Work Towards Single Currency - Trade Minister Advises

Ms Hanna Tetteh

The Minister of Trade and Industry, , has urged countries within the West Africa Monetary Zone (WAMZ) to pursue with a sense of urgency, the agenda to establish a common currency by 2015.

“If we are not guided by a sense of urgency, we could again be compelled to seek another postponement, come that date.

I will in addition urge that the implementation of the decisions that we take is the only engine that can drive progress of the monetary union programme,” she said.

Ms Tetteh was speaking at the opening of the WAMZ Trade Ministers Forum in Accra yesterday. The two-day conference is being attended by trade ministers and their representatives from countries that make up the WAMZ, namely Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

The forum is to serve as a platform for consultations on how to overcome the difficulties of implementation of decisions and protocols.

The failure of member countries to meet the convergence criteria has necessitated a postponement for the adoption of a single currency thrice. The first date was 2005, the second, 2009 and the new date is 2015.

The persistent failure of countries within the zone to meet the criteria has been compounded by their inability to progress in other critical areas of the entire regional integration process.

It is generally the accepted premise that in a regional integration process, a monetary union ought to be preceded by completion of free trade arrangements and the creation of a customs union.

In the case of West Africa, the adoption of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), which would have provided a free trade area environment, continues to suffer insurmountable implementation difficulties almost 20 years after its inception.

Creation of the customs union through the adoption of a Common External Tariff (CET) , which was envisaged to have been achieved over 10 years ago, is still under negotiation.

Ms Tetteh said the non-implementation of the ETLS had put at risk every economic integration programme in the region and on a faulty note any economic and trade co-operation the region might anticipate with other regions.

“For it is apparent that there is little gain in liberalising trade with other regions as anticipated under the Economic Partnership Agreements, for example, if we cannot use the ETLS as a vehicle to liberalise trade within the region.

Added to this is the fact that a common currency is of little use if it does not act as a medium of exchange in trade transactions,” she added.

She said the holding of a number of fora, ministerial level conferences and heads of states level summits, whether ordinary or extra-ordinary, would achieve very little, without a commitment to implement what was required.

The Director-General of the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), Dr Temitope W. Oshikoya, said the forum underscored the importance of trade to the programme of monetary union and regional integration.

He said WAMI had been exploring partnership and collaboration with leading regional and international institutions to enhance its trade-related programmes, adding that the institute was implementing a regional payment system financed by a grant of $23 million from the African Development Bank (ADB).

“We are also in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the African Export-Import Bank, the leading trade financing institution of Africa to explore synergy and collaborate in areas that would foster trade within our zone,” he added.