Petroleum, Gas and Mining Sectors in East African Community

Contributing to the study ‘Africans Investing in Africa’, which is aimed at understanding the challenges and latent opportunities existing on the continent for more African involvement, this chapter sheds light on the Petroleum, Gas and Mining Sectors in the East African Community (EAC) countries. The EAC as a block was chosen as a case due to some of its shared similarities, most of which are influenced by the history of the block. For example, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania fell under the earlier (1970s) East African Community whereby some socio-economic domains, including education, trade (air transport, railways and marine) and so on, were under shared arrangements. On the other hand, Burundi and Rwanda, beyond the fact that they happen to have quite similar geographical and geological features, also happened to fall under a single colony that influenced common trade practices and geopolitical structures. Today, under the current East African Community (with five countries), most of the trade aspects enjoy harmonised trade policies that may characterise attractive investment interests as a block rather than as individual countries.