Barely a week to the end of the financial year, the East African Community secretariat was yet to make known its spending plans for the financial year that starts on July 1.

Considering that the budget must be deliberated upon by both the EAC Council of Ministers and the legislative assembly before it is passed, the region is clearly short of time.

So, it is difficult to imagine that the corona pandemic that has rattled the region for the past three months could have resulted in a misalignment so significant that it prevented the Council of Ministers from even considering a draft budget.

And as the national budgets that were presented over the past few weeks demonstrate, it is actually possible to have a budget regardless of the Covid-19 turmoil.

The EAC Ministers show commitment by setting aside time to discuss the budget, and other business of the critically important regional bloc.