President John Dramani Mahama who is also the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has promised to meet the deadline for the introduction of a single currency for the sub region.
[contextly_sidebar id=”JxY6KrvEA16GlQVmssrpbQU6XSsQxOIk”]President John Mahama made the pledge in Niamey, Niger during a meeting of a Presidential Taskforce on the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme.
ECOWAS at its Dakar meeting in October 2013 charged President Mahama and his Nigerien counterpart, Mahamadou Issoufou to ensure that the sub region meets the January 2020 timeline for a single currency.
Speaking at the programme on Tuesday, President Mahama said, “There will be no room for excuses, and especially as political leaders, our people will not appreciate any further excuses.”
He assured that “my brother President Issoufou and I, will continue to work and meet with our colleagues heads of state to push for the needed political support for the activities of the various Central Banks and Finance Ministries towards meeting the various criteria and timelines.”
President Mahama also told the meeting that there is the need for all member states to continue working towards the convergence criteria and demonstrating the needed political will.
“The process towards the establishment of the proposed ECOWAS Monetary Institute must start now in order for us to have the Working Group ready ahead of June 2015 as contained in the road map. Moving ahead of the roadmap with items that do not require lots of background work will be critical to the attainment of the activities including the establishment of the ECOWAS Central Bank by June 2019.”
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin