Fully integrating South Sudan into the East African Community (EAC) Customs Union is a process, the trading bloc’s Secretary General Peter Mathuki, has said, confirming the secretariat was doing its best to make it happen. 

Mathuki made the disclosure on Tuesday, April 12, as he addressed a virtual press conference from his offices in Arusha, Tanzania.

Last month regional lawmakers raised concerns over the slow pace of integrating South Sudan into the EAC Customs Union ever since the country was admitted into the six-member bloc six years ago.

"There is a roadmap that actually defines how we are going to fully integrate them. The roadmap is still in progress. We are trying our level best to fully integrate them,” Mathuki said.

He said the secretariat appreciates South Sudan’s current circumstances where they are dealing with stabilizing peace.

"And we have been working with them in this journey of ensuring that they remain peaceful,” he said, underscoring that in terms of integrating them fully into the Customs Union, already there is an existing One Stop Border Post in Nimule, on the border of Uganda and South Sudan. 

"And that is to say we are preparing and putting systems that support them. Already, we are working closely with different ministries to ensure that their systems work for them. And we have been supporting them fully.”

South Sudan applied to join the EAC in June 2011, shortly after gaining independence from Sudan.

But the ensuing political unrest between government forces and rebels greatly affected it. It was admitted as the sixth member of the EAC in 2016.  

Disparities in policy, legal and regulatory frameworks and South Sudan’s shift in priority activities geared towards peace and national building as opposed to integration initiatives were some of the issues highlighted in a parliamentary report explaining why there has been very little progress made in integrating South Sudan into the EAC Customs Union.

Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the country’s Minister of Presidential Affairs, on March 29, told the EAC Heads of State Summit that his country is implementing the 2018 peace agreement as it prepares for elections due to be held in less than a year. 

Mathuki said: "As we speak, as we do recruitment of new staff at the Community, we have given affirmative action to ensure that South Sudan are fully integrated we are going to have some people from the republic of south Sudan work at the secretariat just as we did with other partner states when they were joining.

In December 2021, it was agreed that as is tradition regarding new members in the EAC, affirmative action be granted to South Sudan so the latter benefits the way Rwanda and Burundi did upon joining the bloc.

At the time, regional Ministers agreed that 11 positions will be available to South Sudan "over and above the five that were shortlisted in the recruitment process.”

Mathuki concluded that integrating South Sudan into the EAC Customs Union "is a journey.” 

He said: "It’s happening. It may not be as fast as we want but I can tell you from where I sit; the republic of South Sudan, we are working with them, we are supporting them.”