Onyema lists hurdles towards ECOWAS single currrency

The chairman of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, Geoffrey
Onyeama, says achieving the ECOWAS Single Currency by 2020 will be
a challenge.

Mr Onyeama said this while responding to questions from newsmen
at the end of the 54th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS of Heads of
State and Government in Abuja on Saturday.

The chairman, who is Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, said
that there were certain criteria that needed to be fulfilled for a
region to achieve the single currency, and which were not yet fully
addressed.

“There is a roadmap, the convergence criteria that have to be
satisfied before we can really get to the stage of a single
currency.

“In ECOWAS, we have a group of countries that in essence almost
have a single currency mechanism in place and we have other
countries that have their own currencies and being able to align
all these is going to take some time.

“It will be a challenge to achieve the single currency by 2020
but all the efforts are being made.”

He said however that the central bank governors, finance
ministers and experts in the region were working toward ensuring
that the set timeline was achieved.

“The political will is there and it is really a question to see
whether the economic and fiscal realities will converge with the
political aspirations.”

Also responding, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr
Jean-Claude Brou said the region had made very good progress in its
efforts to ensure free movement of people among member states.

Brou said that part of the efforts was to have biometric
identity card for all citizens in the region to promote security
and facilitate the achievement of the single currency.

“Three countries in ECOWAS are already using the ECOWAS
Biometric Identity card, so we are urging other countries to do
it.

“It has security features and that will also increase security
in the region and at the same time, not prevent free movement of
goods and persons which is a very important step of the single
market.”

NAN

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