IMF - East Africa Regional Technical Assistance Center

Montfort Mlachila, Deputy Director of the IMF African Department, presented the Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa at a well-attended event in Dar es Salaam. His message was clear: amid growing external challenges, successive shocks, and declining official development assistance (ODA), capacity development is more important than ever. AFRITAC East stands ready to continue playing its part, supporting member countries in strengthening resilience and advancing reform efforts, with the steadfast support and partnership of our development partners.

Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2026 | Hard-Won Gains Under Pressure After a strong 2025 with growth at 4.5%, Sub-Saharan Africa entered 2026 reaping the benefits of hard-won stabilization gains. But the war in the Middle East has clouded the outlook. Regional growth is expected to decline by 0.2 percentage points to 4.3 percent in 2026.

From May 4 to 8, 2026, IMF AFRITAC East (AFE) is facilitating the East African Community (EAC) workshop on the Basel Core Principles (BCPs) for an Effective Banking Supervision in Mombasa, Kenya. The workshop is attended by 16 participants, comprising banking supervisors from all eight EAC Partner States.

This five day workshop deepens participants’ understanding of the BCP standard, covering the pre-conditions and the practical challenges that often arise during implementation. The program is designed to build technical capacity, enabling attendees to interpret and operationalize the standard within their own domestic supervisory frameworks, and strengthen harmonization of supervisory approaches within the EAC, supporting regional financial stability and continued convergence. It also promotes effective supervisory dialogue on emerging risks reflected in the revised principles and provides a valuable opportunity for participants to exchange experiences, discuss real-world cases, and build professional networks.



We are grateful for the support of our development partners:

European Commission; Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office ; Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) ; IMF Capacity Development ; Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken ; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ;
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia ; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH; SECO Economic Cooperation and Development; People’s Republic of China

🔔 From April 27 to 29, 2026, IMF AFRITAC East (AFE) is hosting a regional workshop on Leadership and Change Management in Revenue Administrations in Arusha, Tanzania. The event brings together 28 senior management representatives from the revenue administrations of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), and Uganda. The workshop is supported by a team of experienced facilitators from the AFE and IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD).

📣 The workshop opened with remarks by the AFRITAC East Director, Ms. Clara Mira, who underscored the critical role of leadership in addressing domestic revenue mobilization in the current macroeconomic environment. She emphasized that strengthening leadership capacity within revenue administrations is essential for achieving sustainable domestic revenue mobilization.

📢 Ms. Flavia Busingye, EAC Director of Trade and Customs, delivered the keynote address, highlighting the importance of strong leadership in ensuring consistency and coordination among member states during reform implementation. Ms. Busingye also discussed ongoing EAC initiatives, noting that harmonizing tax systems and improving information sharing among authorities are critical to advancing regional integration and trade.

📈 The motivation for the workshop is rooted in the evolving public financial management landscape, where increasing pressures on revenue mobilization make effective leadership essential for translating strategic objectives into meaningful economic and social outcomes. Experience across member countries shows that even technically sound and well designed reforms aligned with international best practices depend on strong leadership for successful implementation. The ability to articulate a clear vision, mobilize teams, manage resistance to change, and sustain reform momentum is critical.

🛠️ Through presentations, hands on exercises, and peer learning, participants will focus on strengthening leadership skills to better design, implement, and sustain reforms. Topics include leading change with people and technology, building cohesive executive teams, communicating strategically with diverse stakeholders, and developing competencies in adaptive leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, and ethical decision making.



We are grateful for the support of our development partners:
Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ); European Commission; IMF Capacity Development; Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia ; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
SECO Economic Cooperation and Development

🔔 From April 20 to 24, 2026, IMF AFRITAC East (AFE), together with the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review (SPR) Department hosted an in person regional workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Optimizing Growth and Resilience through Distributional Analysis and Evidence Based Policies. The workshop brought together 28 officials from Ministries of Finance across 7 AFE member countries. The AFE Director and Mr. Alessandro Pisani, Programme Manager of the delegation of the European Union to Tanzania and EAC, provided the closing remarks to the workshop.

🛠️ In an increasingly uncertain and shock prone global environment, macroeconomic shocks and policy reforms often affect population groups in markedly different ways. Participants explored how micro level data, differential impact assessments, and heterogeneous agent analyses can inform policy design, including by assessing the distributional impacts of national budgets and enhancing financial inclusion. Through presentations, hands on exercises, and peer learning, the workshop equipped authorities with practical tools to integrate distributional analysis into macroeconomic analysis. A key focus of the workshop was on how policies that strengthen macroeconomic stability can also support inclusive growth.



We are grateful for the support of our development partners for making this capacity development engagement possible.

AFE Partners:
European Commission; Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office ; Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken; Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ); Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia; IMF Capacity Development; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH; SECO Economic Cooperation and Development

Also:
Gates Foundation
William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

🔔 From April 20 – 24, 2026, the IMF AFRITAC East, in collaboration with the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), is hosting a regional Debt Dynamics Tool (DDT) workshop. This interactive, hands-on event brings together 38 participants from 6 countries across East Africa, representing ministries of finance and central banks. The workshop offers a valuable opportunity to deepen participants’ understanding of public debt dynamics using an Excel based tool designed for practical applications.

