According a dispatch from the Nigerien press agency, the current President of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), Mohamed Bazoum greeted, on Friday June 16, 2023, the economic resilience of member countries of the union who lead despite many challenges, according to his.
“Despite the multifaceted shocks facing our economies due to an unfavorable international situation, the WAEMU zone continues to show remarkable resilience. Evidenced by the growth rate of 6.1% in 2021, which remained at 5.9% in 2022 and the very favorable economic outlook in the medium and long term,” said Mohamed Bazoum while chairing a board meeting. ministers of community organization, to his cabinet.
This meeting of the Council of Ministers was also extended to the heads of WAEMU institutions, namely the Chairman of the organization’s commission, the Governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), the President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and the President of the Financial Markets Authority of the West African Monetary Union (AMF-UMOA).
To maintain the course of this resilience, President Bazoum called on the leaders of the member countries of the UEMOA to a sacred union and the diversification of the economies.
“To maintain this renewed dynamism of our economies at the end of the health crisis of COVID 19 and preserve the viability of our public finances, better coordination of economic policies seems more necessary than ever”, advocated the Nigerien leader before promising ” consultation with my peers (…) with a view to adopting a new Convergence, Stability, Growth and Solidarity Pact in order to set a benchmark for the Member States of the Union in terms of public finance management and send a strong signal to our partners about our firm desire to maintain healthy public finances”.
“The challenges before us call for the ever-increasing diversification and mobilization of the means of financing our economies”, he also maintained while announcing that “institutional reforms are in sight during the year 2023”.
To this end, before the ministers and officials of the “group of 8”, President Bazoum unveiled the table of the main institutional reforms envisaged by the organization in 2023.
At the top of the list, he cited “the continuation of the reform on the adoption of the single currency of ECOWAS, of which notable progress has already been made”.
“On this file, it would be important to ensure the coordination of the points of view of the Member States and the regional institutions concerned of the Union in order to adopt a common position and preserve the achievements of the WAMU, in the perspective of the en bloc membership of the future ECOWAS Single Monetary Zone,” he said.
Then President Bazoum made a case of “the ratification by all the States of the community of the monetary cooperation agreement between the Governments of the Member States of UEMOA and the government of the French Republic during the year 2019 in order to to ensure its effective implementation”.
The third point listed by the number one of UEMOA is ”improving the governance of the Court of Auditors”.
At this level, he said, “the reform aims to change the composition into two (2) groups of four (4) Counselors within the Court according to a method of succession for a term of six (6 ) years, non-renewable. The objective is to ensure the efficiency and speed of the Court in order to strengthen its role of control of the organs”.
Finally, Mohamed Bazoum mentioned ”the improvement of the review of community reforms, programs and projects following its evaluation”.
“It will be a question of establishing a bi-annual political review of community reforms and programs in order to give Member States more material time for the implementation of commitments in terms of internalization of community texts, the chain of adoption decisions being relatively long and varying from one State to another”, he explained.
Following President Bazoum, the President of the Council of Ministers of the Union, the Minister of Economy and Finance of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr. Adama Coulibaly also recognized the existence of “multifaceted challenges” which stand before the economies of the countries of the region.
According to him, these challenges are “related to exposure to external shocks, the narrowness of its financial system, peace and security, adequate infrastructure, the transformation of the economy, the climate, to name a few. than those.”
Addressing the President of Niger, the Ivorian official underlined that “your roadmap constitutes a breakdown of the appropriate responses to be brought to these structural challenges which hinder the march of our Union towards harmonious development and shared prosperity”. “I would like to assure you of the full readiness of the Council and the organs of WAEMU (Commission, BCEAO, BOAD and the AMF) to work, each in the directions that you have just outlined, to contribute to the implementation of the actions necessary to achieve the ambitions set out in this roadmap”, he suggested.
“I have no doubts about the capabilities of these bodies and our commitment to this task. All of these bodies stand by your side to conduct effectively and as soon as possible the orientations that you have assigned to them,” said the person in charge of the economy and finances in the Ivorian government.
The President of the Republic of Niger Mohamed Bazoum is elected President of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of UEMOA during a summit held on December 05, 2022, in Abidjan.
