A verification team to assess the admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into the East African Community (EAC) is about to begin its task.
The mission, to comprise three experts from each of the six partner states, will be deployed to Kinshasa later this month.
"It will assess the country's suitability to be admitted into the Community", the secretariat said in Arusha over the weekend.
The exercise will be conducted from June 23rd to July 3rd.Its findings will be discussed at various levels and forwarded to the EAC Heads of State.
The last EAC Heads of State Summit, hosted by Tanzania in February this year, directed the Secretariat to expeditiously undertake a verification mission.
The mission has been tasked to submit its report to the EAC Council of Ministers - the policy organ - in November this year.
The verification mission will, among other things, review the current status of the vast DRC in international law.
It will also establish the country's level of conformity with the criteria for admission of 'foreign' countries as provided in the EAC Treaty.
Among a set of criteria for acceptance into the Community is potential for economic contribution to the EAC bloc.
If admitted, the resource-rich DRC and long time trade partner, will become the seventh member country to the Community.
The current EAC was founded in the 1990s with three member countries; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya which happened to be in the former bloc which broke in 1977.
Burundi and Rwanda joined in 2007 before South Sudan's admission was finalized in 2016. Other countries are reported to have applied for membership.
Sources close to the Secretariat said the EAC has budgeted $188,150 to finance the DRC admission process.
The money would be drawn from the EAC General Reserve Fund in the 2021/2022 financial year allocation.
Funds from the kitty are normally released for critical expenditure when remittances from the partner are delayed.
The decision to the effect was made by the EAC Council of Ministers during its extra-ordinary meeting held virtually last month.
"The Council adopted a budget amounting to $188,150 for the next financial year beginning 1st July 2021", the secretariat said.
The budget would be drawn from the General Reserve Fund for activities related to admission of the DRC into the Community.
The monies will, among other things, be spent on a verification mission to be conducted by the EAC on admission of the DRC as a member.
An application by DRC to join the Community was tabled before the 21st Summit of Heads of State held on February 27th this year.
After assuming office on April 23rd, the new EAC boss Peter Mathuki said he would make admission of DRC into the bloc as his priority.
He said the vast DRC was strategic for EAC growth because of its vast natural resources with great economic potential.
"The admission of DRC is urgent and strategic to the region. I will prioritize it", he pointed out.
Recent statistics indicate the EAC exported goods and services valued at $ 7.4 billion in 2018 to DR Congo.
This represented eleven per cent of the total imports into sub-Saharan Africa's largest country.
DRC has vast and untapped deposits of raw minerals estimated to be worth in excess of $24 trillion.
It also has 70 per cent of the world's coltan, a third of its cobalt, among a range of high value minerals.
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