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Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS) yesterday indicated that it is working
towards the harmonisation of the capital market rules and regulations
to make for cross border listing of companies on stock exchanges across
the sub-region.

At the 27th meeting
of the convergence council of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ)
last week in Abuja, Nigeria’s president and chairman of the community,
Goodluck Jonathan, emphasised the need to remove all barriers to the
achievement of economic integration and monetary union, to create an
enabling environment for regional trade among WAMZ member countries.

“Economic and
monetary integration is not only beneficial to our people, but also an
agenda whose implementation has become over-arching for its relevance
internationally, including the facilitation of trade among member
countries, promotion of investment, and economic growth,” Mr. Jonathan
said.

Socio-economic development

The president said
the establishment of a common central bank and common currency would
facilitate rapid socio-economic development and integration of the zone
through stable prices, sound public finances, and a sustainable balance
of payments for WAMZ member states.

NEXT gathered that
most members of the regional body now appreciate the significance of a
single currency monetary union in West Africa to the growth of their
economies and have taken steps towards its actualisation.

Minister of
finance, the Gambia, Abdou Kolley, said the emergence of cross border
banking activities in the zone and the need to safeguard financial
sector stability as well as the initiative by the central banks of
member states to create synergy towards the attainment and sustenance
of sound financial stability in the region was encouraging motivation
towards economic development in the region.

“One critical
factor in the quest for economic integration and monetary union is the
imperative to create an enabling environment for trade to thrive among
WAMZ countries to enhance the usefulness of the common currency. We
must accelerate the implementation of the free trade proposal of ECOWAS
protocols on Common External Tariff (CET) and ECOWAS Trade
Liberalization Scheme (ETLS),” he said.

To facilitate the
urgent integration of the CET and ETLS with WAMZ, Mr. Kolley stressed
the need for the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) to collaborate
with ECOWAS, considering that achieving the monetary union would
require changes in the existing laws, constitutional amendments, and
ratification legal statutes in most member states.

Delayed implementation

However, it was
gathered that meeting the January 2015 deadline for the take off of the
common monetary zone in the WAMZ might be delayed, pending when member
countries resolved issues relating to the domestication of the relevant
statutes and legal instruments.

Minister of
finance, Segun Aganga, had emphasised the importance of an actively
integrated real sector and financial market in the region, pointing out
that the new monetary regime would not attain the status and financial
efficacy as envisaged without the full implementation of all existing
ECOWAS protocols on trade liberalisation as well as establishment of
bilateral and multilateral agreements to facilitate free and seamless
movement of people and goods within the sub-region.