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Most of the African countries suffer from several economic problems, such as poverty, unemployment, the decline in savings and investment rates, and the increasing dependence on aid and development assistances. As African economies opened up to the outside world and adopted economic reform programs, Africa had to follow financial liberalization programs within reform programs. With the world witnessing trends towards integration and the formation of regional economic blocs, the need for African countries to achieve such integration has increased through their many economic blocs. In this sense, financial integration is one of the most important ways to achieve economic integration and the main step through which it can achieve many advantages, the most important of which are: increasing competition and innovation in the financial sector, diversifying risks by various financial instruments, raising the efficiency of the financial sector and increasing its productivity, foreign investments, financial development and financial depth. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was established in 1967 and then dissolved in 1977 to be re-established in 2000 as an economic bloc that brings together the countries of the East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi) to achieve sustainable development in the region. Regional financial integration is a good way to overcome the financial sector hurdles in East Africa, the most important of which is the small size of the financial markets and the decline in liquidity. The banking sector, which absorbs most of the financial assets and is plagued by problems such as high costs, limited profitability and limited banks to foreign banks operating in East Africa. Hence, the importance of achieving financial integration will be an important step towards enhancing the economic growth of the bloc countries, especially as it is one of the most important economic blocs promising in Africa.
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