{"id":120281,"date":"2026-02-22T09:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration"},"modified":"2026-02-22T09:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:49:13","slug":"kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration","title":{"rendered":"Kagame, EAC boss discuss regional trade, integration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>President Paul Kagame on Friday, February 20, met with Veronica Nduva, the Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), to discuss accelerating regional trade and deepening integration among partner states.<\/p>\n<p>Their discussions focused on key initiatives aimed at advancing shared prosperity across the EAC, according to the Office of the President.<\/p>\n<p>Nduva has been in Rwanda to attend the East African Community Multi-Sectoral High-Level Dialogue, which took place from February 19 to 20 under the theme, \u201cFrom commitment to action: scaling up regional competitiveness to unlock trade and prosperity in the EAC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The meeting follows the EAC\u2019s adoption of a five-point priority plan aimed at easing cross-border trade.<\/p>\n<p>During the dialogue, Nduva emphasised urgent action on these measures, noting that intra-EAC trade has grown from $6.42 billion in 2016 to $15.25 billion in 2024, reflecting an average annual growth rate of about 11-12 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>However, trade within the bloc still accounts for only around 12 per cent of total exports, underscoring continued reliance on external markets.<\/p>\n<p>The new plan\u2019s actions include eliminating persistent non-tariff barriers, closing infrastructure gaps, accelerating digital trade solutions, improving labour and professional mobility, and ensuring regional integration delivers tangible benefits to citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders also stressed that regional integration must translate into real benefits for citizens, particularly women, youth and small businesses engaged in cross-border trade.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. President Paul Kagame on Friday, February 20, met with Veronica Nduva, the Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), to discuss accelerating regional trade and deepening integration among partner states. Their discussions focused on key initiatives aimed at advancing shared prosperity across the EAC, according to the Office of the President. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":120280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[3598,3875,6641,758,725],"class_list":["post-120281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-eac","tag-east-african-community","tag-non-tariff-barriers","tag-rwanda","tag-trade"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kagame, EAC boss discuss regional trade, integration - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Paul Kagame on Friday, February 20, met with Veronica Nduva, the Secretary General of the East African Communi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kagame, EAC boss discuss regional trade, integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Paul Kagame on Friday, February 20, met with Veronica Nduva, the Secretary General of the East African Communi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T09:10:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T09:49:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771741130.22827.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"616\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kagame, EAC boss discuss regional trade, integration\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-22T09:10:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-22T09:49:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration\"},\"wordCount\":234,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771741130.22827.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"eac\",\"East African Community\",\"non-tariff barriers\",\"Rwanda\",\"trade\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-eac-boss-discuss-regional-trade-integration\",\"name\":\"Kagame, EAC boss discuss regional trade, integration - 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