The East African presidents Tuesday resolved to establish special purpose financing schemes for small and medium enterprises as part of efforts to cushion vulnerable businesses from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
During a video conference, presidents Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Salvar Kiir (South Sudan) made commitments to ramp up local production of essential products and support agro-processing and value chains as an import substitution measure.
Tanzania’s president John Magufuli and his Burundian counterpart Pierre Nkurunziza skipped the meeting chaired by Mr Kagame.
In a communique issued following the video meeting, the leaders committed to support local production of processed food as well as essential medical products supplies like masks, sanitisers, soaps, coveralls, face shields and ventilators.
They directed national agencies to ease cross-border flow of essential products to boost regional response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Heads of State noted that the region’s key economic sectors are experiencing a slowdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as agriculture, trade, manufacturing and industry, tourism, hospitality and entertainment,” said the statement.
The leaders also directed national agencies to facilitate farmers “to continue farming activities during and post-Covid-19 period.”
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