On December 13, 2025, the three military-led states of the Alliance of Sahel States (Burkina Faso, Mali & Niger) inaugurated the Confederation Investment and Development Bank with an initial capital of 500 billion CFA francs (approximately $895 million). The institution’s mandate is straightforward: finance infrastructure, energy, and agricultural projects that underpin long-term economic transformation in the Sahel. Each member state has committed roughly 5 percent of its tax revenues to seed the bank’s capital base. This move is being framed by AES leaders not just as economic development but as a means to assert autonomy from former colonial institutions and donors.

The EAC of East Africa and the AES of the Sahel might seem worlds apart; different histories, languages, ecosystems, and economic structures. Yet at the heart of both blocs lies a common challenge familiar across the African continent: how to escape external dependency and build institutions that serve local development priorities first. The AES’s recent move offers a set of lessons for the EAC’s next stage of economic cooperation.

1. Economic Collaboration Beyond Security and Politics

AES’s investment bank is part of a broader strategy of integration. In parallel, the bloc has discussed systems ranging from common customs duties to energy policy harmonization, a joint biometric passport, and even a unified agricultural seed alliance. These initiatives signal that AES leaders are framing economic integration as a counterweight to external sanctions and political isolation.

For the EAC, already one of Africa’s most functionally integrated regional communities, this underscores an important evolution: economic integration must extend beyond tariffs and free trade to powerful financing mechanisms. The EAC’s Customs Union and Common Market Protocols are valuable, but without deep institutions to finance regional infrastructure (roads, energy grids, digital connectivity), trade integration is only half a market.

2. Mobilizing Internal Resources to Fund Growth

Each AES member pledging 5 percent of tax revenue to the regional bank is significant. Reliance on external donors historically weakens policy sovereignty and introduces volatility in planning. The EAC’s budget, like most regional bodies, still leans on external partners to fund big initiatives. AES’s model forces its members to internalize the costs and benefits of development finance, making governments accountable to their citizens, not foreign capitals.

In East Africa, domestic resource mobilization has been a policy priority for years. EAC countries can deepen this by organizing regional sovereign financing tools that tap intra-community savings, pension funds, and even diaspora bonds to finance regional projects. Such pooled finance has a higher probability of aligning with regional priorities than donor-driven programs.

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3. Rethinking Monetary Dependence and Policy Constraints

A unique feature of the AES context is its shared struggle with the CFA franc system, still used by ECOWAS West African states and historically pegs to the French Treasury guaranteeing convertibility and stability. Critics argue this arrangement restricts monetary policy flexibility and binds member states to external anchors that limit their ability to respond to shocks or deploy counter-cyclical policies.

Although the EAC is not tied to a colonial currency, it is working toward a future monetary union and common currency. The ongoing East African Monetary Union (EAMU) process needs to actively learn from the comparative strengths and limits of systems like the CFA franc. A future EAC currency will need deep policy alignment, robust fiscal coordination, and mechanisms that safeguard domestic policy space while ensuring stability.

East African planners should avoid two traps:

• Designing a shared currency that fixes exchange rates rigidly without mechanisms for growth-oriented macroeconomic policy.
• Replicating monetary integration models that prioritize stability at the expense of development financing and industrial strategy.

4. Strategic Use of Natural Resources for Investment Capital

AES members collectively control significant gold and uranium deposits, and their investment bank explicitly links natural resource revenue to infrastructure finance. This is a bold shift from traditional resource export models that channel profits abroad or to short-term budget spending. If well governed, resource-backed financing can elevate public investment sustainably.

In East Africa, countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda have diversified resource bases, minerals, energy, and agribusiness exports. The EAC’s integration strategy should consider regional sovereign partnerships to leverage resources for shared infrastructure. This could include regional commodity-linked funds, infrastructure bonds, or equity stakes in strategic assets that feed into a regional investment bank

5. Integration as a Response to Changing Global Alignments

Public reactions to the AES initiative underscore a desire for alliances outside traditional Western economic structures. Social media threads and commentary celebrate Sahelian solidarity and deeper ties with BRICS economies, while raising caution about external intervention and the need to escape CFA dependencies.

The EAC must also read the geopolitical winds carefully. Africa’s pivot toward multipolar economic engagement; BRICS, China’s Belt and Road, and new trade corridors offers opportunities, but requires robust regional institutions to negotiate from strength. East Africa’s sizable market and rising middle class are attractive to global partners; ensuring regional institutions, not bilateral deals, govern engagement will preserve policy space and equitable growth outcomes.

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6. Risks Remain: Stability and Sustainability Matter

AES’s bold economic strategy isn’t without risk. The bloc’s political instability, military governance, and tensions with neighboring states underscore that economic integration must go hand in hand with political stability and rule of law. Economic blocs lacking these foundations risk fragmentation and investor flight. The EAC’s relatively stronger track record of political cooperation gives it a comparative advantage but not immunity from shocks.

EAC’s Path Forward

AES’s $895 million investment bank is not just a financing vehicle; it’s a statement of economic sovereignty and a challenge to post-colonial regional economics.

For the East African Community, the core lessons are clear:

Deepen domestic resource mobilization, build robust regional financing institutions, anchor monetary integration in development goals, leverage natural resources for collective growth, and balance global partnerships strategically.

As the EAC charts its next decade, these lessons from the Sahel’s bold experiment can help shape a regional economic architecture that delivers prosperity, resilience, and autonomy for its members.