EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF ITS MEMBERS STATE

Abstract

ABSTRACT . As one of the fastest-growing regional economic blocs in the world. the EAC is widening and deepening cooperation among the member states in various key spheres for their mutual benefit. These spheres include political, economic, and social. This study seeks to evaluate the effect of the East African Community (EAC) on the economic development of Tanzania as a member country. This paper examines how Tanzania's economic development has been effected as a result of being a member of the integration. It also examines the working framework of the EAC on fulfilling its objectives amongst the member countries and also the setbacks that hinder Tanzania from achieving maximum economic benefit as a result of being a member of the community. This study is guided by the underlying theory of Pan-Africanism which states that people of African descent, have common interests and should be unified. The descriptive research design was used, where respondents were from Tanzania and they comprised cross border business community, government officials in Ministries of EAC and Foreign Affairs, and EAC organs, the Secretariat and Legislative Assembly which were purposively sampled. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used while instruments of data collection were: semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and focus group discussions guides analyzed by using inductive method. The findings indicate that Tanzania has gained positive impacts on its economy as a result of being a member state of the integration. However, it can be argued that despite Tanzania having an economic advantage compared to other partner states, this economic advantage does not as much reflect on its economic growth. Conversely, Tanzania needs to achieve greater international competitiveness and have an improved environment, enabling business environment and better logistics performance.