Humado wants Parliament to be briefed on status of the ECO

Ghana’s Member of Parliament for Anlo and a member of the country’s delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Clement Kofi Humado is advocating for the legislature to be briefed on the status of the implementation of the sub-regional single currency, the ECO.

According to him, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Regional Integration should come before the Community Parliament, to give a report on preparation reached on the implementation of the single currency at its next session.

In an interview as to what lawmakers are doing on their part to ensure the implementation of the ECO, he said, “we can influence the Secretary General, John Azumah and the Speaker Sidie Mohammed Tunis to invite him to give us status report on the situation and we can pick it up from there”.

His call comes in the wake of the uncertainty and delay that seems to be affecting the implementation of the single currency that the sub-region has been looking forward to.

Mr. Humado is pushing for a gradualist approach where countries within the sub-region who meet the convergence criteria can start with the implementation of the single currency, and allow other countries to join later as the year go by.

The second rapporteur of the Community’s Parliament Committee on Infrastructure, expressed worry over the delay in kick starting the single currency which has a 2020 deadline.

He fears the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the economies of all fifteen member countries may even worsen the quest for implementing the single currency and explained further that, the Community lawmakers were informed by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs that the single currency would come into force this year.

And pointed out that this was later revised to ending of either September or October 2020. However, at the 57th Session of Authority of Heads of State and Governments in Niger, it emerged that there is lack of consensus among the Heads of States on what to do with the ECO.