Making it the second largest community to adopt a unified currency after the European Union, East African countries are moving to implement a single currency by June 2012, according to EAC Secretary General, Richard Sezibera. Sezibera said the region was halfway through negotiations and the High level Task Force was working towards acceleration the adoption of a monetary currency. “We are halfway in the negotiations for the protocol and the talks on the remaining items will be accelerated in the first half of 2012,” Sezibera said. Presidents from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi will be holding their 13th Ordinary Summit on November 30 for the EAC to deliberate on issues affecting the region's integration process. Priorities on debate are centered around the currency unison and the application of Sudan and South Sudan to join the EAC. The Secretary General said the single currency would increase the regions competiveness in the global markets, and stabilize currency fluctuations. “The monetary union accompanies by economic and financial integration, fiscal discipline and macro-economic convergence criteria will enable East Africa to compete more effectively against other economic blocs,” Sezibera said. In order to adopt a common, unison currency the regional member states must negotiate and agree on 85 articles. So far, 15 articles about the establishment of a common currency have been tackled; 24 more articles were recently discussed in Entebbe, Uganda last month and the results are to be released soon. 46 other articles remain to be discussed. BM
