The DRC officially joined the East African Community (EAC) on Tuesday 29 March 2022 during the 19th Extraordinary Summit of EAC Heads of State held by video conference. Becoming the seventh member, this membership gives the DRC access to the Atlantic Ocean and increases the number of French-speaking countries within the community.
The East African Community (EAC) Heads of State and Government collective has approved the admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the organisation. With this act, the DRC of Félix Tshisekedi joins Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania as the seventh member country of the organisation. The EAC’s current president, Kenyan head of state Uhuru Kenyatta, made the DRC’s membership official at this extraordinary online summit. “The entry of the DRC marks a momentous occasion in the history of the region’s integration”, Uhuru Kenyatta said after the summit.
New extent
Peter Mathuki, the organisation’s secretary-general, pointed out that “the EAC now stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, making the region competitive and facilitating its access to the largest continental free trade area” (ZLEC, which groups several sub-regions of the continent). This offers several advantages to the DRC and the EAC. However, full integration may take months, so Congolese citizens who wish to travel to other member countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda without a visa may have to wait a little longer.
Benefits for both
The EAC was founded in 2000 with the aim of facilitating cross-border trade by removing tariffs between its member states. Its common market was established in 2010. Indeed, it has a single market allowing the free movement of goods and people. In his acceptance speech, President Tshisekedi welcomed the opportunity to join one of the most integrated trade and economic blocs on the African continent. “Indeed, I have always recognised that the EAC is the best in terms of free movement of people and goods, infrastructure integration and economic and trade integration compared to other sub-regional economic blocs in Africa,” he said. It should be recognised that the DRC, with its 90 million inhabitants, brings the potential market of the EAC to nearly 300 million people. Moreover, the country is endowed with important mineral resources, which gives it a certain notoriety in the sub-region.
Similarly, it shares borders with all EAC member states except Kenya. It is already a member of three other regional trade organisations: COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), SADC (Southern African Development Community) and the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL). Problems such as difficulties in obtaining visas, clearing goods through customs and many others will be resolved as the trade area has now been extended. This is a new adventure for the DRC, which will certainly be able to benefit from it for the development of the country in particular and the organisation in general.
