How the EAC can turn regional trade growth into practical gains for businesses
OPINION | By Anas Ali Dahir, MAPPM
Executive Director, East Africa Association for Research and Development (DAD) | University Lecturer | Specialist in Monitoring and Evaluation
The East African Community has a customs union and a common market, yet many businesses still face repeated paperwork, inconsistent standards, multiple inspections, unexpected restrictions and costly border delays. The region’s central trade problem is no longer a lack of agreements. It is the gap between the commitments governments make and the conditions traders face.
The EAC’s 2024 Trade and Investment Report illustrates both the opportunity and the warning. Intra-EAC merchandise trade grew by 18.4% to US$14.33 billion in 2024, its highest value on record. Yet its share of the bloc’s total trade fell from 15% in 2023 to 11.8% in 2024, as trade with markets outside the EAC grew faster.¹
Regional trade is growing in value. The falling share does not, by itself, prove that integration is failing. It does show how much work remains to make the EAC’s internal market easier to use.
Digital reform is delivering results
The EAC reports that its Single Customs Territory reduced cargo clearance along major corridors from 21 days to four days. By November 2024, 16 one-stop border posts were fully operational. Digital reporting also helped reduce the average time taken to resolve a reported non-tariff barrier from 242 to 123 days. These are reported regional results, not a guarantee that every crossing has improved equally.¹
The wider potential is substantial. The World Trade Organization estimates that full implementation of its Trade Facilitation Agreement could reduce trade costs globally by an average of 14.3% and increase global trade by up to US$1 trillion annually. Those are projections, not gains already measured in East Africa.²
A border need not disappear from the map to become less costly to cross. When customs authorities share information, coordinate inspections and track shipments electronically, goods can move more efficiently while governments retain oversight. But a national electronic platform has limited value if a trader must enter the same information into a neighbouring country’s system, supply paper copies or obtain separate approvals from several agencies. The EAC needs systems that exchange trusted information securely across borders.
Non-tariff barriers are the real test
Tariffs are only one part of the cost of trade. Discriminatory taxes, import restrictions, permit requirements, quotas, conflicting standards, road charges and unpredictable procedures can be just as disruptive. The EAC report says its monitoring mechanism recorded 48 new non-tariff-barrier complaints between November 2024 and May 2025, twice the number in the preceding six-month period. It identifies sugar, milk, beer and cement among the sensitive products involved and says they accounted for roughly two-thirds of the complaints. These were reported complaints, not 48 independently established legal violations.¹ A credible regional system must investigate complaints, resolve verified barriers and check whether the remedy works at the crossing. An announcement that a restriction has ended means little if transporters continue to encounter it. The EAC should publish the status of each verified barrier, the products affected, the responsible authority, the agreed remedy and its deadline. Traders and transport companies should help confirm its removal.
The AfCFTA provides a framework, not an automatic solution
The African Continental Free Trade Area offers EAC producers access to a much wider African market. But market size matters only when goods, services, payments and trade information can cross borders efficiently and safely.
In its 2022 analysis, the World Bank projected that deeper AfCFTA implementation, including harmonised investment and competition rules, could raise African incomes by as much as 9% by 2035 and help up to 50 million people leave extreme poverty. These are conditional modelled outcomes, not benefits delivered by tariff reductions alone.³
The African Union’s Protocol on Digital Trade establishes common principles and harmonised rules for digital trade. Its value will depend on implementation: compatible systems, reliable electronic documents, appropriate data protection and secure information exchange.⁴ Putting an inefficient procedure online does not make it efficient. Replacing five paper forms with five electronic forms merely changes their format. A useful system would allow a business to submit reliable information once and authorised agencies to use it securely throughout a shipment’s journey.
The EAC should work towards a simple standard: one shipment, one trusted set of data and one predictable trading journey.
Somalia should be integrated as a strategic partner
Somalia became the EAC’s eighth full member on 4 March 2024. Its accession added more than 3,000 kilometres of Indian Ocean coastline to the Community. Over time, Somali ports could offer additional maritime links between East Africa, the Gulf and other markets. Geography, however, is an opportunity rather than a completed trade strategy.¹
Somalia needs stronger customs administration, more consistent standards, better trade data, dependable digital infrastructure and closer institutional coordination. Its ports must also connect effectively to regional trade routes. The EAC and Somalia could prioritise compatible customs systems, electronic certificates of origin, cargo tracking, secure trade-data exchange, digital payments, cybersecurity and training for public agencies and businesses. Each step should have a timetable and an outcome traders can observe.
Somalia also has experience to contribute. Its widespread use of digital payments offers practical lessons as the region considers how to make cross-border transactions easier for small enterprises.
Measure integration from the trader’s point of view
Governments often measure integration by agreements signed, meetings held and platforms launched. Businesses measure it by what happens when they deliver an order. For a trader, progress means fewer documents, shorter clearance times, published charges and equal treatment. For a transport company, it means less waiting and fewer interruptions. For a small enterprise, it means reaching a neighbouring market without unnecessary intermediaries.
The EAC should publish comparable performance data for principal border posts and corridors: clearance and truck-waiting times; required documents and official fees; digital-system outages; reported barriers and their verified resolution; and the participation of small businesses, women and young traders. Reliable evidence on unofficial payments, gathered safely, should also inform reform. Such reporting would show which crossings are improving and where delays persist.
The choice ahead
The evidence shows that EAC trade has grown in value and that coordinated border reform can save time. It also shows that recurring non-tariff barriers can undermine those gains. Digital technology and regulatory discipline must advance together. Connected platforms will have limited effect if unpredictable restrictions remain; shared rules will remain costly to follow if procedures stay slow and repetitive.
The next stage of EAC integration should connect national trade systems, resolve verified barriers, support Somalia’s effective participation and turn the AfCFTA’s digital trade framework into improvements businesses can measure. East Africa cannot build a twenty-first-century market through borders governed by twentieth-century procedures. The agreements exist. What matters now is disciplined implementation and a willingness to judge success by the trader’s experience.