Common currency ideal for ECOWAS - Kufuor

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday said the establishment of a common currency would lay the cornerstone for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

He was addressing a 20-member delegation of Ministers and Governors of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) attending their Eighth Convergence Council meeting in Accra, when they called on him at the Castle, Osu.

President Kufuor said: "You are shaping the future of our Sub-Region. Effectiveness and efficiency of Politicians depends on a sound economic base". He said Ghana was committed to the revolution in the developments in the Sub-Region and the establishment of the common currency would become the binding force within ECOWAS.

President Kufuor said with the urgency and importance attached to the common currency, ECOWAS governments would offer the needed assistance to the Ministers and the Governors to provide the means for the Sub-Region to become a formidable force with a large market of about 250 million people.

He said the delegates should assist the ECOWAS to function effectively and take its right place on the continent because the African Union envisaged would be built on such regional blocks.

Dr Moahmmed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, said efforts would be made to ensure that the necessary review was done to achieve the convergence criteria vital to achieving the common currency. He said with the common currency coupled with trade liberalisation and free movement of people in the Sub-Region, ECOWAS would be put on a high pedestal on the African continent.

Dr Chambas commended President Kufuor for his personal interest and commitment to the establishment of the common currency, adding; "we appreciate your interest and support for the second monetary zone in the Sub-Region".

Ghana, Nigeria, the Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, which are working towards the adoption of a second monetary union, are expected by the year 2003 to achieve single digit inflation and have a foreign exchange reserve that would cover their imports for not less than three months.

Additionally, their budget deficit to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be less than five per cent, while their central banks credit to their governments should be less than 10 per cent of the previous year's tax revenue. None of these countries have fully met the convergence criteria. Though the Gambia achieved these last year it has slipped.