The East African Community (EAC) has presented a budget proposal of $110.8 million for the 2026/2027 financial year to the East African Legislative Assembly sitting in Arusha, Tanzania. Presented by the Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Rebecca Kadaga, the new budget marks the launch of the bloc’s latest five-year development strategy aimed at strengthening economic ownership, infrastructure development, and industrial sustainability across member states.
In her address to the assembly, Kadaga highlighted the region’s robust economic resilience, noting that the East African economy grew by 5.8% in 2025, comfortably outperforming both the global average of 3.4% and the Sub-Saharan African average of 4.5%. Intra-regional trade expanded significantly by 28% to reach $19.3 billion, which helped drastically slash the community’s overall trade deficit to $2.6 billion, down from $13 billion the previous year.
The newly proposed budget allocates the largest share of funding toward institutional capacity and service delivery across the community at $70.5 million, followed by $11.1 million specifically earmarked for consolidating regional trade and legal reforms. Among the various organs, the EAC Secretariat is set to receive the highest individual allocation of $59.8 million, with the East African Legislative Assembly allocated $19.2 million. The spending estimates will now undergo formal debate and consideration by the regional parliament before final approval.
–ChannelAfrica/EAC–
