President John Mahama is currently in Niamey, Niger where he is attending a meeting of a Presidential Taskforce on the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme.
[contextly_sidebar id=”odFlZONAOoGV2YBMYxdhiCjNyALPMXsd”]President Mahama and his Nigerien counterpart, Mahamadou Issoufou, were mandated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in October 2013 to spearhead the sub-region’s efforts towards a single currency and monetary union by January 2020.
The two Presidents will receive the report of the taskforce at today’s meeting and review the roadmap towards 2020.
ECOWAS has been criticized for its frequent postponement of the deadline for the adoption of a single currency.
ECOWAS has postponed the deadline six consecutive times because member states have been unable to meet the set criteria.
The first date was the year 2000, then it was postponed to 2005, 2010, 2014, 2015 and now 2020.
The primary criteria for West African states to achieve the single currency are; single digit inflation rate at the end of each year; a fiscal deficit of no more than 4 per cent of the GDP, central bank deficit financing of not more than 10 per cent of the previous year’s tax revenues, and having gross external reserves that can give a country import cover for a minimum of three months.
By: Eugenia Tenkorang/citifmonline.com/Ghana