Tanzania and Uganda). Under the proposal for the visa, any new EAC single visa could be issued by any member state's embassy. The visa proposal followed an appeal by the tourist boards of the partner states for a common visa to accelerate promotion of the region as a single tourist destination and the EAC Secretariat wanted it approved before November's World Travel Fair (or World Travel Market) in London. When approved by the EAC's council of ministers, tourists could apply for one country's entry visa which would then be applicable in all regional member states as a single entry requirement initiative. A single East African Tourist Visa for the EAC countries of Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda has been available since 2014. Demographics As of March 2022, the combined population of all seven EAC member states was 312,362,653. The EAC would have the fourth largest population in the world, if considered a single entity. The EAC contains 14 cities with populations of over one million (half of which are in Democratic Republic of the Congo alone), the largest being Kinshasa. Kampala is the largest urban centre located on Lake Victoria, the second largest freshwater lake in the world and Mwanza coming in second and Kisumu third. The East African Community's current urban population stands at about 20% Religion Languages Kiswahili, English and French are designated as the official languages of the EAC, with Swahili designated for development as the lingua franca of the community. Within the EAC, there are three countries whose official language is French: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Numerous local languages are also spoken: for example, there are 56 local languages spoken in Uganda, 125 in Tanzania, 72 in South Sudan and 67 local languages in Kenya. Kinyarwanda is spoken in Rwanda and Uganda. There are over 200 local languages spoken in the DRC. Lingala is widely spoken in the western Democratic Republic of Congo, with about 15 million speakers and Kiswahili with 23 million speakers across the country. East African passport The East African passport was launched on 1999. The East African passport has been introduced as a travel document to ease border crossing for EAC residents. It is valid for travel within the EAC countries only and will entitle the holder to a multi-entry stay of renewable six months' validity in any of the countries. The passport is issued in three of