The East African Community, popularly known as the Community, has been in existence on two occasions. The bloc was founded in 1967 the bloc’s Founding Fathers Mzee Jomo Kenyatta (Republic of Kenya), Dr. Apollo Milton Obote (Republic of Uganda) and Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere (United Republic of Tanzania). It collapsed in 1977 due to a mix of political, economic and geopolitical issues. The bloc was re-established by the three countries in 1999 with the signing of the Treaty that entered into force on 7th July, 2000. 

In 2007, the Republics of Rwanda and Burundi joined the Community. The Republic of South Sudan became a member in 2016, the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2022 and the Federal Republic of Somalia in 2024.

With an estimated population of 331 million people and a GDP of over USD312.9 billion, it is described as the fastest integrating bloc under the African Integration Index (ARII).  has long been a driving force in Africa’s regional integration agenda. 

Kenya’s hosting of this Summit reaffirms the country’s leadership in advancing regional integration, promoting international trade, and fostering innovation-driven economic transformation.

Thursday, 4th – 5th December, 2025: 5th Retreat of the EAC Heads of State on Infrastructure Development and Financing

The EAC Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure Development and Financing (‘Retreat’) is a biennial EAC event to review the progress of implementation of infrastructure projects and guide on the way forward.   The Retreat traces its origins to a resolution by Ministers in 2008 in Kampala to hold a high-level event, preferably at Summit level, to champion infrastructure development in the Community.

Infrastructure development remains the key focus at national and regional levels, given its pivotal role in promoting trade, industrialization and regional integration. However, the general state of infrastructure in the region remains poor, thus making the region uncompetitive in the world market. The funding gap required to bring the state of infrastructure to good standards is huge and needs concerted efforts to mobilize the necessary resources. In this regard, support from the highest political organs of the Community is imperative.

The objectives of the 5th Retreat will be to review progress of implementation of the 4th Retreat decisions and the prioritized projects, provide policy directions on unfunded projects and solicit support from development partners and the private sector for investments in bankable projects. It will focus on the challenges faced in projects development and identification of strategic interventions to facilitate realisation of the priority projects. In particular, the Retreat will:

1. Receive presentations on the Priority Infrastructure Projects with a view to appreciating the opportunities, progress and challenges on infrastructure development in the Community, especially an appreciation of the infrastructure funding gap;
2. Provide a platform to advocate and mobilize resources for infrastructure project preparation, and consequently, investments for construction, operations, and maintenance;
3. Organise seminars on topical issues on infrastructure development such as (a) approaches, instruments, and vehicles for private sector infrastructure finance (b) incentives and risk mitigation for infrastructure financing, and (c) frameworks and standards for climate resilient and green infrastructure;
4. Encourage the adoption of regionally agreed standards, specifications and policies in infrastructure in order to reduce the cost of doing business;
5. Review implementation of decisions of previous Retreats and give guidance on the way forward; and
6. Adopt declarations and issue directives concerning commitments, initiatives and development results related to infrastructure development.

As is with the tradition of convening the HoS retreats, the 5th HoS Retreat will feature a Ministerial Roundtable, to be held one day ahead of the Heads of States attendance and participation. A seminar will run concurrently with the Roundtable. 

The Roundtable will be a ministerial level event bringing together stakeholders in the infrastructure sectors to consider investment opportunities available within the EAC. Stakeholders expected at the Roundtable include government ministries, multilateral development banks, bilateral donors, international development agencies, regional and sub-regional organizations, the private sector and civil society. Key outcomes expected from the Roundtable will be expressions of funding interests for specific projects by development partners and strategies for enhancement of fund mobilisation and implementation of the identified priority projects.

The Seminar will be talks and presentations by invited experts on topical issues of infrastructure development. For example, on infrastructure financing, seminar presentations may cover infrastructure financing instruments and channels, infrastructure risk management instruments and techniques, and incentives for infrastructure finance. Other topics include climate resilience and green infrastructure.

The Roundtable, therefore, will be a promotion and networking forum providing project sponsors the opportunity to showcase prioritized projects and engage closely with prospective investors and donors for project uptakes. It will also present an opportunity for business-to-business engagements between sector players on possible areas of collaboration. On their part, the Seminars will sensitize and build capacity of infrastructure development professionals on contemporary and emerging topics in infrastructure development. 
The outcomes of the Roundtable will be submitted to the Retreat for consideration by the Heads of State and subsequently, pronouncements that give high level political support and impetus to development of infrastructure and energy within the EAC.

The Heads of State during the 2nd Retreat held in November 2012 agreed on 72 projects in railways, ports, energy and regional road projects supporting ports development. These projects have since been re-packaged into sub-projects and sub-components in order to facilitate cost-effective implementation, resulting into more individual projects. 

Further during their 3rd Retreat, the Heads of State directed that airports and civil aviation projects be included in the list for consideration in subsequent retreats. Following the re-packaging and introduction of new projects, to date a total of 286 subprojects have been agreed upon by Partner States to be promoted for investment to bridge the infrastructure gap in the region.

Approximately US$ 500 million is required for project preparation during the next 3-5 years to move the projects which are at identification/conception stage through preparation phase. Implementation of the identified priority infrastructure projects and programs will require an investment amounting to US$78,730 million over the next 10 years and beyond. The Table/Chart below shows a summary of investment requirements for the priority projects by sector and by countries.

The Heads of State Retreat will be held back-to-back with the Ministerial Roundtable as has been the practice during previous retreats. The draft detailed programmes for the Retreat will be shared in due course by the EAC Secretariat.

The HoS priority projects present an attractive opportunity for private sector investors, bilateral and multilateral donors, development banks and corporate financiers. Therefore, all stakeholders are invited to seize the opportunity presented by the EAC Infrastructure Roundtable and the Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure Development and Financing and to identify tangible projects for support and implementation through partnerships.