Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will start a system to speed up financial transactions among East Africa’s biggest economies in a bid to boost trade, said Natu el-Maamry Mwamba, deputy governor of Tanzania’s central bank.

The payment system will be faster than current check- clearing method, Mwamba said at a conference in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, today.

Rwanda will join the payment regional system shortly after its creation, while Burundi “is still behind” and will first have to create a local payment system before moving to a regional one, said Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, governor of Uganda’s central bank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.