ECOWAS Monetary task force presents report to Prez Mahama
The Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, has stated that West Africa has the capacity to achieve a full single monetary union in 2020.
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He has, therefore, urged the Presidential Task Force of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme to work diligently to meet the set goals.
The Vice-President was speaking at a meeting with members of the task force at the Flagstaff House yesterday.
The team was at the Flagstaff House to present their recommendations to President John Dramani Mahama, who is the ECOWAS Chairman.
Details of the recommendations were not disclosed.
Fiscal union
Mr Amissah-Arthur, who represented the President, said there was the need to achieve a fiscal union before the attainment of a monetary union.
"We cannot have the monetary union without the fiscal union," he said.
He advised the task force against exceeding the mandate that the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS had given it.
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During an ordinary session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government in Abuja in Nigeria in July 2013, the summit directed the President of the ECOWAS to make every effort to expedite the harmonisation of macroeconomic policies and take all the necessary actions to ensure the effectiveness of the second monetary zone.
Besides, the ECOWAS Summit in Dakar in October 25, 2013 appointed President Mahama and President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger to oversee the creation of the common currency in a timely manner.
Following the developments, the regional task force was set up to support the two Presidents in their work.
Task Force Chairman
The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Tekper, who led the task force to the Flagstaff House, expressed the hope that its recommendations would go a long way to move the process forward.
Stressing the importance of a single monetary union, he said it would catapult the region to economic growth.