BCEAO’s Semi-Annual Legislative Meetings Take off in Dakar

Dakar – Sudanhorizon – Othman Siddiq

On Thursday, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) headquarters in Dakar will host the 2024 semi-annual legislative meetings of the West African Monetary Agency (WAMA), which will continue until the end of July.

According to Sudanhorizon’s sources, the meetings primarily concern central bank governors in member states of the Economic Community of West African States and include executive officials from the central banks of member states, ministries of finance, and community institutions.

According to a statement published by the Senegalese electronic newspaper Al-Iqtisad, the meetings of the Audit Committee will begin on July 25, followed by the meeting of the Joint Technical Committee on the 26th and 27th, which brings together the members of the committee responsible for operations and the administration accountable for economic and monetary affairs. On the last day, the Governors Committee meeting will be held on 30 July 2024.

These meetings will represent a framework for discussions on the development of the regional economic situation and the status of implementation of the roadmap activities for the launch of Eco, the future unified currency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

It is worth noting that the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) is an international public institution, and its presidency is in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. It is the joint issuing institution for the eight (8) member states of the West African Monetary Union, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, and Mali. Niger, Senegal, Togo.

Sudanhorizon brings to mind that on 28 January, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso announced through a joint statement that they would withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States and called themselves (the Sahel States Alliance), which prompted the latter to announce at the end of February the lifting of some The sanctions imposed on the three coalition countries included closing borders, freezing the assets of the country’s central bank, suspending commercial transactions, and a no-fly zone on commercial flights to and from Niger. However, political sanctions and targeted sanctions will remain in effect. The group’s statement at the time said that this was done for humanitarian reasons. Still, some observers see it as a gesture of appeasement to discourage the three countries from withdrawing.