Somali is inching closer to being admitted to the East African Community (EAC) as an eighth member.
Its admission will, however, depend on a resolution by the Council of the ministers' summit which is currently underway in Bujumbura, Burundi.
The ministers are converging for their 43rd ordinary session.
The report from the verification team that visited Somalia last month will be tabled for consideration Thursday before it is presented to the summit of Heads of state summit for endorsement.
The team was in the war-torn country to collect crucial information which among others touched on security.
Somalia has been pushing for inclusion into the EAC following the admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo last year.
Somalia made its application to join the EAC in 2012 but since then its application has been pending due to various reasons.
Last July, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud attended the 22nd Ordinary East Africa Community Heads of State Summit where he made another bid to join EAC.
"I am here to make a formal bid for Somalia to join the East African Community," Mohamud said.
Highlighting the significance of Somalia joining the regional bloc, Secretary General Peter Mathuki said the community will leverage Somalia's coastline to boost its trade.
Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa stretching up to 3,200 kilometres.
Mathuki said the intra-EAC trade has continued to rise due to political goodwill among the member states, hitting Sh1.2 trillion (US$10 billion) from US$7.1 billion in 2019.
“The joining of Somalia into the community will make our community bigger in terms of tourism. We can work with them to make EAC a tourism hub in the continent,” he said.
“If we keep them out then we do not even have the mandate to be involved in what they are doing,” he said.
