Regional CEOs see growth in protocol

• The 120 million-plus population seen as potential customers of EAC companies

Mr Kinisu said East Africa got off lightly in the global financial difficulties experienced last year and part of this year. The effects of the recession were dampened before they could be felt in the region, he said.

The EAC protocol also affords East Africans the possibility to benefit from the recent discovery of oil in Uganda.

Kenyan businessman Chris Kirubi said he had been waiting for it for about 20 years.

“We can now sell tourism across the region. The benefit to the whole region is real. With the Ugandan oil, there is no need to spend money in other countries for oil as we have our own now,” he said.

President Museveni said during the signing ceremony that the oil money would be useful in the development of the region’s infrastructure that is seen as the most crucial part of efforts to come up with a unified political federation by 2015 and a monetary union by 2012.

According to the protocol, companies and firms in a member state will receive equal treatment in other member states, creating a new wave of opportunities for business expansion.

Kenyan firms are said to be at an advantage since most already have a regional presence. Equity Bank, KCB Group, NIC Bank and Fina Bank are represented throughout the bloc.

Companies that have set up shop in countries outside Kenya include East African Cables, Jubilee Insurance, Bamburi Cement, Athi River Mining, Kenya Airways through Precision Air and a number of small and medium businesses.

Pan-African Bank, Eco-Bank, according to managing director Anthony Okpanachi, has its eyes set on Tanzania.

“We plan to officially open shop in Tanzania as from January next year. EAC common market protocol is the best initiative a region can have. In West Africa we have tried with Ecowas but have not been able to reach where EAC has reached,” he says.

Equity Bank chief executive James Mwangi is optimistic that the region is moving towards a monetary union. “With the undersea fibre optic cables in the region we can now see seamless connectivity within the region. Coupled with the fact that we will have a uniform tax regime, a monetary union is a reality,” he said.

“The signing of the common market protocol is a great step towards having a common currency for the region, but we need to take it to the next level of implementation,” said KCB Group chief executive Martin Oduor-Otieno.

Customs union

Under the auspices of the EAC common market, a series of measures will be taken to integrate the regional market. They include achieving a full-fledged customs union, eliminating tariff barriers, non-tariff trade barriers and technical trade barriers, allowing the free flow of goods, services, capital and persons.

Other measures are adopting a common external tariff, introducing harmonised product standards, as well as harmonising finance, trade, monetary, education, employment and labour policies.