By Linus Aleke
The Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), otherwise known as Community Parliament, has decried the overreliance of member states on handouts from western powers and foreign donors to tackle local challenges and grow their national economies.
To this end, the regional Parliament tasked member states to formulate policies that will improve the economic growth of the sub-region so as, to reduce the economic dependency on foreign countries.
Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Rt. Hon. Sidie Mohamed Tunis, gave this task at the closing of the 2023 first parliamentary seminar on Sequencing ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Towards Single Currency, in Guinea Bissau.
Represented by the Fourth Deputy Speaker, Hon. Adja Satu Camara Pinto, the Speaker emphasized the need for cooperation within the ECOWAS region for harmonisation.
He said, “There is a need for monetary policy in the sub-region, now that we have realised the economic growth in our country that is very important. Member States also need to take actions that will require payment systems, harmonisation, integration and necessary infrastructure for our sub-region. I believe that all of us will agree to work together towards achieving our objectives. We also, need to sensitise our communities on the single currency”.
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In his remarks, Hon. Califa Seidi from Guinea Bissau, urged member States to look more inward on making the ECOWAS economy stronger than issuing of the single currency.
According to him, “As far as the mechanism is concerned, nothing has been achieved, when you come to the issue of single Currency, the population of National sovereignty is very vital, our leaders have a very big role to play by sensitising the populace.
We should not only be talking about the single currency now, 2027 for is still far away. We should be looking at a strong economy instead”.
He noted that the sub region does not produce anything, despite the fact that it is endowed with alot of raw materials.
