Africa, Rwanda and Tanzania have commenced bi-lateral discussions on technical modalities to link their national retail payment systems switches. The move marks a crucial step toward enabling instant, low-cost cross-border money transfers for citizens and businesses across the region.
This landmark initiative, which moved into its technical implementation phase at an ongoing high-level meeting in Kigali, will connect Tanzania’s Instant Payment System (TIPS) with Rwanda’s National Payment Switch (RSWITCH). Once operational, the linkage will allow individuals and businesses in both countries to send and receive money between bank accounts and mobile money wallets seamlessly and in real time.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 10th November, 2025: The East African Community (EAC) recorded a strong upswing in international merchandise trade during the second quarter of 2025, underscoring the region’s resilience and growing competitiveness in global markets. According to the latest EAC Quarterly Statistics Bulletin, total trade rose by 28.4% to USD 38.2 billion, up from USD 29.7 billion in the same quarter of 2024.
This performance was driven largely by exports, which surged by 40.5% to USD 18.6 billion, reflecting rising global demand for EAC products. Imports grew more moderately by 18.8% to USD 19.6 billion. As a result, the trade deficit narrowed significantly from USD 3.2 billion to USD 0.9 billion, marking a notable improvement in the external trade balance.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 24th October, 2025: The East African Community (EAC) today officially launched and flagged off its Election Observation Mission (EOM) to observe the General Elections in the United Republic of Tanzania.
The deployment of the mission follows an invitation by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and is in line with a directive of the EAC Council of Ministers requiring the Secretariat to observe elections in all Partner States. This underscores the EAC’s unwavering commitment to democratic governance, peace, and stability in the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 22nd October, 2025: Leaders and technical experts from nine Eastern African countries have united to fast-track regional spectrum harmonisation, a critical step toward achieving affordable, high-quality broadband connectivity and realising the vision of a Single Digital Market for Eastern Africa.
The Joint Spectrum Management and Knowledge Exchange Workshop, held on 20th October, 2025 in Kigali, Rwanda, brought together representatives from the East African Community (EAC), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the GSM Association (GSMA) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with support from the World Bank under the Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP).
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 21st October, 2025: Movement between Kenya and Uganda via the Northern Corridor is set for transformation with confirmation of the Kisumu–Busia / Kakira–Malaba Multinational Expressway as a feasible and investment-ready project.
The announcement was made during a Market Sounding Conference held in Kampala, Uganda, where government officials, financiers and private sector leaders endorsed the close to 200-kilometre expressway as a key infrastructure priority for the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 9th October, 2025: The East African Community (EAC), in partnership with the Government of Kenya Government of Uganda and the African Development Bank (AfDB), will host a Market Sounding Conference on 20th and 21st October, 2025 in Kampala, Uganda. The conference will bring together government officials, development partners, investors, and private sector leaders to explore financing options for the 193-kilometre Kenya–Uganda Multinational Expressway Project, linking Kisumu–Busia in Kenya to Kakira–Malaba in Uganda.
This landmark project, part of the Northern Transport Corridor, is designed to enhance regional trade, improve transport efficiency, and foster cross-border integration. It will also upgrade key border posts at Busia, Malaba, and Lwakhakha to modern and efficient One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs), thus easing the movement of goods and people across the region.
… As Partner States eye unified legal framework for data protection
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 16th September, 2025: The EAC, under the Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP), has taken another important step towards creating a common framework to safeguard personal data and strengthen cybersecurity in the region. This follows the Second Meeting of the Technical Working Group (TWG) on the Development of Data Protection and Cyber Security Legal Frameworks, held from 8th to 12th September, 2025 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 12th September, 2025:A high-level oversight mission led by H.E. Veronica Nduva, Secretary General, East African Community (EAC), and Hon. Amb. Fatuma Ndangiza, Secretary General, East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Women Caucus, accompanied by other members of EALA Women Caucus including Hon. Falhada Iman Dekow (Kenya), Hon. Zippora Kering (Kenya), Hon. Dr. Gladness Salema (URT) and Hon. Nadra Juma Mohamed (URT), visited the Kenya/Tanzania Namanga One Stop Border Post (OSBP) to assess the challenges facing women engaged in cross-border trade across the Namanga border.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 11th September, 2025: The EAC Partner States are taking bold steps to make roaming across the region cheaper, fairer, and more sustainable. The Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP) conducted national consultations with Governments, regulators, and mobile operators in August 2025, as part of the project’s connectivity market development and integration objective to enhance the EAC One Network Area (ONA) framework.
During the consultations, Partner States and sector players agreed on a new drive to strengthen the ONA framework, which has already slashed roaming costs but still faces gaps that must be addressed.
