Central bank governors from the East African Community (EAC) met in May 2025 in Mombasa to approve a roadmap for a unified cross-border payment system, set to launch by 2030. According to the source, a press release published on the EAC’s website, this “regional switch” aims to streamline, accelerate, and reduce the cost of financial transactions among the eight EAC member states: Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Somalia, Tanzania, and South Sudan.

The new system will allow, for example, a cocoa producer in North Kivu, DRC, to receive payments directly to a mobile money or bank account from a buyer in Kenya, without the current hurdles of currency exchange or long transfer times. These transactions are currently slow and expensive, with mobile money transfers costing up to 16.4% between some countries and bank transfers taking two to three days.

According to the World Bank, in 2024, sending $200 between Tanzania and Kenya via mobile money cost 16.4%, split between a 1.03% sending fee and a 15.37% margin on the exchange rate, often applied by intermediaries.

A roadmap

To address these constraints, member states are planning a harmonized approach to accepting and exchanging local currencies. "This initiative will reduce exchange-related costs, accelerate transaction speed and improve price transparency, thus fostering a smoother and more cost-effective cross-border payments ecosystem," the roadmap states.

The roadmap outlines four stages: harmonizing national payment regulations, establishing national switches to link banks and mobile money operators, interconnecting these switches by 2028, and launching a single regional switch by 2030. In the DRC, Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka announced on May 2, 2025, the imminent launch of the Mosolo national electronic payment switch, which will integrate all players in the national payment system.

This article was initially published in French by Timothée Manoke (intern)

Edited in English by Ola Schad Akinocho