Africa Trade Policy Notes. Note #22
Extending the EAC to include Burundi and Rwanda in 2007 has greatly added to the diversity of the membership. The three founding members of the EAC have a long history of trade and administrative cooperation (stretching back nearly a century), and as a result of their colonial history have all inherited legal systems based on English common law. Both Rwanda and Burundi are former Belgian colonies and as a result follow the civil law tradition.
This note focuses on two aspects of scaling-up trade in financial services within the EAC:
* Documenting and building on financial integration in the EAC as it is actually taking shape on the ground;
* Elaborating on the challenges specific to the further integration of Burundi and Rwanda
The note concludes by discussing a new capacity building initiative that the World Bank is implementing with the EAC Secretariat to support the deepening of financial integration in east Africa.
Author(s): Andrew Lovegrove , Smita Wagh , John Kashangaki