Abuja — Regional ministers of finance and the Governors of central banks will meet in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, next Tuesday to consider various proposals for the creation of monetary union in West Africa by December 2009.

It will be noted that at their mid-year Summit on June 15, 2007 in Abuja, Heads of state and government of member states called for a review of current two-step approach to monetary integration to create a single track towards the establishment of a common currency for West Africa.

The meeting of the Convergence Council will review the existing two-track approach to monetary cooperation in West Africa and consider the recommendations of the preceding meeting of the technical committee, comprising senior officials of the ministries of finance and directors of research of central banks on this approach.

The Technical Meeting of Regional Institutions on the creation of a single currency met in Accra for three days from September 25, 2007 and after considering three options recommended the adoption of a "critical mass approach" to the establishment of monetary union by December 2009.

The critical approach calls for the commencement of monetary union by that date "provided a critical mass of countries constituting 75% of the ECOWAS GDP satisfy the convergence criteria," an approach that is anchored on sound macro-economic fundamentals and involve the major economies of the region.

It will also not jeopardize the 2009 deadline by five Member States- the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria- for launching their single currency, which will run concurrently with the CFA during an interim period before the creation of a single currency for the region.

The technical committee which recommended the option said it should also be accompanied by the establishment of credible and strong regional institutions prior to the launching, namely independent central bank, banking and financial supervisory body independent of the central bank, an integrated stock exchange and an agreement of member states of the union to a growth and stability pact.

It also calls for the continuous implementation by the various regional institutions- ECOWAS, the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) and WAMZ - of their respective convergence criteria as well as the adoption of a harmonized convergence after the inauguration of the monetary union.

Also recommended was the institutionalisation of a joint surveillance mechanism among appropriate regional institutions as well as the creation of solidarity fund to assist weaker countries.