EDITORIAL: South Sudan, e-Passport significant progress for EAC

Nearly six years since South Sudan applied to join the East African Community, they finally got to dine at the table for the bloc. For South Sudan, it has been a long, arduous journey. To EAC, it has been all about formality. With South Sudan’s acceptance, the now six-nation bloc’s market size has now grown to 162 million people, up from 145.5 million. Already, the world’s youngest nation has been active in pushing for Northern Corridor projects, making its admission to the bloc a milestone that should boost the region’s integration ambitions. Many have been asking, what does South Sudan bring to the table? Valid probing but, at the moment, it is like putting the cart in front of the horse. Blocs are there to foster socio-economic and political transformation of all member states. Through trade, regular meetings, opening of borders and many others, every member state becomes a salient player in the quest for transformation. No nation is an island; every one of the six needs each other to boost transformation as long as the goals of the Community are given the necessary push to impact the citizens. The good news for South Sudan came at the same time with the development on e-Passports for regional citizens. This is yet another significant development that can change the way things are done in the region and thus, impact socio-economic transformation. Apart from facilitating fast clearance of travellers at border points, an e-Passport’s database is enhanced with automated fingerprint verification system that guard against multiple passport issuances to the same person and enhances imposter detection. However, the niggling thing that must be going through the minds of many citizens now is whether the electronic passports will be fast-tracked as agreed so that citizens enjoy its benefits. This is so because, often times, good initiatives are borne of EAC summits, but implementation lags, making rhetoric sound like a game that EAC leaders have perfected to the tilt. One can only hope that the e-Passports will be seeing the light of the day by January as promised and not be a process that last longer on paper.

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EDITORIAL: South Sudan, e-Passport significant progress for EAC