Companies in the region are strategizing on how to maximize on the recently launched East African Common Market Protocol.

The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group for instance has embarked on the installation of a real-time information technology system to facilitate financial transaction within the five east African community (EAC) member countries.

“We intent to put the entire KCB regional network on an online real-time information technology system that will facilitate financial transactions across the region much more efficiently,” said Otieno.

The system is already operational in Kenya and will be rolled out in Uganda and other EAC countries in the next six months. This will allow customers to transact a t any KCB branch just like they would in their home branches.

With the arrival of the common market protocol, regional countries are now working towards a regional Central Bank with all the five member countries sharing a common currency. In September this year,  EAC Planning and Infrastructure Director Phillip Wambugu told journalists in Nairobi that  the move was aimed at harmonizing the regional economies to achieve common goals.

Wambugu said a monetary union would complement the common market protocol whose implementation starts early next year. Speaking after a meeting between the secretariat and the European Central Bank Wambugu noted that already a customs union is in place which has greatly boosted intra regional trade among the member countries.

He said despite the evident challenges dogging the fragile EAC pact, especially with challenges on integration, a monetary union was achievable if the example of the European Union was anything to go by.

The union will engage among other stakeholders, the central banks, capital market authorities, civil societies and ministries of finance and trade.

A monetary Union  protocol is scheduled to be in place by 2012 and the EAC  secretariat has already consulted the first stakeholder, the central banks that  aim at bringing on board all the other bodies to seek a consensus on the issue.

According to EAC Secretary General Juma Mwapachu the next two and a half years will call for a lot of commitment from both partner states and EAC secretariat if the union is to be achieved within the stipulated period. The EAC secretariat has already contracted the European Central Bank working with national experts from the EAC central banks to undertake a study geared towards taking stock of the current state of preparedness of the EAC partner states for a monetary union. The EU is also mandated to make proposals on the institutional framework and structure of the proposed union.