The Federal Government of Somalia has made an official request to join East Africa’s economic bloc after the country was locked out of the bloc, Somali president said on Saturday.
The members of the East African Community (EAC) had turned down the nation’s bid to join the bloc 2016 citing insecurity.
President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo said during the opening of the third session of the country’s parliament that his government formally asked to join East African Community (EAC).
” We are working on the attempts to join East African Community. We have already submitted our request to the bloc,” President Farmajo said.
Somalia and Sudan had for the first time applied for the membership on their bids to join the bloc 2012 and 2011 respectively.
Four years later, the bloc comprising of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi had accepted the membership of Sudan but Somalia failed to fulfill the organization’s membership requirement.
The president hinted that Somalia is spearheading efforts to establish new trading bloc for East African countries.
“We are putting more efforts to form new trade organization for East African countries. The bloc will lead the countries for development including improvement on trade, security and interaction between the communities,” Mr. Farmajo noted.
Joining Comesa
The President said the country considers joining the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa ( COMESA).
Somalia started its bid to be admitted into the trade bloc after the heads of states of the organization gave a green light to the horn of African nation during their conference in 2016 in Madagascar.
COMESA that has 19 countries as members was formed in 1994.
Discussion about this post