WHAT AWAITS DR CONGO'S FULL MEMBERSHIP TO EAC

 

After signing the Treaty of Accession on April 8th,2022 the DR Congo has until September to ratify the East African Community (EAC) Treaty.

The ratification will conclude the country's long roadmap for the EAC membership that started nearly three years ago.  

The giant country in the heart of Africa on Friday signed the Treaty of Accession to the EAC in a ceremony held in Nairobi. 

DR Congo now becomes the seventh member of the bloc comprising Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan. 

The event was presided by the current EAC Chair President Uhuru Kenyatta of  Kenya in the presence of DRC leader President Felix Tshisekedi. 

After signing the Treaty of Accession, DR Congo now has up to September 29th to undertake internal and constitutional processes to ratify the EAC Treaty. 

The ratification documents will be submitted to the EAC secretary general after which the new member will join all programmes and activities of the bloc. 

President Kenyatta said DRC's admission would strengthen the economic muscle of the EAC as well as its competitiveness in Africa. 

Speaking at the live streamed ceremony, EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki said there was no time to wait for DR Congo's full integration. 

Back to Arusha, the secretariat is to immediately develop a road map which will be presented during the next EAC Summit.

"In the coming days, EAC ministers and technical experts will move with speed to integrate the DR Congo into the organs of the bloc", he said.

These are the East African Court of Justice (EACJ), the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) and the Secretariat itself.

Integration processes would also be extended to the sectoral committees such as security, finance, trade, industry, defense, agriculture, aviation, and international cooperation.

DR Congo officially applied to join the EAC in June 2019 when President Tshisekedi, then only months in office, expressed his country’s wish to join the bloc.

On February 27, 2021 the regional leaders gave a nod to the proposal and directed the responsible ministers to expeditiously undertake a verification mission.

Finally, on March 29th, 2022, the country was admitted as the seventh member of the EAC pending signing of the Treaty of Accession and ratification of the EAC Treaty. 

The vast DRC shares a land border with five of the current EAC member states; Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan.

The expanded EAC bloc is now third ranked among the eight trading blocs in Africa in terms of number of consumers after DRC entry.

With nearly 100 million people, its admission has pushed the total population of the EAC economic bloc to 280 million, one fifth of Africa's population.

EAC now trails the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa)  and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) which have 406 million and 349 million people respectively.

In nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP), DR Congo's admission to the EAC has raised the combined GDP of the region to $ 280billion from from the current $220billion.