Senior officials and experts from member states of the East African Community (EAC), yesterday, met in Kampala ahead of the 10th Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) Summit.

The summit, which is expected to be attended by at least four heads of state on Saturday, is aimed at assessing the implementation status of projects launched under the NCIP framework.

It is expected to draw the Presidents of Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and the host Uganda.

The NCIP meeting will have three other sessions; the private sectors’ meeting (today), the ministerial session (tomorrow), and the Heads of State Summit (on Saturday).

“We have discussed a number of issues, including the fact that airports will now also have branded tourism information centres contrary to the earlier position where the branded centres were only to be stationed at border entry points,” said Monique Mukaruliza, Rwanda’s national coordinator for the NCIP.

The tourism information centres will market, among other projects, the East Africa Single Tourist Visa, which makes the Northern Corridor partner states a single tourist destination.

With the visa, tourists have many choices of getting value for their money by seeing more in just one trip across the three countries.

The summit will also have a special focus on how to actively involve the private sector in the integration projects.

Opportunities for the private sector

Robert Nkusi Ford, the second vice chair of the Private Sector Foundation (PSF), said the private sector has already identified opportunities in the public-private partnership arrangement that include investment in the ICT sector.

“Partner states are now looking at co-funding an awareness campaign up to the tune of $140,000 on the use of national identity cards, voters cards and students ID,” he said.

Officials emphasised the need for members of the private sector to be involved by buying shares in the Northern Corridor projects so they can benefit from them.

Alex Mugire, the Rwanda Revenue Authority head of compliance and enforcement, said Rwanda was in the process of procuring electronic car tracking system.

“Once we have this system estimated at $3.9 million, we will be connected to the common platform with Uganda and Kenya. It will mean that there will be one seal – and not like the case it is today of tracking cargo in bits,” he said.

The Northern Corridor brings together countries that are mainly served by Mombasa port in Kenya.