The WAMA delegation attending the 2025 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, led by its Director General, Hon. Boima S. Kamara, met with senior management officials of the IMF and the World Bank, The President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), the Secretary General of Islamic Financial Services Board (IFsB), and the Chairman of the Committee of Governors of ECOWAS Member Central Banks. The DG of WAMA used the occasion to advocate for more support from the international community for the monetary union program of the ECOWAS Bloc and made the case for stronger strategic partnership bearing in mind the launch of the ECO in 2027.
The engagements with the multilateral institutions sought to foster strategic partnership and garner support for capacity building; ongoing study on free movement of capital in terms of current and capital accounts transactions, the ECOWAS Payments and Settlement System (EPSS) infrastructure comprising the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) and Immediate Payments System (IPS) for the ECOWAS bloc; and the development of the regulatory framework for Islamic Development Finance in West Africa. The meeting with the Secretary General of IFsB led to an agreement for WAMA and the IFsB to host a Regional Workshop on Islamic Banking with a view to create enhanced visibility of Islamic banking and the toolkits IFSB offers, given their no-interest charge policy.
he WAMA-IFsB regional seminar will bring together senior officials from central banks and ministries of finance of member states of ECOWAS. Moreover, an understanding was reached to help strengthen efforts aimed at regional integration, monetary policy design and financial sector development, and legal and regulatory regimes across borders.
The meeting with the Deputy Director of the African Department, Mlachila Montfort, focused on the need for stronger partnership around capacity building with the holding of joint training programs. As a starting point, WAMA will work with AFRITAC West 2 to organize a regional debt conference to address the subregion debt challenges. WAMA also proposed a conference on AI applications in macroeconomic forecasting to explore opportunities within the AI revolution.
The Money and Capital Market Department (MCMD) gathering brought together the Head, Mr. Tobias Adrian, and his team and DG Kamara and Director Elijah Udoh of WAMA. Following the meeting, the MCMD agreed to offer technical support to WAMA through knowledge sharing and the ECOWAS Revised Roadmap activities to ensure reforms do not destabilize economies including the ongoing study on development of the legal text on free movement of capital.
