EAC Pre-budget Conference for Financial Year 2023/2024 Concludes in Arusha

East African Community Headquarters, 25 September 2022, Arusha, Tanzania: The EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, hosted the EAC Pre-budget Conference for the Financial Year 2023/2024, which concluded on Friday, September 23, 2022.

The two-day conference was attended by representatives from every EAC Organ and Institution, delegates from EAC Partner States, and members of the EALA Committee on General Purpose.

In accordance with the 6th EAC Development Strategy 2021/22 – 2025/26, which will be entering its third year of implementation in FY 2023/2024, the Conference was called to discuss and come to a consensus on the priorities that will guide the Community’s planning and budgeting process for the Financial Year 2023/2024.

The EALA Committee on General Purpose Chair, Hon. Dennis Namara, emphasized the necessity for the planning and budgeting process to be in line with the Community’s established priorities in his opening remarks.

Hon. Namara emphasized the significance of stakeholder consultations during the planning and budgeting processes for the Community, adding that the priorities established under the four pillars of EAC integration—the Customs Union, Common Market, Monetary Union, and Political Federation—should always take East Africans’ aspirations into consideration.

For his part, Eng. Steven Mlote, the Deputy Secretary General for Planning, Infrastructure, Finance, and Administration, emphasized the Community’s most recent accomplishments, including:

A four-band EAC Common External Tariff structure with rates of 0%, 10%, 25%, and a maximum of 35% has been adopted as a strategy to advance industrialization in the area and protect consumer welfare.
Development of the implementation plan for the summit resolution designating French and Kiswahili as the Community’s official languages, as well as the admission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as a member.

In order to ensure that projects and programs are implemented on schedule, Eng. Mlote thanked the EAC Partner States for their dedication to the EAC integration and asked them to make every effort to release their financial contributions as soon as possible.

The following are the main priorities determined during the Conference focus:

enhancing regional governance mechanisms;
increasing the private sector’s, citizens’, and other stakeholders’ awareness, participation, visibility, and understanding of the EAC integration process;
the harmonization of policies, laws, and regulations pertaining to trade, as well as the simplification of the customs and trade facilitation systems;

a monetary and fiscal policy convergence to bring about the East African Monetary Union;
strengthening regional value chains and raising productivity to boost the economy;
strengthening of social sectors to enhance the welfare of East Africans on a social level;

Infrastructure development to facilitate unrestricted cross-border travel; strengthening the ability of the EAC Organs and Institutions to efficiently carry out their mandates.