President Yoweri Museveni announced on Monday that all work permits for Kenyans and Rwandans citizens coming or living in Uganda will be abolished starting January 2014.
This was during the East African Community (EAC) Infrastructure summit in Rwanda as the three presidents from Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya signed off the Single Customs Territory (SCT) for East Africa.
President Museveni said starting with next year, all work permits for Kenyans and Rwandans citizens will be abolished to ensure there is easy transportation of goods and people in the region.
This will also reduce on the cost of business carried out in the region. The leaders also resolved that all roadblocks from Mombasa to Kigali be terminated and the weighbridges reduced from nine to at least three.
With this transformation, the cost of transporting a 20-foot container from Mombasa to Kigali will drop by half due to increased efficiency.
Speaking at the summit, President Kagame and Uhuru Kenyatta supported the reforms and encouraged the public to accept it.
This summit which started on Monday is intended to discuss issues of interest for the advancement of the use of information and communication technologies in Africa to boost the continent’s economic development and resource mobilization.
It aims at also bringing together the East African countries to ensure there is regional development through infrastructure, trade and political and economic integration.
Present at the summit are Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, and Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali.
Today, at least seven African Heads of State will address participants at the ongoing Transform Africa Summit.
According to The News Times Rwanda, more than 1,500 delegates are taking part in the summit at Kigali Serena Hotel.
The Summit is organised under the theme, “The Future Delivered Today,” as leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs from across the world devise ways on how Africa can leverage broadband to transform communities, governments and the private sector.
