The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will officially be admitted to the East Africa Community (EAC) next week, adding a 90 million market to the regional trading bloc.
In a letter to ministers in charge of the EAC docket in member states, the EAC Secretary-General Dr Peter Mathuki confirmed that the Heads of State would approve the admission on March 29.
“We are in receipt of a letter dated 18th March from the chairperson of the Council of Ministers informing the Secretariat of the convening of an extraordinary summit on the admission of the DRC into the EAC on 29th, March 2022. The summit will be preceded by the 48th Extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers on Friday 25th March. The proposed agenda for the summit will be the consideration of the report of the council on the admission of DRC into the EAC.” EAC Secretary-General Dr Peter Mathuki.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the current chair of the EAC, is expected to preside over the summit that also includes President Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (Uganda) Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi) and Salva Kiir of South Sudan.
The mineral-rich country has already established trade ties with most of the EAC member states through bilateral deals and at a multilateral level where it is affiliated to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) where Tanzania is a member.
DRC is already a key African market for Kenyan firms with the latest official annual data showing exports earnings from DRC amounted to Sh14.3 billion in 2020.
Currently, the EAC has 193 million citizens. DR Congo’s admission would raise that to 280 million people, spanning the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. This large market is to the benefit of all, for the DRC would be able to buy and sell easily to the rest of East Africa, for the benefit of its people.
Some of the key exports to DRC are animal and vegetable fats and oils, pharmaceutical products, tobacco, iron and steel, leather and footwear, vegetables, fruits, nuts, plastics as well as paper and paperboard.
Read also; Opinion; Why DRC is Africa’s Next Economic Frontier.
