Rwanda’s Special Presidential Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Ambassador Richard Sezibera, has asked students in the East African Community to raise their voices in request for common goals that will truly define them as East Africans.

"If you don’t speak and push for greater integration, we the decision makers won’t act.

That is how governments work,” Sezibera told students during the East African Community Students’ Union (EACSU) conference that ended yesterday at the School of Finance and Banking in Mburabuturo.

The conference that attracted fifty delegates from the five member states of the EAC integration that include Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya, aimed at addressing major issues that affect students in the region.

Sezibera noted that the role of students is vital in strengthening and consolidating cooperation in agreed fields that would lead to equitable economic development among member states.

He added that this would in turn raise the standards of living and improve the quality of people’s lives in the Great Lakes Region.

He pointed out that for Rwanda to beat its growth target of over 7.1 percent in the next financial year, barriers to trade must be done away with to create an investment environment for productive sectors of the economy.

The delegates at the EACSU called for a quick harmonisation of the regional education system, to enable students to access affordable education without geographical limitations.

Speaking on behalf of the union, Emmanuel Murenzi, the chairman of the Rwanda Steering Committee, said that the union is ready to push for certain changes that don’t favour students in member states to access education from recognised East African universities.

"We shall use the union as a platform to address problems confronting our colleagues; there is no need for one to be regarded as a foreigner in East Africa,” Murenzi said.

The organisation of the East African Students Union conference was supported by Rwanda’s Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs.

Ends