Good Governance key in driving EAC Integration – Fred Muhumuza

For the East African integration to happen seamlessly, leaders in the partner states should ensure that their respective countries are governed in a way that benefits all the citizens.

This was said yesterday by Dr. Fred Muhumuza, a seasoned economist during the 3^rd East African Congress of Accountants organized by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) at Hotel Africana in Kampala.

“Integration will not offer the desired solutions to the EAC countries unless each country addresses its issues related to leadership”, Dr. Muhumuza said.

“We are not poor because we lack wealth. EAC countries are poor because they lack good leaders who understand and appreciate the challenges of their countries, and by so doing, fail to develop solutions that can move their countries forward”, he added

He said that sound political and economic processes in the EAC countries will offer an opportunity to formulate proper policies that will uplift the lives of citizens.

Sound political and economic processes will allow for the EAC countries to transform their individual economies first to benefit from the integration when it happens.

“We should not integrate at our weakest point, but rather, at our strongest, because, only through this shall the EAC countries gain from the integration when it happens”, he said.

Therefore, Dr. Muhumuza stressed the need for each country to first address its internal challenges first before thinking of integration.

He also advised leaders in the EAC to focus the integration outside the EAC boundaries. He gave an example of the United Kingdom that exited the European Union to allow it to trade with other countries on its own terms.

He also asked the Government of Uganda to appreciate how COVID-19 has affected every aspect of the economy and realign its budget to fit into the prevailing circumstances.

“Given the prevailing situation, there is no logic in having a budget so big to be financed by the citizens, but by borrowing”.

The 3^rd East African Congress of Accountants is held after two years by a member institute of the East African Community Institutes of Accountants (EACIAs). The EACIA is a body created in 2011 after the signing of a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) by five EAC Institutes of Professional Accountants namely: National Board of Accountants and Auditors (NBAA) Tanzania, Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda (ICPAR) and Ordre Des Professionnels Comptables Du Burundi (OPC).

The body was created to facilitate the EAC integration especially article 11 of the Common Market Protocol of the EAC on education – harmonisation of the education curricula, standards, assessment and evaluation of education programmes.

Key Benefit Accrued from the EACIA

• The training processes of accountants across the EAC have been hamonised. This has allowed for knowledge sharing, and this making the movement of skilled labour productive.