To succeed, make regional integration citizen-led process

Over the past three decades regional integration schemes have mushroomed across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Regional integration promotes global advantage for businesses of the regional bloc members by creating common markets which open up borders and eliminate import/export tariffs. This increases the bloc’s global competiveness by marshalling the individual States’ potentials and presents their case in unison.

African countries have been working towards integrating at continental level as well as sub-regions. The quest for the East African region to integrate has seen coming together of six states: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda which arguably is a good move. The East African Community (EAC) integration is anchored on four pillars: Customs Union, Common Market, Monetary Union and Political Federation with significant strides already made on the former three. Imperatively, the Political Federation pillar whereby the region envisages a Superstate with a single government makes EAC integration unique.