WAMZ Members Must Redouble Effort - Amissah-Arthur
Countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) have to redouble their efforts if the new date for achieving a single monetary zone is to be met, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, , has stated.
He said while 2015 may seem far away for the new date for a single monetary zone, there was quite a lot of work still to be done, pointing out that under the Banjul Action Plan, member countries set for themselves a number of targets, many of which were yet to be achieved.
Speaking at the West Africa Monetary Association Committee of Governors meeting in Accra yesterday, Mr Amissah-Arthur said a recent forum of trade ministers in Accra expressed concern about the barriers to free trade between member countries.
He said this particular obstacle had defied all attempts, several years after the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, and that this must be a matter of grave concern to all member states.
The meeting of the convergence council of ministers and governors of central banks of the West African Monetary Zone comprises the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
The meeting will, among other things, discuss reports on the macro-economic convergence of member states towards the monetary union which has now been scheduled to commence on January 1, 2015.
The meeting will be preceded by a technical committee meeting, then by the committee of governors to enable them to present reports on the status of implementation of WAMZ programmes.
Mr Amissah-Arthur told the meeting that although there were a number of positive developments to report, such as the project to upgrade the payments systems of three countries of the WAMZ, namely Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Gambia, more was needed to be achieved.
He said just this month, the Bank of Ghana played host to a team from Sierra Leone, Guinea and The Gambia who came to understudy our payment system under an upgrading project being funded by the African Development Bank for the West African Monetary Zone.
He said the Bank of Ghana was ready to continue sharing its experiences with other central banks in the region.
Touching on the performance of the Ghanaian economy, Mr Amissah-Arthur said the Government was pursuing the goal of fiscal stabilisation, and that the measures that were taken were beginning to bear fruit.
He said the fiscal deficit had reduced from 14 per cent to just over 10 per cent for 2009, projected to reduce further to around 7.5 per cent in 2010, and pointed out that inflation which reached as high as 20.7 per cent in June 2009 had since been on a downward path, reaching 16.92 per cent as of November 2009.
“It is our expectation that inflation should decline further in December 2009”, the Governor stated, adding that at the end of November, the country’s gross reserves had increased to more than three months of import cover, from less than two months at the end of 2008.
With the policies envisaged, Mr Amissah-Arthur said the medium to long-term outlook was bright for Ghana, especially if one major factor is oil, which we expect to start producing in a little over a year.
“ I am therefore confident that Ghana will meet the convergence criteria and be ready for integration by 2015”, Mr Amissah-Arthur stated.