Linus Aleke, Abuja
The Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has blamed the rising inflation in West African region, on the adoption of United States dollars as common currency for commercial activities.

The Parliament however, called for more political commitment towards the adoption of the ECOWAS common currency – ECO, to address this identified economic challenges.

The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Rt. Hon. Sidie Mohammed Tunis apportioned this blame on US currency while, feilding questions from newsmen, at the sideline of the ongoing parliamentary seminar on sequencing ECOWAS monetary cooperation towards single currency.

He said, “We should be able to trade easily with our currency but that is not happening, trading with USD is naturally increasing prices on our commodities”.

Hon. Tunis added, “As I said in my speech, there have been a lot of commitments from the Authority of Heads of States and there have been a series of meetings specifically about the single Currency. Now, with the progress in place, I believe every member states would want it to be successful, that is the reason why we are all here. The most important thing is that there is commitment from the leaders, the authorities of head of states on single Currency”.

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The Speaker further noted that beyond the political commitments to the currency project, the next big issue is how to transit to the next phase of currency adoption and introduction in the region.

According to him, “What we should be thinking of now is how to move from where we are right now to the next level. That is where the problem is. How do we also overcome the influence of the people outside the sub region? The good thing is that the Authority of the heads of States are very committed, they have a determination to move it forward, so it is only good for us to be realistic and that is the only way we can come together to agree on the year 2027. That is why we bring the 15 countries from West Africa here and experts from Africa monitoring agencies”.

On the benefits of the ECOWAS common currency, Hon. Tunis said, its introduction will drive down inflation.

“The benefits are enormous. Today we are grumbling about prices of commodities everywhere, principally because of the currency,  we are all trading with the USD, we are not trading  amongst ourselves with our own currency,” he concluded.