Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan and Burundi’s Second Vice President Gervais Rufyikiri will today join President Paul Kagame in Kigali for a summit on the implementation of projects under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP).

The Heads of State Summit was preceded by a meeting of regional experts and senior officials on Wednesday and Thursday assessing implementation of 14 projects under the NCIP framework.

President Museveni arrives at Kigali International Airport.

The NCIP summit comprises three sessions, including the senior officials session (which took place in Kigali on Wednesday and Thursday), the Ministerial Session (held in Kigali yesterday), and today's Heads of State Summit.

At the meeting, a report of the Ministerial Session on the implementation of projects will be presented to the Heads of State for analysis and guidance on the way forward. These include the building of an oil refinery in Uganda as well as oil and gas pipelines and the construction of a regional railway that will connect the EAC countries.

The Northern Corridor brings together countries that are mainly served by the Mombasa Port in Kenya. These are Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan. Tanzania, Burundi, and Ethiopia also take part as observers.

Rwanda’s national coordinator for the NCIP Monique Mukaruliza, told The New Times that a lot has been achieved especially in the areas of customs integration and in the telecommunication sector where agreements on one network area have made it cheaper to make and receive calls from within the EAC.

According to Joseph Nyagah, Kenya’s national coordinator for the NCIP, the Heads of State are putting pressure on the senior officials and experts to ensure the projects are implemented according to plan.

"The Northern Corridor (NCIP) is a very exciting project. We have achieved a lot during the past one-and-a half years because the Presidents are fully in charge. They are the ones supervising it and every two months they chair a meeting where we go through item by item,” he said.

Today’s NCIP summit is the ninth.