Regional financial experts have warned that legal and regulatory gaps could slow efforts by the East African Community to establish a functioning cross-border market for government securities, despite renewed momentum toward deeper financial integration.
The concerns emerged during a high-level meeting in Kigali this week, where officials reviewed existing EAC securities market directives and assessed their readiness to support cross-border trading of government bonds.
Participants said outdated regulations and uneven implementation across partner states risk undermining progress toward a unified regional capital market.
“The free movement of capital … remains one of the most important commitments made by Partner States,” said Dickson Ssembuya, a senior official at Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority. “Many of the challenges we face … are not unique … and we can learn valuable lessons from other regional blocs.”
The EAC introduced securities market directives between 2015 and 2017 to harmonize rules across national markets. However, experts said the framework has not kept pace with technological advances and evolving global standards.
A growing body of research shows that legal and regulatory fragmentation remains one of the main barriers to capital market integration in East Africa, limiting cross-border listings and investor participation.
The stakes are high. A fully integrated regional capital market could expand investor pools, improve liquidity and reduce borrowing costs for governments, according to international financial institutions.
Yet progress has been uneven.
While regional banking integration has advanced — driven by cross-border expansion of major lenders capital markets in most EAC countries remain small and largely domestic.
Experts at the Kigali meeting emphasized that aligning national laws with regional directives will be critical to unlocking cross-border trading.
“A coordinated regional approach is essential,” said Moise Bigirimana of Rwanda’s central bank. He urged partner states to fully implement agreed directives within their domestic legal frameworks.
The EAC, revived in 2000, aims to build a single market with free movement of goods, services, labor and capital as part of its broader integration agenda.
But analysts say that ambition depends heavily on political will and regulatory coordination at the national level.
The Kigali meeting produced recommendations to update existing directives, improve legal clarity and strengthen regulatory alignment. These proposals will now be submitted to key EAC committees for consideration.
Until then, experts caution that without faster reforms, the region’s push toward a unified bond market could face delays.
