East African will begin using new EAC electronic passports from January next year after Heads of State from the member countries launched the international travel document at a Summit held in Arusha, Tanzania in March.

Each member nation will have up to December 2018, to phase out their national passports.

This new electronic passport is said to be more secure than the old traditional passport and also difficult to duplicate. The new digitalized and machine-readable East African Passport replaces the old EAC travel document which was restricted to just the five member states but now will be accepted all over the globe.