Communicating the ECOWAS message (6): Where’s Ghana’s Presidential Taskforce:ECOWAS Common Currency?

“The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:
Communicating the ECOWAS message (6): Where's Ghana's Presidential Task force on the ECOWAS Common Currency?

By E.K.Bensah Jr
In November 2013, I granted an interview to the Accra-based Pravda Radio about the ECOWAS Common currency. The objective of the interview was to explore what my thoughts were on the feasibility of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme, which will eventually lead up to the ECOWAS Common Currency, the ECO, hopefully by 2020.

There is no gainsaying my interview was predicated on the fact that Ghana is one of the countries that has been tasked. Regrettably, after the 25 October meeting in Dakar, the impression being given was that Ghana got the arduous task of overseeing the realisation of the Eco because of its democratic credentials. That could not have been further from the truth—given that Niger, which democratic credentials are questionable, was also tasked with the same assignment alongside Ghana.

On the specific case of the feasibility, I explained that, yes, it is feasible for ECOWAS to have a common currency, and that it really is about political will. I explained that the tribulations of the Euro should only inform the West Africa Monetary Zone countries, and that it should not scare them into taking bold decisions on the common currency. At the end of the day, a common currency will help ECOWAS countries manage the regional economy, and we really do not need the Europeans to do that for us.

I further opined that, just like the Euro, those that are ready to go ahead with the Euro should trailblaze, and refrain the pussyfooting they have been doing. Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone often make the targets, and miss them at different times. It is incumbent on the WAMZ countries to bite the bullet and get serious on identifying countries that have met some minimum criteria for the establishment of the currency.

Seeking to set the context further, I explained that a discussion on the feasibility—or lack thereof—of the Eco cannot be had outside the context of ECOWAS' francophone neighbours that belong to the UEMOA countries. This is because the whole idea behind the common currency is to simply merge the six countries of the WAMZ (Ghana; Guinea; Gambia; Liberaia; Nigeria and Sierra Leone) with the already-existing countries using the CFA, which are essentially all the members of the UEMOA countries.

Specifically on Ghana and its plans for the realization of the ECO, I explained that, apart from the fact that ECOWAS had not been transparent about the reasons why they chose Ghana and Niger to spearhead the realisation of the Eco, we remain in the dark as to why ECOWAS could chose a country (Niger) that has an apocryphal democratic dispensation – remember the coup by Tandja in 2010 – and a country that may have better democratic credentials (Ghana), but is struggling on the domestic front.

At the beginning of the year, there was a lot of cacophony over the budget—as if to say nothing else mattered in the country --- but not one single journalist was able to ask the President about the vision he has on his regional assignment. We know for a fact that in their development policies, Rwanda considers regional integration as an integral part of its development strategy. For example, in their UN Development Assistance Framework, they place immense premium on regional integration. Truth be told, the whole East African Community considers integration so critical that they have an East Africa Budget Day, where the budgets of all five member states are read, and where they pay a lot more attention on integration than we in West Africa probably do.

So, while Ghana referred to elements of West African integration in its budget, there was nothing explicit about what Ghana would do towards the realization of the Eco.

Way forward on Eco & common currency
In my view, what needs to be done is that Ghana needs to establish explicit institutional synergies between the Office of the President and the Government of Niger. This needs to be done more explicitly with the West Africa Monetary Institute(WAMI) in mind as well. Put simply, both Ghana and Niger need to establish clear lines of communication between themselves, and WAMI, and present a kind of roadmap on where ECOWAS needs to be on the Eco. If possible, there should even be contemplation of a TOR for work on the Eco.

My experience of talking to non-specialist friends, colleagues, and acquaintances about ECOWAS, and writing about developments within that institution is that many could neither care less about the regional economy, or about what ECOWAS does, so I cannot foresee any institution ready and willing to hold the President accountable on his commitments on ECOWAS' common currency. After all, at the end of the day, he will be having elections by 2016—and one can bet their bottom dollar that by early 2015, the government will be thinking about elections.

All that said, it was interesting to read only yesterday that at the time of writing, Niger will play host to a Presidential Task Force on ECOWAS Common Currency. The meeting ends on 21 February. One can only hope that some important people from Ghana are watching and planning!

You can listen to the audio here: http://ekbensahdotnet.org/wp/?page_id=410

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