STATUS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ROADMAP ACTIVITIES ASSIGNED TO WAMA UNDER THE ECOWAS SINGLE CURRENCY PROJECT 2012
Following the adoption of the ECOWAS Single Currency Roadmap at the end of the 5th Session of the Convergence Council which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, on 25 May 2009, various activities were assigned to relevant regional institutions under the of the Single Currency Roadmap for purposes of coordinating their implementation. Subsequently, WAMA was asked to coordinate the implementation of the following activities:
i. Harmonization of Monetary Policy Frameworks;
ii. Harmonization of Regulatory and Supervisory Frameworks of Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions;
iii. Harmonization of the Accounting and Reporting Frameworks of banks and non-bank financial institutions;
iv. Harmonization of Regulations Governing External Financial Relations;
v. Exchange Rate Stabilization
To support WAMA in the implementation of these activities, the Committee of Governors, at its 40th session held in Conakry on July 14th, 2011, took a number of decisions relating mainly to the use of Central Banks’ internal expertise in conducting some activities. In its efforts to fast track the implementation of the activities of the roadmap, the Committee of Governors also made the following recommendations at the end of its 42nd regular meeting which took place in Monrovia on 12 July 2012:
i. WAMA should focus more on the implementation of the roadmap activities. To this end, WAMA was asked to present, at the next statutory meeting, a detailed timetable for the implementation of various activities assigned to the Agency under the ECOWAS single currency roadmap;
ii. Relevant regional institutions should strengthen their collaboration in order the speed up the process relating to the harmonization of statistics in ECOWAS;
iii. Member countries should work toward the adoption of the Sixth edition of the IMF Manual on BOP statistics and International Investment Position;
iv. WAMA should regularly monitor the various harmonization processes within the framework of its periodic surveillance missions;
The evaluation report of the Roadmap for the establishment of the ECOWAS Single Currency seeks to provide to the relevant Authorities with a reference document centralizing necessary information on i) the progress of the implementation of the various activities, ii) constraints and difficulties encountered as the process evolves, iii) solutions or measures to be undertaken to address these hurdles, and iv) other tasks that are yet to be accomplished. This document will also help assess the work of other institutions involved in the implementation of the Roadmap and, where necessary, draw their attention on any inadequacy or delay observed in the execution of their individual and collective assignments.
This report covers the activities that have been undertaken by WAMA as at end November 2012. In line with the instruction of the Committee of Governors, the structure of the report was revised to reflect a better timeline highlighting the activities of WAMA that are yet to be completed.