🛠️ Throughout the workshop, participants engage in analyzing real country data, running baseline and stress test scenarios, and creating fan charts to visualize debt uncertainty in a probabilistic manner. The sessions also focus on discussing the main drivers of changes in public debt and exploring fiscal strategies required to achieve specified debt targets. Beyond technical training, the workshop provides an excellent platform for regional collaboration, experience sharing, and networking among professionals in public finance and debt management.



We are grateful for the support of our development partners:
European Commission; Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ); Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; IMF Capacity Development; Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Saudi Arabia ; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH ; SECO Economic Cooperation and Development; Japan

Please read the AFRITAC East quarterly newsletter covering highlights of the support provided to member countries over the period November 2025 – January 2026.

One of the highlights being AFE’s Director Visit to Kenya in January. The Center Director, Clara Mira, visited the Central Bank of Kenya, the Ministry of Finance, the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, to discuss AFRITAC East’s work with each institution

https://www.cvent.com/e.aspx?3C,E1,98912790-3f4e-4586-8f52-82b5d73b25a1

From April 20 to 24, 2026, the IMF AFRITAC East (AFE), AFRITAC South (AFS), AFRITAC West 2 (AFW2), in collaboration with the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets (MCM) Department, and the IMF’s Legal (LEG) Department, are co hosting a workshop on Stablecoins, Crypto Assets, and Digital Money in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event, formally opened by AFE Director, brings together nearly 70 central bank professionals involved in crypto assets, including stablecoins, from policy, regulatory, and legal perspectives. Participants are joining both in person and online from 18 AFE, AFS, and AFW2 member countries.

The workshop addresses the rapidly evolving digital financial landscape by covering a broad range of critical topics, including the fundamentals of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain, the dynamics of crypto assets (including stablecoins), the process of tokenization, and its implications for financial market infrastructures. It also examines the financial stability implications of digital innovation, the role of crypto assets—including stablecoins—in emerging payment infrastructures, and the importance of sound licensing and supervisory practices.

Participants are engaging in in depth discussions on risks associated with crypto assets, legal and regulatory frameworks, supervisory challenges, and global standards. The workshop also features practical case studies, thematic reviews of recent market developments, and interactive exercises designed to build capacity in designing and implementing effective regulatory frameworks.



We are grateful for the support of our development partners:
Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), European Commission, IMF Capacity Development, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken

🔔 From April 13 to 17, 2026, the IMF’s AFRITAC East (AFE) hosted a workshop in Kigali, Rwanda, on Consumer Price Index (CPI) compilation issues. The event brought together 16 representatives from Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Uganda.

💡 The CPI is a high frequency index that measures the average change over time in prices paid by households for a representative basket of goods and services. Improving the compilation of price statistics supports more accurate measures of economic growth and enhances the reliability of inflation indicators used for policymaking.

🛠️This five day interactive workshop strengthened participants’ capacity in CPI compilation by providing a thorough understanding of key concepts and compilation methods. The program also covered essential topics, including sources and techniques for sampling geographic areas, items, outlets, and product varieties; approaches for handling temporarily and permanently missing price data; and methods for updating and linking CPI data series over time.



We are grateful for the support of our development partners:
European Commission, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, IMF Capacity Development,

🔔 From March 30 to April 1, 2026, the IMF AFRITAC East (AFE), in collaboration with the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) and Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), is hosting a high-level peer to peer workshop in Nairobi, Kenya on “Strengthening Monetary Policy Credibility in a Complex Global Environment: Implementing FPAS to support decisions and communication”.

📣 The workshop is specifically designed for Senior Staff engaged in Research and Monetary Policy from the region’s central banks, and brings together 18 participants from seven AFE member countries. The workshop was formally opened by the AFE Director, the Head of Cooperation of the European Union, Jorge Pereiro, and the Deputy Governor of the CBK, Gerald Nyaoma, on behalf of the CBK Governor. The keynote presentation was delivered by David Hofman, Division Chief, Monetary and Macroprudential Policy, MCM, IMF.

🌐 In an increasingly demanding global environment for the conduct of monetary policy, monetary policy credibility has become more important than ever. In this context, an effective Forecasting and Policy Analysis System (FPAS) plays a critical role in supporting sound policy decisions and clear communication.

💡The workshop provides a platform for open dialogue and collaborative problem-solving among senior central bank staff. It also offers an opportunity for exchanges with the IMF and AFRITAC East experts, with a focus on strengthening capacity and sharing practical experiences in monetary policy decision-making.

🛠️ Participants are sharing country-level experiences with the Monetary Policy FPAS, exploring best practices for its implementation, refining monetary policy decision-making frameworks, and exchanging lessons on improving Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) communications.



We are grateful for the support of our development partners:
European Commission, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, IMF Capacity Development