The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Dr Sidie Tunis has urged member States to embark on reforms that will boost economic growth of the region in a bid to reduce the dependence on the foreign support.
Dr. Tunis made the call at the closing ceremony of the first 2023 parliamentary seminar on Sequencing ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Towards Single Currency held on Wednesday in Guinea Bissau.
Dr Tunis who was represented by the Fourth Deputy Speaker: Adja Satu Pinto, stated the need for cooperation within the ECOWAS region for harmonisation.
He said; “There is need for monetary policy in the sub-region, now that we have realised the economy growth in our country that is very important. Member States also need to take actions that will require payment systems, harmonisation, integration and necessary infrastructure for our sub-region.
” I believe that all of us will agree to work together towards achieving our objectives. We also need to sensitized our communities on the single Currency.”
In his remarks, Califa Seidi from Guinea Bissau, urged member States to look more inward on making ECOWAS economy stronger than issue of single Currency.
Seidi said, “As far as the mechanism is concerned, nothing has been achieved, when you come to the issue of single Currency, the population of National sovereignty is very vital, our leaders have a very big role to play by sensitising the populace.
“We should not only be talking about the single Currency now 2027 for me, the introduction is not successful. We should be looking at a strong economy.
“We do not produce despite the fact that we have alot of raw materials.”
In a related development, a former Auditor-General, ECOWAS Institution, Dr Alfred Braimah has urged Central Bank of all member States to collaborate towards the efficient functioning of the ECOWAS Payment and Settlement System, EPSS in the region.
Dr Braimah made this known at his paper presentation, titled ‘The missing Sequence Towards ECOWAS Single Currency during the First 2023 Parliamentary Seminar of the ECOWAS Parliament in Bissau, Guinea Bissau.’
He explained that the safety and efficiency of an EPSS are relevant to market participants and public officials gave their important roles in trade and resource flows and financial sector management and development.
According to Dr Braimah, every Central Bank of a member state must be ready to collaborate towards the efficient functioning of the EPSS by signing on to a well-founded legal basis under all relevant jurisdictions of member States.
On the benefits of EPSS, Dr Braimah said that “With the use of EPSS across Member States, it would be easier to pursue open Economic and Trade policies, since domestic and international payments would flow more seamlessly easily.
” Capital and Investment move freely and beneficially, and gains of intra-Regional Trade and economic integration would be more pronounce when supported with an EPSS in the region.
“An efficient EPSS would also expedite trade by improving the timeliness and transparency of customs processes and government revenue collection process through the emerged on-line payment transaction and efficient regional payments and settlement system usually plays a key role in the day to day operations of the Foreign exchange market, which involves payments for currency exchange across international borders.”
In another paper presentation, the Director, Economic strategy and Research, Ministry of Finance, Ghana, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, listed key problems and challenges of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP).
He said; ‘‘One of the problems and challenges of the EMCP is endogenous shocks such as pandemics, drought, insecurity, epidemics (ebola) and exogenous shocks like, global financial crisis, food and fuel crisis, crash in international commodity prices, weigh heavily on member states macroeconomic performance. ”
“Member States’ challenges in achieving the convergence criteria on a sustainable basis ( continuous for 3 years) as enshrined in the stability and convergence pact, continue to delay the launching of the single Currency.
The balance between national economic development priorities and the attainment of zonal macroeconomic convergence targets is often very difficult to determine,” Dr Iddrisu said.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
