The East African Community trade bloc enlists Somalia as its eighth member on Friday, November 24, a move Somali authorities and businesses hopes to promote the country’s war-torn economy.
The EAC common market – which includes Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda – was established in 2010 and is presently made up of almost 300 million people.
Daud Aweis, the Somalian minister for information, culture and tourism had made this revelation via a post on X, formerly Twitter.
With the new member the bloc has widened its market and also gained an extra new coastline reaching over 3,000 km (1,800 miles) that holds the probability for offshore resources like oil and gas.
In turn, the bloc’s large population and existing customs union and common market will lure in investors that Somalia can tap into.
Although the EAC has over the years, made progress in economic integration, as seen in other trade blocs, it has had to fight to overcome barriers to commerce like red tape, political instability, poor infrastructure and trade disputes.
Somalia, with a population of about 17 million, has been looking to join the EAC for years, but its persistent instability has made some East African countries unwilling to grant it membership.
Several officials have voiced their fears that EAC integration could mitigate the movement of militants and contraband across the region.
But Somali businesses had said that the country’s bubbling private sector –which has overcome great odds to stay afloat– would bring a new method of risk-tolerant entrepreneurs into the trade bloc and promote exchanges across the large Somali Diaspora.
Kenya delayed its plans to reopen its border with Somalia earlier this year after more than decade of closure due to a n increase in attacks in northern Kenya by alleged al Shabaab fighters.
