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ECOWAS member states not ready for single currency, MFA says

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ECOWAS



The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama has said that member countries of the Economic Community of  West African States are not ready for the single currency.
The minister stated that only one country out of the 15 member states had met the criteria for the implementation of the ECO which was earlier scheduled for this year.
He, however, did not disclose the country, but it was believed that Ghana is the only country that was ready for the take-off of the single currency.
Fielding questions from journalists in Abuja, on Thursday, Onyeama stated that Nigeria stands by the ECOWAS conditions on the issue, noting that there is no contradiction about the implementation of the single currency initiative.
Reacting to reports that eight Francophone countries may dump the CFA franc and adopt the ECO as their common currency, the minister said the single currency initiative is an ongoing process.
He said, “Nigeria’s position is what has been agreed by ECOWAS. That is very clear. There are certain conditions that were put in place, certain pre-conditions that were put in place, certain convergence criteria for a single currency and only one country out of the ECOWAS member states has been able for over a period of three years maintain the criteria; things like level of inflation and external reserve over a certain period of time.
“So the majority of the countries understand that we are not quite ready immediately to go into this single currency market but it is a process.”
While justifying the position of the Francophone countries, the minister said the initial plan to have France on the board will no longer be the case.
He noted, “So some of the French-speaking countries understand that since their currency, the CFA is linked to Euro that they also have to start preparing toward the single market and so they have taken such measure where the 50 per cent they have to deposit in the Central Bank of France will no longer be the case.
“France will no longer be represented on the board of the bank, so there are really no major contradictions.”
He stated that the idea of ECOWAS been recolonized by France did not arise; stressing that it was the member of states that brought in France to assist.
Onyeama stated, “There is no question of anybody colonizing anybody. It was an initiative of the African countries and France accepted and of course the ECO is now going to be linked at the exchange rate to EURO and that was the specific request by the African countries.”
“So everything that has been done is been undertaken by sovereign countries exercising their sovereignty,” he added.
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