Estimating the Effect of Common Currency on Trade in West African Monetary Zones: A Dynamic Panel-GMM Analysis

Significance Presidential elections in the other five (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Niger) are set for the fourth quarter. While ECOWAS touts its regional trade and monetary harmonisation efforts, contentious polls complicate its short-term agenda. Impacts Implementation of ECOWAS's new regional counterterrorism strategy will be hampered by insufficient funding and resources. The proposed July launch of the regional ‘Eco’ common currency will likely prove too ambitious and be subject to delays. Nigeria’s various conflicts and political divisions, as well as its autarkic policies, will limit its traditional regional leadership role. Former Burkinabe Prime Minister Kadre Desire Ouedraogo could present a formidable challenge to President Roch Marc Christian Kabore. Despite its reputation for stability, opposition criticisms of the electoral authorities will increase scrutiny of Ghana's polls.

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Is West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) a common currency area?

Review of Development Finance ◽

10.1016/j.rdf.2015.05.001 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 53-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Simon K. Harvey ◽

Matthew J. Cushing

Keyword(s):

West African ◽

Common Currency ◽

Currency Area

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THE ROLE OF NIGERIA IN THE ECOWAS AND ITS SUPPORT TOWARDS THE COMMON PROPOSED CURRENCY ECO

Asian People Journal (APJ) ◽

10.37231/apj.2020.3.2.213 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 86-95

Author(s):

Yusuf Kamaluddeen Ibrahim ◽

Abdullahi Ayoade Ahmad

Keyword(s):

Monetary Union ◽

Regional Integration ◽

African State ◽

West African ◽

Integration Theory ◽

Common Currency ◽

The West ◽

The Common ◽

Economic Bloc

Nigeria is the arrowhead of the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS), which was emerged in Lagos on May 28, 1975, as a regional institution consisting of fifteen nations. The essence of the establishment is to integrate the region into the single economic bloc and to ensure sole currency existence, which has been on the agenda of the head of the state conference. The study adopted regional integration theory and employed Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) in order to elaborate on the big-brother and sub-regional leader role of Nigeria in the region. The study found that loyalty to colonialism and the francophone country's long-existing monetary cooperation towards France was the strong blockade of the proposal as well as the member state was unable to reach-up to the merging criteria, which resulted in the shift and delays on the establishment of the common currency date. It was also discovered that on the efforts to embark on the process, two fast track approaches were being agreed upon towards the realization of the common currency. The first track meeting was held in Accra, Ghana, in April 2000, proposing that the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) were to create a second Monetary Union by July 2005 termed the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), mainly comprising of Anglophone countries. The second track was stressing on the consequent merging of the WAMZ and WAEMU to form a common currency union in the region. The study went further to provide some suggestions toward the implementation of the common currency in the region. Keywords: Nigeria, ECOWAS, Single Currency, Regional Leader.

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ECOWAS COMMON CURRENCY: HOW PREPARED ARE ITS MEMBERS?

Investigación Económica ◽

10.22201/fe.01851667p.2019.308.69625 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 78 (308) ◽

pp. 89

Author(s):

Sagiru Mati ◽

Irfan Civcir ◽

Hüseyin Ozdeser

Keyword(s):

Monetary Union ◽

West African ◽

Common Currency ◽

Convergence Criteria ◽

Impulse Responses ◽

Economic Community ◽

European Monetary ◽

Currency Area ◽

Variance Decompositions ◽

Optimum Currency

ABSTRACTThis study operationalizes the Optimum Currency Area (OCA) to investigate the preparedness of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) members to form a Monetary Union (MU). Inflation and output models are estimated, with the sample 1988:01 to 2017:12 for the former and 1967 to 2016 for the latter. Analyses of ECOWAS convergence criteria, impulse responses, variance decompositions and correlations of shocks of these two models, reveal that the shocks across the ECOWAS members are asymmetric. The conclusion is that ECOWAS members as a whole are not well-prepared and therefore a full-fledged pan-ECOWAS MU is not advisable. It is also found that members of the European Monetary Union (EMU) tend to be a better fit for OCA than the ECOWAS members. The study recommends various courses of action such as fostering coordination among Central Banks of ECOWAS members, and providing a fund to serve as an incentive for countries that may incur cost rather than benefit if the single currency is created. LA MONEDA COMÚN DE LA ECOWAS: ¿CUÁN PREPARADOS ESTÁN SUS MIEMBROS?RESUMENUtilizamos el Área Monetaria Óptima (AMO) para indagar cuán preparados están los miembros de la Comunidad Económica de Estados de África Occidental (ECOWAS, Economic Community of West African States) para formar una Unión Monetaria (UM). Estimamos modelos de inflación y producto con datos de 1988:01-2017 y 1967-2016 respectivamente. Los análisis de criterios de convergencia, impulso-respuesta, descomposición de varianza y correlación de choques de estos modelos revelan que los choques entre estos países son asimétricos. Concluimos que estos países no están bien preparados y, por tanto, una UM pan-ECOWAS no es aconsejable. Además, los integrantes de la Unión Monetaria Europea (UME) tienden a satisfacer mejor una AMO que los de ECOWAS. Nuestro análisis recomienda fortalecer la coordinación entre los bancos centrales de la ECOWAS y un fondo que incentive a los países que incurran en costos en lugar de beneficios si se crea la moneda única.

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