Kagame, Museveni And Uhuru Resolve To Strengthen Regional Infrastructure And Trade

The three presidents at Uganda’s State House in Entebbe

The Tripartite meeting that brought together President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Uhuru Kenyata of Kenya has resolved on strengthening the East African infrastructure and trade, among other issues.

The Meeting that took place in Entebbe, Uganda comes at a time when regional traders are complaining the increasing Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs) which they say interfere with their businesses.

The Presidents agreed on removing all non tariff barriers {NTBs}so that deeper economic integration can yield to sustainable economic growth.

On the issue of NTBs specifically, the Heads of State agreed that they be removed and a single customs territory where a single tax will be paid at the point of entry like in Mombasa or other entries.

This is expected to reduce the movement of days from eighteen to five days from Mombasa to Malaba in Uganda.

The meeting also agreed to revamp the East African Railway line which will be extended to Rwanda to ease on the transportation of goods and people in the region at a less cost.

Speaking at the press conference after the closed door meeting among the three presidents and technocrats from the three countries, President Museveni who chaired the meeting said that they had agreed to construct two pipelines which will be transporting oil products.

One from Mombasa to Eldoret will be extended to Kampala and Kigali the pipeline will be configured to have a reverse mechanism with another pipe line for the evacuation of crude oil. Crude pipeline will bring together Uganda, South Sudan and Keya.

President Museveni also said that the leaders decided that an oil refinery will be constructed in Uganda to refine the oil exploited from the EAC countries.

The meeting also agreed on seeking ways of generating more electricity and work on the exploitation of renewable energy for sustainability.

The EAC single identity card, a single tourist visa and the fast tracking of the EAC Political federation were also among key issues that were discussed during the meeting.

For the interest of effectiveness, each of the three countries were given particular issues to follow up on keenly and it was agreed that there shall be meetings every two months to evaluate the terms agreed upon. The first meeting will be in Nairobi and a subsequent one in Kigali.