BURUNDI JOINS DAR, KIGALI IN RATIFYING MONETARY UNION

Burundi has joined Tanzania and Rwanda in ratifying the East African Monetary Union protocol, the third pillar in the region integration process.

Burundi’s parliament unanimously adopted the ratification of the protocol Wednesday, ahead of the 16th Head of State Summit in Nairobi this weekend.

Uganda and Kenya, the other East African Community member states, are yet to ratify it, but are said to be in the process of doing so.

READ: States put monetary union protocol in high gear

The protocol is expected to heighten an era of fiscal and financial integration and build the necessities required by the partner states to maintain the macro-economic convergence criteria.

This will enable the EAC member states to use a single currency that will reduce transaction costs, as well as ease and promote regional intra-trade, promote and maintain monetary and financial stability aimed at facilitating economic integration to attain sustainable growth and development of the community

The protocol, which is the third pillar of the EAC integration, comes after the Customs Union and the Common Market protocols which have seen an increased intra-trade with the monetary union in the horizon expected to catalyse and boost the regional trade even further.

The EAMU Protocol is a milestone outlining a 10-year roadmap towards a single currency by the year 2024.

The East African