The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has hailed the East African Community (EAC) for the steady progress it has made towards establishing the East African Monetary Union, the EAC secretariat said in a press release.
This came on the sidelines of meetings between EAC, and IMF held during the Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC, United States of America recently.
The annual meeting brought together central bankers, Ministers of Finance and Development, Parliamentarians, Private Sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations, and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness.
The EAC Team was led by Eng. Steven Mlote, the Deputy Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure. It was also attended by Mr. Samuel Njuru, Senior Statistician, and Dr. Pantaleo Kessy, Principal Economist from the EAC Secretariat.
The IMF committed to supporting EAC on the Harmonization of monetary policy operations and modernization of financial markets including, developing the harmonized framework for Standing Facility and Collateral Management, promoting cross-border trading of Government securities; and developing the harmonized framework for Market Makers for Government Securities.
On his part, Eng. Mlote thanked the Deputy Director for the high level of commitment shown by the IMF staff, especially those from the African Department in providing the required Technical Assistance to the region. Eng. Mlote also thanked the MCM for their support of the implementation of the East African Monetary Union (EAMU) roadmap, and for supporting the EAC central banks in their efforts to adopt the forward-looking price-based monetary policy framework.
In the meeting with World Bank, the two parties discussed the status of the preparations for the Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP). World Bank team presented an overview of the project and the priority activities to be implemented by the EAC.
The project is expected to offer an estimated grant of US$250 million, out of which US$230 million will be given directly to the Partner States and US$ 20 million to EAC Secretariat to facilitate Technical Assistance (TA) and capacity development.
This article was published by the editorial team at FEAFFA. For any enquiries, contact us via Email: freightlogistics@feaffa.com Tel: +254733780240
