ECOWAS Single Currency: Let's devalue currencies - Veep

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur says it is about time central banks in the ECOWAS sub-region consider a deliberate policy to devalue their currencies if they are to make any tangible headway in meeting the key criteria for adopting a single currency by 2020. The Vice President, speaking at the 35th Meeting of the Convergence Council of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), complained about the lack of progress in processes that will lead to creation of a single currency. “We continue to expend time and effort in holding meetings; 35 so far for the Convergence Council. Have meetings become an end in themselves? “We have postponed establishment of the second monetary zone five times. Given the lack of clear progress on the substantive convergence agenda, do we still need a WAMZ agenda that is costing our taxpayers a lot of money with no end in sight,” Mr. Amissah quizzed at Friday’s meeting. Suggesting the way forward, Mr. Amissah Arthur said sub-region leaders pursuing a regional economic bloc must be “innovative and confront dogmatic thinking”. According to him, given the centrality of exchange rates in the convergence process, its volatility and transmission role in reserve accumulation, price formation and the fiscal deficit, there is probably an advantage for countries to enhance currency stability by devaluing. “Will formal and discrete devaluation rather than creeping depreciation increase currency stability and resilience, thereby boosting convergence?” the Vice President said. He said the leaders of various institutions mandated to put in place the structures that will see the introduction of a regional economic bloc have to identify ways of extending the successes chalked up in other areas of integration, such as peace and security, and apply the same commitment to the task of economic convergence and integration. “It is also important for us to recognise that we can pursue institutional innovations based on the experience of others such as the Euro-zone. We need to design a stability mechanism, create a banking union, strengthen fiscal regimes in member-countries and improve information sharing and surveillance within the West Africa Monetary Zone,” Mr. Amissah Arthur said. Abandoned dream The dream of having a common currency, the ‘ECO’, for the English-speaking countries under ECOWAS by the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) began in 2000 -- but failed to materialise due to the inability of members to meet various performance benchmarks. After a series of postponements, the ECO dream was finally suspended due to challenges relating to the slow progress toward convergence by member-countries, weak integration of convergence criteria and other WAMZ benchmarks in national development frameworks and plans, inadequate and dilapidated infrastructure, as well as weak productive capacities. A Chief Economist at the West Africa Monetary Institute (WAMI), Dr. Christian Ahortor, said the presidential taskforce gave its blessing to the decision to abandon the ECO at the 45th Ordinary Session of ECOWAS held on July 10, 2014, in Accra. All countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region are now expected to move to a single currency regime by 2020, after failed attempts to introduce the ECO for non-Francophone countries in the region. The new single currency, which is expected to facilitate trade among countries, will be introduced after all the 15 countries in the sub-region meet an outlined convergence criteria and also see the establishment of the ECOWAS central bank. ECOWAS countries are expected to meet four primary criteria for convergence including single-digit inflation; a fiscal deficit (excluding grants) of not more than 4.0 percent of GDP and 3.0 percent including grants; central bank financing of fiscal deficit of not-more-than 10 percent of the previous year’s tax revenue; and gross external reserves of not less-than 3.0 months of import cover. There are six secondary

Goldstar Airlines to recruit Ghanaians carbin crew

Goldstar Airlines, a Ghanaian airline company will set in motion a recruitment exercise to recruit Ghanaians as cabin crew for its aircrafts. The company as part of efforts to indigenize its airline operations will engage and rely on Ghanaians to man the aircraft which will touch down in no time. Towards this end, the airline will roll out a scheme to invite applications from qualified Ghanaians to apply for the position of cabin crew to take care of the passengers on the aircraft in flight. The objective of the airline is to promote and protect the interests of Ghanaians. In view of this, Goldstar Airlines, will roll out special programs tailored to the needs of the aviation and tourism sectors. Again the company will deliver promptly on its promise of getting Ghanaians and other nationals to the destinations such as London-Gatwick, Baltimore-Washington and Guangzhou-China and connecting them to some of the West African countries with the view to promoting and building national network. Goldstar Airlines is committed to working actively to promote national network and unity of purpose as a local host, will open up possibilities to get a feel of Ghanaian right from boarding the aircraft till when it will touch down at the designated destination. The company’s pride and joy will be to empower and equip the Ghanaian to pursue economic ventures in the aviation and tourism sectors. In a statement copied to Ghanaweb, the public relations officer, John Ashong-Mettle, indicated that the company will give credence to its mantra of indigenizing its operations. Owing to this, the company is flying down a cream of experts to train those who will make the grade after the interviewing exercise to put them through their paces to learn the tricks of the trade. He added that when the airline company gets off the ground it will rely on expatriates as the cockpit crew but will unfold a tailor-made course of study to be undertaken by some Ghanaians who will be sent abroad to train in order to get or have a handle on piloting the Boeing 767 series which Goldstar airlines will be using. After the training, the trainees will do a period of apprenticeship with the expatriate pilots to get hands-on experience and knowledge in line with the company’s plan of replacing the foreign pilots with Ghanaians.” he stressed. He also enumerated that the company is ready to respond to persistent call on individuals and corporate bodies to partner government in reducing and eliminating the unemployment canker in the country.