Lawmakers in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have urged for greater collaboration and action among the East African Community (EAC) member countries to achieve the monetary union. The call comes after the bloc failed to meet the deadline for implementing the single currency protocol.

During the EALA plenary session in Bujumbura, Burundi on April 4th, MPs expressed their disappointment with the revised timelines set out in the East African Monetary Union (EAMU) roadmap. The new target for achieving the monetary union is now 2031, instead of the earlier target of 2024.

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Abdulla Hasnuu Makame, an MP from Tanzania, explained that the Council of Ministers adopted the monetary union protocol, which included a timeline for delivering and achieving the monetary union. This would ease transactions including payments among EAC citizens, by eliminating currency exchange challenges, as a single currency would be used across the region. "That the monetary union would be up and running by 2024....Then the Council came and said we are going to extend the delivery time [for the monetary union] to 2031," he said.

The EAC's monetary union protocol, which was adopted in accordance with the EAC Treaty and signed on November 30, 2013, aims to converge the currencies of the EAC Partner States into a single currency in the Community within 10 years.

However, in the run-up to achieving a single currency, the EAC Partner States aim to harmonise monetary and fiscal policies; harmonise financial, payment and settlement systems; harmonise financial accounting and reporting practices; harmonise policies and standards on statistical information; and establish an East African Central Bank.

MP Fatuma Ndangiza stated that achieving the monetary union requires that the two pillars of integration, namely customs union and the common market protocols, be fully implemented and complied with by all EAC Partner States. She urged the establishment of the required institutions, including the EAC Monetary Institute and the Statistics Bureau, to expedite the support of the EAC single currency.

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Makame highlighted the importance of establishing the EAC trade remedies committee to enable the implementation of the article 24 of the customs union protocol that came into legal force in 2005 after being signed by the Summit of EAC Heads of State in 2004.

The Monetary Affairs Committee (MAC) issued a communique on March 17th, following its 26th ordinary meeting in Bujumbura, stating that Partner States' Central Banks had made significant strides towards the establishment of key institutions of the EAMU.

However, the Committee noted that a lot of work still needs to be done in the area of cross-border payment systems and agreed to continue rolling out interoperability initiatives at national level, enhancing the East African Payment System (EAPS), while engaging other stakeholders at continental level on further integration of cross-border payment systems.