‘Stand up to Nigeria on border closure before implementing ECOWAS single currency’ – GUTA to gov’t

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) is calling on government to halt its decision of implementing the ECOWAS Single currency project due to the lack of new developments on the closure of the Nigeria-Benin border that has affected the good and services of Ghanaian traders.

According to president of the association, Dr Joseph Obeng, Ghana must not tie it’s economy to Nigeria’s because the country does not comply with protocols.

“Due to the inability to resolve the Nigeria border closure, the single currency project may not work because the ECOWAS parliament till date, has not been able to enforce any compelling measures to restrain Nigeria since the matter occurred”

“Why then should we tie our Ghanaian economy with Nigeria which is having 67 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the entire West Africa. We can’t tie our destiny to countries that don’t comply to protocols”

“As a matter of urgency, we want the trade laws to be enforced to enable our local Ghanaian traders to move freely. Despite the ECOWAS protocol, the Nigerian government didn’t even inform us before they took the decision to close the borders and the Ghanaian government should be able to stand up and tell the Nigerian’s to open up the borders to allow the locked-up capital on the goods to flow freely.”, Dr Joseph Obeng said in a phone interview with GhanaWeb.

He added that Ghana must rather wait on the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to facilitate trade and investment to allow all countries to strike a reasonable average.

Dr Obeng said an effective supervisory system must be enforced before the implementation of the AfCFTA to allow the free movement of goods and people in order to avoid a reoccurrence of the Nigeria border closure.

He therefore called on government to swiftly brainstorm and engage the relevant stakeholders before conceding to implementing the ECOWAS single currency project which is expected to take place in 2020.

ECOWAS Single Currency

As part of its plans to make Africa a more integrated continent, leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have adopted the name 'ECO' for a planned single currency to be used in the region.

A 15-member group was announced at the end of an ECOWAS summit in Abuja, Nigeria earlier this year and six member countries, including Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana, could be swapping their currencies for a new one - the ECO.

Eight ECOWAS countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo) currently jointly use the CFA franc.

Originally intended to be launched in 2000, the ECO has been postponed multiple times, and the newest target date is 2020.