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After missing the first deadline for the attainment of a monetary union, the East African Community (EAC) secretariat is seeking to revise the macroeconomic convergence targets set in 2013 as pre-requisites to the roll-out of a single currency in the region.
The monetary union dream, the third pillar of the EAC economic integration, was planned to be realised by November 2023, setting the precedent for the issuance of a common currency in the region, but this has been missed.
Ministers of finance last year extended the deadline by ten years as all of the four core prerequisites to the establishment of the monetary union, including attaining macroeconomic convergence targets, are yet to be realised.
Pantaleo Kessy, principal economist in charge of monetary affairs at the EAC secretariat, told journalists that they are currently doing new studies to see if the set macroeconomic targets are still attainable within the ten-year window set for the achievement of the desired one-currency area.
“We have had ten years to try and achieve the convergence criteria, and as you can see, some countries are really lagging behind. So, the ministers of finance directed us to undertake another study to really see if these convergence criteria are tenable,” Dr Kessy said during a press briefing at EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania on Wednesday.
“We’re giving ourselves until 2031, but if the criteria are not attainable, 2031 will come and we’ll give ourselves another 10 years. So, we need to do another study, taking into account what has happened between 2013, when we were negotiating the protocol, and now.” -The East African
Online Reporter