The adoption of the Eco, the West African single currency, has been postponed to 2022 because of the exceptional expenses incurred by states in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
At the end of the virtual ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, held on January 23, the regional bloc decided to suspend the convergence criteria for the year 2021 due to the degradation of African economies hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In view of the foreseeable impact of the second wave of the pandemic on the state of macroeconomic convergence in 2021, the Summit decided to exempt Member States from meeting the macroeconomic convergence criteria during the year 2021,” the final communiqué informed.
The Conference instructed the ECOWAS Commission, in collaboration with the West African Monetary Agency (IMAO), the UEMOA Commission and the Central Banks of the Community, to submit to it at the next ordinary session,” a draft of a new convergence and macroeconomic stability pact with January 1, 2022 as the starting date of the convergence phase.”
The Heads of State of ECOWAS took note of the state of implementation of a multilateral mechanism that will allow the use of national currencies for the payment and settlement of intra-Community transactions.
CD/lb/abj/APA