EAC goes for diaspora desk
THE East African Community (EAC) is setting up a diaspora desk that will focus on facilitating East Africans living abroad to invest and trade in the region.
The diaspora community will also be incorporated in EAC signature events, such as pre-summit retreats, offering them an opportunity to engage with EAC heads of state, ministers and the regional business community.
The EAC Secretary General, Dr Peter Mathuki said that the diaspora community has a huge role to play and recognise the remittance which continues to outpace Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs) to become the largest source of external financing.
“The inflow of funds from the diaspora contributed largely to the EAC’s FDIs which stood at 8.2 billion US dollars—a 35 per cent growth,” Dr Mathuki said.
The remittance helped the region’s economy withstand the devastating economic impact of Covid-19 and the trickle-down effect of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Secretary General was addressing the meeting that saw hundreds of East Africans residing across the USA and East African-focused investors converge to explore areas of investment and deliberate on solutions to overcome investment and trade challenges.
During the meeting, the diaspora community highlighted lack of trust in local financial institutions as one of the challenges deterring investment in East Africa.
To address the challenge, the EAC thus came up with the idea of creating a special desk to deal with diaspora issues.
“The EAC trade information portal available on our website also provides a step-by-step guide on licenses, pre-clearance permits and clearance formalities for the most traded goods within, to and from the East African Community,” he added.
The inflow of funds from the diaspora has been on an upward trajectory in recent years.
For instance, last year, the Kenyan diaspora remittance stood at 3.718 billion US dollars, while Uganda stood at 599.3million US dollars. The inflow of funds from the Tanzania diaspora stood at 569.5 million US dollars while the Rwanda diaspora sent home 246 million US dollars.
The East Africa Chamber of Commerce (EACC) Chair, Ms Elsa Juko McDowell, noted that the diaspora community is ready to invest in the region and is keen on collaborating with the EAC governments.
“We are committed to continuing collaborating in supporting the US and East Africa trade relations, promoting trade missions and cooperation and marketing East Africa as a trade and investment destination,” Ms McDowell said.
The EAC has developed a master plan for the development of infrastructure, creating linkages for Intra EAC road and railway networks as well as in airports and port projects.
The Community is currently made up of seven partner states namely the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania.
