"Euro" Lessons to Be Held in Ghana

Fresh from its success in launching the long-awaited European single currency, the EU has come to Ghana to discuss the problems it faced whilst converting, and the solutions it used to overcome them, with one eye on possible West African monetary integration in the near future. A one-day seminar is to be held in Accra on Friday, which will include presentations from the European Central Bank, the Bundesbank, the Banque du France, the Bank of Ghana, the Ambassador of Spain and others. Over 120 participants are expected altogether.

The idea of West African monetary integration has been in circulation for some time now, because of the benefits it would bring not only in terms of boosting intra-ECOWAS trade, but also in dealing with the outside world. Although there is a stated aim of beginning integration by next year, the plan remains agreed on only in principle. There is, however, a strong consensus that conversion would be beneficial amongst the ECOWAS states, something that did not entirely exist in Europe only a few months ago.

The European Union is undoubtedly happy to come to discuss what lessons it has learnt because the process of conversion, from 1st January to 28th February, when the franc, the mark and others all died, has been a success. There were grave concerns before conversion of inaccurate price conversions leading to a build-up of inflationary pressure which have not been borne out; and despite warnings of numerous bureaucratic disasters (Italians, in particular, appeared to be almost completely unaware of the worth of one Euro just days before it was introduced) the changeover has been smoother than most had imagined.

The ECOWAS region will certainly benefit from any advice the 'Eurocrats' can impart. Europe benefited from massive technical, financial and organisational resources that West Africa has not; and it was also already far more integrated in other non-economic areas than West Africa, which helped facilitate the conversion process. Taxi drivers in Britain joke that its easier to get from one side of Europe to the other than it is to get from one side of London to the other, because of the ease of movement and travel on the continent.

However, the EU's position is that whatever the problems that will be faced, the benefits will outweigh them. "We think that regional integration has become an important theme for Africa," said Stefan Frowein, the European Commission's Ambassador to Ghana on Friday. "Integration," he added, "gets more and more important in the context of globalisation." The essential nature of trade in today's world economy, in other words, exacerbates the practical problems associated with frequent unnecessary currency conversion.

The seminar will be split into two sections. The first will concentrate on the Euro experience - problems encountered, lessons learnt and so on - whilst the second will focus on how these can be used to the benefit of any future ECOWAS integration. Given the surprisingly easy changeover in Europe, it is probable that West Africa's Finance Ministers are more likely to listen to what the EU has to say now than before.