Ethiopia set to join East Africa Community

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia is set to join the East Africa Community (EAC) in the coming months, a senior government official from the Republic of Kenya has said, noting that the Horn of Africa nation has made a huge milestone in reclaiming its economic potential within the region.

The East Africa Community brings together 8 countries with Somalia being the latest to join after an approval this year in Arusha. Somalia's journey to EAC started way back in 2015 and had to take a long due to insecurity challenges.

Kenya's minister for East Africa Community, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development Peninah Malonza said Ethiopia will be joining soon after the process was started. She spoke this at her rural home in Kitui, South Eastern Kenya.

Malonza announced that talks between Ethiopia and EAC Summit Heads of State are in the last stages, and soon Ethiopia will be part of the bloc, Kenya's state broadcaster, KBC reports.

Aside from Ethiopia’s admission, the EAC partner states also seek to harmonize critical policies and put in place requisite institutions to attain a single currency for the region by the end of this year as outlined in the EAC Monetary Union Protocol.

Besides Somalia, other members of the regional bloc include Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, who were the founding members. Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, and South Sudan were late inclusions in the community, whose investment and trade portfolio could be worth billions of US dollars.

Ethiopia is struggling with internal challenges following inter-ethnic clashes which heightened after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took over. Significantly, the country is also at loggerheads with Somalia over plans to annex parts of the Red Sea having signed a deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland.

GAROWE ONLINE