ECOWAS Assigns President Mahama To Monitor Convergence Process

From Edmund Mingle, Dakar

The ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government has assigned President John Mahama to facilitate and monitor the convergence process for the establishment of a common currency in the sub-region.

The ECOWAS leaders at the start of the
summit in Dakar on Friday.

The Authority was optimistic that the role assigned to the President would help in speeding the process by countries in the West Africa Monetary Zone (WAMZ) to attain the convergence requirements for the single currency to take off.

It was part of measures taken at the Extra-ordinary Session of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in Dakar, Senegal, to facilitate the process.

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who represented President Mahama at the Summit, which ended at the weekend, described the role entrusted to the President as a very critical assignment.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur at the summit
in Dakar, Senegal

He told journalists at the airport in Dakar before departing to Accra that assignment signified the confidence the Authority has the Ghana economy to lead in the process of achieving convergence criteria.

He was confident that President Mahama would effectively deliver on the assignment, and prayed for full cooperation and support from Member States.

The Heads, in a communiqué issued at the end of the summit and read by ECOWAS Commission President Kadre Desire Quadraogo, also charged the ECOWAS Commission to take the necessary steps in collaboration with the West African Monetary Agency and West African Monetary Institute to support efforts of Member States in ensuring smooth implementation of the activities on the roadmap for the ECOWAS single currency.

“To this end the Authority encourages all Member States, particularly those in WAMZ to tale all the necessary measures to ensure the required convergence of their macro-economic policies to the establishment of the monetary zone,” it said.

Touching on controversial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between African, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) countries and the European Union, the Authority directed the chief negotiators for West Africa to expeditiously resume discussions with their European counterparts with a view of concluding the agreement as soon as possible.

“The Authority calls for the flexibility needed by the two parties in the search for a compromise on all issues in the interest of the two regions,” the leaders noted.

According to the communiqué, the Heads took into account the new market access scenario attained by the region, and which considers the required coherence with the Common External Tariff (CET) and development objectives envisaged in the agreement.

“The Authority welcomes the spirit of cooperation between the Commissions of ECOWAS and UEMOA which produced significant outcomes in the analysis of various questions on the deepening of the economic integration process.

“It calls for the strengthening of this cooperation in the implementation of the decisions taken to that effect,” the communiqué said.

With regard to discussion on the CET, the Authority underscored the importance of a customs union as a “decisive and irreversible phase in the process of consolidating the common market.”

“The Authority commends in particular the participatory process that characterised the identification of the major axes of the deepening of the regional market and the flexibility demonstrated by Member States in arriving at a consensus on the final CET structure and all its supporting measures,” it said.

The ECOWAS leaders who attended the summit included Alassane Quattara of Cote d'Ivoire, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, Mamadou Issoufou of Niger, Thomas Yayi Boni of Benin and Macky Sall of Senegal, Mrs. Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Libera, Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, Alpha Conde of Guinea, Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Manuel Sherifo Nhamajo of Guinea Bissau, Mrs. Ajaratou  Njie-Siady, Vice President of The Gambia and Jose Maria Pereira Neves, Prime Minister of Cape Verde.

ECOWAS is the sub-regional grouping of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

END