The Government of Ghana under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana, and in collaboration with the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), has successfully hosted the 44th Meeting of the Technical Committee of the West Africa Monetary Zone.
The Technical Committee Meeting forms part of a week-long WAMZ end of 2018 Statutory Meetings being hosted by Ghana. With membership drawn from member states made up of Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and The Gambia and Partner Institutions including West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), West African Monetary Agency (WAMA), Ecowas Commission, UEMOA COMMISSION, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), African Development Bank, African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), West African Bankers Association (WABA), Bank Commission and AFREXIMBANK, the bi-annual meeting saw fraternal messages from selected Institutional heads.
In his welcome address, the Coordinating Director of Ministry of Finance, Mr Michael Ayesu noted that a lot of efforts had gone into the integration process culminating in the transformation of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP) from a double-track to a single-track programme with the main goal of establishing a monetary union and a single currency by the year 2020 in consonance with the ECOWAS-wide integration project.
He gave the assurance that Ghana remained firmly committed to the ECOWAS Single Currency Programme as amply demonstrated through its pivotal role in the activities of the Presidential Taskforce and disclosed that Ghana successfully hosted the Fifth Meeting of the Presidential Task Force on the ECOWAS Single Currency Programme in Accra on 21st February 2018.
Touching on the Ghanaian economy, he revealed that the country continued to improve on complying with all the macroeconomic convergence criteria on a sustainable basis and as at the end of December 2018, the country achieved three out of the four primary criteria, namely; central bank financing, gross external reserves, and inflation, representing a performance score of 75 percent.