The road to monetary union in East Africa

On 30 November, the heads of state of the partner states of the East African Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) met in Kampala to approve the Protocol for the Establishment of an East African Monetary Union. The Protocol – the EAC equivalent of Europe’s Maastricht Treaty – offers a roadmap for monetary union and provides the enabling legislation for the regional institutions, including an East African central bank, which will usher in a single East African currency by 2024.[1]