The East African Community (EAC) can speed up regional integration if it fully adopts ICT in its programmes, according to EAC vice president Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal.
Daily News reports Bilal used his speech to a workshop on competitiveness in East Africa held in Arusha to observe that the community had reported a four-fold growth in its GDP, urging member states to sustain the momentum to attain middle income status by 2025 and to compete on the global stage.
“We must force ourselves to think as a region, plan as a region, aspire as a region and implement as a region,” he said.
Also present was the EAC Secretary General, Dr Richard Sezibera, who said the transfer of technology had resulted in productivity gains and the ICT sector had helped to grow the economy in the region by about 40 per cent.
He also applauded the various ways mobile technology was being used in the region, citing mobile commerce in particular, which he credits for simplifying financial transactions and making banking more available to East Africans.
