‘I Support Eco Greatly’, Adesina Tips Nigeria To Adopt ECOWAS Unified Currency

President of the Africa development bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi
Adesina, has declared support for the recently adopted ‘Eco’
unified currency for West African countries.

The Eco which will be replacing the CFA franc has been adopted
by eight ECOWAS francophone countries namely Benin, Burkina Faso,
Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo, with
Ghana also showing serious interest.

The adoption which was declared by the West African Economic and
Monetary Union (UEMOA) is expected to be introduced in 2020.

Adesina who paid a courtesy visit to President Muhammadu Buhari
at the statehouse on Tuesday revealed that some criteria’s would
have to be met before the region can fully be integrated.

He explained that the initiative is a great idea, owing to the
African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which will bring over
$3.3 trillion in terms of trade to the region.

“I think that at the end of the day the biggest thing to happen
to Africa is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); that
free trade area itself is worth over $3.3 trillion in terms of
trade.

“Obviously being able to trade in various currencies, it’s not
optimum to trade in so many currencies. So it makes common sense to
have a unified currency and of course for that to even been
achieved – the Eco, I support Eco greatly, I think it’s a great
idea to do.

“But obviously, there are a number of convergence criteria that
would have to be met and I am sure that our President is talking
with other presidents to be sure that they can meet those criteria
and the region can be fully integrated,” he added.

On the issue of pegging the Eco with the Euro in valuation, Mr
Adesina stressed that the region needs to ensure well-integrated
monetary and fiscal policies.

“The issue for us is going to be how to have a well-integrated
monetary policy and fiscal policy within the region, which is the
most important thing first, and then you figure out the rest
later.

“But I am very encouraged with the progress of the Heads of
State on this particular issue, and I am very confident that
President Muhammadu Buhari will make even greater progress on
that,” he expressed.

The AfDB boss who was recently endorsed by the ECOWAS Heads of
State for a second term as President of AfDB said the bank is
working towards bridging the roughly $68 billion to $108 billion
infrastructure financing gap in the region.

He recommended that the $1.8trillion sovereign wealth and
pension fund can be used to close very quickly the infrastructure
gap talked about.

“When it comes to the issue of even trade and competitiveness,
at the end of the day you have basic things that have to be done.
Today Africa has an infrastructure gap of about roughly $68 billion
to $108 billion infrastructure financing gap.

“When it comes to the issue of attracting capital to do that,
there are three things that I will say: first, we have to also look
at home. Today in Africa, the size of the sovereign wealth fund and
pension fund and insurance pull of fund (mutual funds) is about
$1.8trillion. If we can just tap a little bit of that, we will
close very quickly the infrastructure gap that we are talking
about,” he said.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!