Single currency for West Africa feasible

Page 34- July 17, 2009

THE Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, has observed that the vision of a single currency for West Africa is achievable, despite the strict convergence criteria for member countries.
She is optimistic that this vision will be realised if countries in the sub-region share methods and comparable statistics information and focus on building economic models that will effectively support government policies.
Dr Bediako gave the assurance when she spoke to the Daily Graphic shortly after the opening of a seven-day capacity building workshop on macroeconomic modelling in Accra last Monday
She said models were important inputs for policies to assist government officials to maintain and evaluate the impact of government policies.
“A good understanding of the economic model is critical for us to understand our economic policies,” she noted, and urged countries in the sub-region to foster synergy and co-ordinate data among themselves to better integrate the sub-region.
She advised representatives of member countries present to ensure the harmonisation of their economic modelling concepts, which she said was critical in the integration of the continent.
"It is important for us to meet the criteria of those who are supposed to implement government policies, understand what aggregate they need to feed into these policies," she said, and expressed the conviction that deliberations at the workshop would help participants to make better inputs in their various countries.
Dr Bediako, however, expressed dismay at the inability of statistical services in the sub-region to retain the capacity they had built overtime and called for a common strategy that would help them to retain those capacities or trained personnel.
The ongoing workshop is being organised jointly by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ABCF) and the ECOWAS Statistical Capacity Building Project (ESCAP) of the ECOWAS Commission.
It is to purposely contribute to the establishment of an enabling environment and conditions for ECOWAS members to produce the minimum statistical information needed for decision-making.
Mr Biokou Mathieu Djayeola, a statistician-economist, was hopeful that the workshop would strengthen the capacity of the ECOWAS Commission to help promote statistical harmonisation in member countries.
The major components of the project, he said, were institutional strengthening, research activities, training, dissemination and advocacy.
Under institutional strengthening, Mr Djayeola, who is also a member of the ECOWAS Commission, said the procurement of equipment such as computers and the acquisition of specialised software such as Statistical Analysis Systems (SAS) would benefit member countries in standardisation of data and analysis.
On the expected output or impact of the project, he said a framework would be developed to assist member countries to update their laws and other regulatory instruments, with reference from eight regional research studies that contained new updates of information and policy recommendations from legal and regulatory frameworks.
He disclosed that eight regional training workshops would be organised for about 200 beneficiaries from member countries, while six regional dissemination and advocacy workshops based on research findings and topical themes would as well be organised for about 120 participants.
That, according to Mr Djayeola, was expected to increase the performance of national statistical systems and improve policy-making in member countries.
Additionally, he said the ECOWAS Commission would capitalise on the outcomes of the project to further promote the harmonisation of monetary and trade policies, the lowering of tariffs, elimination of non-tariff barriers and the removal of other impediments to free trade within the community.