Bawumia launches ECA Price Watch Centre for Africa

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday, 11 August 2020, launched the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) Price Watch Centre for Africa in a virtual meeting.

The ECA Price Watch is an initiative aimed at developing a platform to provide information on prices and other related variables for all countries on the continent.

Dr Bawumia underscored the importance of a mechanism for common price comparison and also called on African governments to invest in ICT infrastructure and digital data collection tools, and urged the heads of national statistical offices to work with ECA in transforming their national statistical systems.

Dr Bawumia noted that it is his expectation and hope that the Price Watch Centre will mark the beginning of a new chapter in Africa’s trade, commerce and policy setting operations for greater pricing commonalities across the continent, particularly in the context of the Continental Free Trade project.