Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda recently held their fourth Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit in Uganda.

The main focus of the summit was to review the progress of the decisions reached during the third Infrastructure Summit held in October last year and to provide direction on the implementation of Northern Corridor Integration Projects.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said the meeting is an important illustration of the commitment to the goals set last year to work together on initiatives needed to advance development in the region. The president praised the achievements made on current joint projects, saying progress made so far was encouraging.

The summit saw the countries sign several pacts. One of the agreements reached was to develop a joint power generation project to increase the countries’ power supply. Work on power inter-connection should be completed in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda by February, March and April 2015 respectively.

The countries’ presidents have directed partner states to tender documents for the procurement of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) for the Eldoret-Kampala Pipeline, with an option of extending the pipeline to Kigali. They also agreed that Rwanda and Uganda should adopt the Kenyan financing approach to fast-track joint mobilisation of resources to develop the Standard Gauge Railway.