The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has received a green light to join the East African Community (EAC), becoming the seventh state in the region to join the bloc.
DRC’s application to join the bloc has been pending since 2019, when DRC registered its interest to join the bloc. EAC has currently six partner states including the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
“As you are aware the DRC delegation was in Nairobi in the last week of January 2021. The negotiations with the DRC have been concluded and a negotiation framework matrix jointly adopted. We have now recommended to the summit to consider admitting the DRC into the Community in accordance with Article 3 of the EAC Treaty,” said Adan Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary, EAC and Regional Development.
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The admission will now undergo a Verification Exercise; negotiations with the DRC on their admission to the EAC directed by Summit; Admission of the DRC; and deposition of the instrument of acceptance of the terms of admission by the DRC within six Months of her admission to the Community.
The admission will also require ratification by the six heads of states for the member countries.
According to World Bank, DRC has the third-largest population of poor globally. In 2018, it was estimated that 73 percent of the Congolese population, equaling 60 million people, lived on less than $1.90 a day (the international poverty rate). As such, almost 14 percent — or one out of six people living in extreme poverty in SSA — live in DRC.
The DRC’s natural resources are immense and diverse, and the country has the world’s second-largest primary humid tropical forest endowment and carbon sink globally.
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The DRC has an abundance of natural wealth, including a multitude of minerals such as diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, cassiterite (tin ore) and coltan, as well as timber, coffee and oil.
The EAC bloc will be looking to help the second-largest nation in Africa to regularise most of its mineral business to benefit the people. Most of the minerals in DRC are smuggled out, and barely benefit the nation.
The EAC is a potential precursor to the establishment of the East African Federation, a proposed federation of its members into a single sovereign state. In 2010, the EAC launched its own common market for goods, labour, and capital within the region, with the goal of creating a common currency and eventually a full political federation.
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In 2013, a protocol was signed outlining their plans for launching a monetary union within 10 years. In September 2018 a committee was formed to begin the process of drafting a regional constitution.