By Festus Poquie
Liberia’s Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, urges ECOWAS member states to accelerate reforms and coordinate policy implementation to meet the July 2027 target for the launch of the Eco single currency.
A unified currency regime would significantly reduce trade frictions across West Africa, the Liberian finance chief said at 55th Convergence Council Meeting in Monrovia, warning delay in roll out was no more acceptable.
“The single currency our region has pursued with determination, has faced multiple postponements. But with July 2027 now set as the new horizon, we no longer have the luxury of drifting,” he said.
Ngafuan said the single currency is a practical tool to deepen markets and lower the cost of doing business across the bloc.
The currency when successfully launched according to the minister will:
- Cut transaction costs by eliminating multiple currency conversions for cross border trade
- Reduce exchange rate risk, making pricing and trade finance more predictable
- Simplify payments and remittances, improving liquidity for regional traders and SMEs
- Attract investment by offering a larger, integrated market with clearer monetary rules
“The people of West Africa are counting on us,” Ngafuan added. “They deserve a monetary union that lowers transaction costs, facilitates trade, attracts investment, and improves livelihoods.”
Delegates at the meeting underscored the economic heft of the ECOWAS area.
Liberia’s Central Bank Executive Governor Henry Saamoi told delegates that ECOWAS economies grew by 4.8 percent in 2025, up from 4.3 percent in 2024, and that inflation had moderated alongside improving fiscal positions.
The bloc covers roughly 400 million people and has an aggregate economy measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars while the combined market represents a substantial platform for intraregional trade and external investment.
Entry into the monetary union is conditional on meeting a set of macroeconomic convergence criteria intended to ensure stability at launch. The primary benchmarks discussed at the Monrovia meeting include:
Fiscal deficit: no more than 3 percent of GDP.
Inflation: annual rate below 10 percent.
Central bank financing: central bank financing of budget deficits limited to no more than 10 percent of the previous year’s tax revenue.
External reserves: gross external reserves equivalent to at least three months of import cover.
Ministers also emphasized related requirements such as debt sustainability, exchange rate stability, reserve accumulation and disciplined fiscal and monetary coordination.
Liberia reported it had made “substantial progress” across the six ECOWAS convergence indicators by end 2025.
Officials said progress is visible but uneven. Four member states were projected to meeting the four primary convergence criteria by 2025—up from two in 2024—and eight countries are expected to satisfy at least three criteria.
Boima Kamara, director general of the West African Monetary Agency, urged pragmatic, decisive steps, calling the final stretch “demanding but not insurmountable.”
Concerns remain that inflation pressures in some countries, fiscal slippages, and the political economy of implementing painful reforms could derail timelines.
Delegates stressed the need for policy harmonization, stronger cooperation among central banks and finance ministries, and agreement on institutional arrangements for the proposed Central Bank of West Africa.
While the convergence criteria define entry conditions, there is no widely publicized mechanism akin to an automatic “exit” for a country once inside the union. Instead, member states face remedial measures, peer review, and decisions taken by ECOWAS bodies if they persistently fail to meet union rules.
With the July 2027 deadline approaching, the Monrovia talks were positioned as a pivotal moment for converting longstanding ambition into a practical launch plan.
Success, delegates said, will depend on countries keeping macroeconomic targets, deepening institutional cooperation, and managing the political challenges of alignment.
