EDITORIAL: Electronic passport will spur trade in East Africa

Kenya’s move to adopt a regional electronic passport is on track after the government announced that electronic passports would be rolled out from September.

The new generation passports are aimed at easing travel for East African residents. Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda are also set to roll out the electronic passports.

They will feature a microchip containing details of the owner and will allow information contained in it to be verified with information displayed on the passport.

One of the major hurdles to the integration of East African Community member states has been failure to ease travel, which hampers movement of goods and people as a result.

According to the Immigration Department, the current passports in use will be phased out over two years.

The electronic passport has been touted as a great step in curbing fraud and easing clearance at international passports. The new look passport will also curb counterfeit travel documents and tampering.

Eradicating trade barriers is the only way that the EAC member states can help foster business in the region.

The adoption of the electronic passport by the EAC member states will hasten the free flow of goods from one point to another and attract investment.

READ: Why Africans are better off with second citizenship

Among the major hurdles to regional trade are bureaucracy and corruption.

While trade in the bloc has increased exponentially after the launch of the Common Market Protocol in 2010, there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

For the economies of East African Community member states to grow, there is need to ensure the free flow of goods and labour from one point to another.

Some hiccups have been experienced between some of the national governments despite concerted efforts to abolish non-tariff barriers are already under way.
We urge the regional governments to remove any barriers to trade to spur growth.