The East African Community (EAC) has come out to deny reports circulated online by a pseudo account on X (formerly Twitter) of the creation of a single regional currency.

EAC Secretariat has called out a fake account on X dubbed “Government of East Africa” for sharing the report claiming it had developed the Shilling of East Africa and Franc (SHEAFRA).

On Saturday, the account went ahead to share a specimen of a 5 SHEAFRA currency note stating that “The East African Sheafra of SHF.5 Currency Note of fuv5 has finally Landed.”

In the post that has caused wide controversy, the verified X account indicated that one SHEAFRA will be valued at $0.76 and that the currency will help boost the region’s economy.

But the post on X was met with mixed reactions with a section supporting the creation of a regional currency while others probed the criteria used to arrive at the currency and name.

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Even as the “Government of East Africa” went on the rampage to defend the post and currency, EAC termed it fake saying its planned single regional money is still in the pipeline.

“The EAC Secretariat wishes to inform all our stakeholders that the Partner States' journey to a single currency is still a work in progress. Kindly ignore any rumours circulating in social media on the unveiling of new banknotes for the region,” clarified EAC.

As it stands, EAC member States are still working to harmonise key policies and creating relevant bodies to realise a single regional currency (by 2024) as envisioned by the EAC Monetary Union Protocol.