President William Ruto has renewed calls for free trade in the East African Community and the African continent at large.

Speaking in Uganda during the country’s 60th independence anniversary celebrations on Sunday, October 9, President Ruto said there is an urgent need to transform borders within the EAC for the region to realise its economic potential.

Ruto urged his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, to lead the talks aimed at bringing down the barriers and converting them into bridges to benefit over 300 million citizens of EAC countries.

“We can not share poverty, we can not share hunger but we can share opportunities and we can share prosperity,” Ruto stated.

“It’s our place as leaders and citizens of the East African region for us to work together so we can transform our borders which today stand out as barriers and convert them to bridges so that goods, services and people can move across East Africa without impediment.”

While emphasizing the role of the church in bringing people together, Ruto said Museveni, being the eldest Head of State in the region, has the experience to unite member countries.

“As our elder, President Museveni you have the challenge to lead the church on ensuring that we bring down the boundaries, the borders and the barriers so that we can have a borderless East African Community,” he added.

“We are looking in our lifetime in the next few years that people, goods and services can move across this East Africa as we lead the way in ensuring that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) becomes a reality.”

Ruto said talks are ongoing to improve trade regulations between Kenya and Uganda.

“I did instruct the minister for trade in Kenya to work with the minister of trade in Uganda so that we can formulate and sign into the guided trade agreement that will facilitate the African Continental Free Trade Area to become a reality so that we can harness the opportunities for investment for trade and for people to work together in our region,” the President revealed.

AfCFTA was established in 2018 by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which has 43 parties and another 11 signatories, making it the largest free-trade area by number of member states, after the World Trade Organization.

Ruto said the EAC community has the ability to manufacture products such as fertiliser instead of relying on imports.

“We have the raw materials in our region. Our business people should harness those opportunities and harness leverage on the friendship we have as East Africans and save us the foreign exchange and create jobs for the millions of young people in our region,” he added.