Kenya's Ruto hands COMESA chair to Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa at Harare summit

Kenyan President William Ruto handed the chairmanship of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the bloc's 25th summit of heads of state and government in Harare on 22 October 2026, The Star and The Standard reported.

The handover ends Ruto's one-year chairmanship. He took the chair from Burundi's President Évariste Ndayishimiye at the 24th summit in Nairobi on 9 October 2025. Ruto will serve as Rapporteur in the new Bureau.

"As I hand over the chair, I do so with full confidence in my brother, President Emmerson Mnangagwa," Ruto said, as quoted by The Star. Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was ready to work with all member states as the bloc consolidated its gains. "The future we envision requires every member state to contribute to and benefit from our collective progress," he said.

The summit ran under the theme "One Market, One Future: Advancing Inclusive Industrialisation, Investment and Regional Integration in Comesa". It launched the COMESA Medium-Term Strategic Plan 2026–2030, which sets a target of raising intra-COMESA trade to 15 per cent of the bloc's total trade by 2030. COMESA has 21 member states, nearly 700 million people and a combined gross domestic product of more than US$1 trillion.

Ruto told the summit that members should trade more among themselves. "We are neighbours who buy from strangers," he said, as quoted by The Star. He urged countries to process raw materials at home rather than export them and import finished goods.

He urged members to take five practical steps, including joining and fully implementing the COMESA Free Trade Area, ratifying the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons or adopting the COMESA Business Visa, and connecting national payment systems to regional payment platforms. He also called for regional commitments to be written into domestic law and policy, for reported non-tariff barriers to be resolved, and for financial contributions to COMESA to be paid in full and on time.

He called for improved physical and digital connectivity, including one-stop border posts and reliable energy infrastructure. The private sector, he said, must play a central role in driving regional trade.

On funding, Ruto urged the COMESA Secretariat to fast-track Article 168 of the COMESA Treaty, which provides for the COMESA Market Levy. The treaty establishes the levy to generate resources for financing the bloc's activities. "We cannot be ambitious in our plans and timid in our financing," he said, as quoted by The Standard. He said officials from finance ministries, central banks and other relevant agencies would meet to consider a draft COMESA Resource Mobilisation Strategy, aimed at strengthening member states' ownership of regional programmes and finding new ways to raise funds.

He asked African countries to put more domestic money into African institutions rather than keep it in foreign accounts. Africa holds more than US$4 trillion in domestic financial assets, he said. He named the Trade and Development Bank, the African Trade and Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI) and ZEP-RE as institutions that could mobilise capital for regional priorities. He urged African governments to place more reserves with them, fund more projects through them and back their bonds and guarantees.

Ruto gave these figures for the bloc: economic growth rose from 5.6 per cent in 2024 to 6.4 per cent in 2025, and inflation fell from 31 per cent to 13.2 per cent. Exports among member states rose 10.5 per cent to US$14.7 billion, and exports to global markets rose 6 per cent to US$212 billion.

He called for partnerships based on mutual benefit and equal treatment. "To every partner who seeks our minerals, our markets and our young workforce, our offer is clear: invest with us, process with us, build with us," he said.

COMESA was set up to succeed the Preferential Trade Area. It seeks to promote trade within the region by addressing tariffs, quotas and non-tariff barriers among members.