Western Africa: WAEMU - West African Economic and Monetary Union

Contacts

WAEMU Commission - Commission de l'UEMOA

• President: Mr. Soumalia Cissé
• Address: 380, Rue Agostino Neto - 01 BP 543, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
• Telephone: (226) 50 31 88 73-76
• Fax: (226) 50 31 88 72
• Internet Address: http://www.uemoa.int

Biography

Mr. Soumaïla CISSE, President of the UEMOA Commission

Soumaïla Cissé was inaugurated as President of the UEMOA Commission on February 19, 2004. Born in Mali in 1949, he later studied in Senegal and France. Cissé has had a prominent political career in his native Mali, and have been minister for various portfolios, including Finance, Trade, Planning and Environment. In 2002, he ran for President in the Mali, but was defeated by Amadou Toumani Touré, Mali’s current President. Soumaïla Cissé is married and has four children.

Institutional Background

An economic and monetary union, formally created in January 1994, but based on the pre-existing West Africa Monetary Union of the CFA franc zone¹, with eight members, a currency guaranteed at fixed parity to the Euro (656 to 1) through an operations (overdraft) account arrangement, the French Treasury coupled with stringent zone-wide fiscal and monetary rules.

Patterned after European Union, with a Commission located in Ouagadougou financed by a share of a one percent levy on all imports into UEMOA. The Commission is spearheading efforts to establish a customs union, harmonize investment incentives, public financial management procedures, and taxation, and monitor key macroeconomic convergence criteria -- including fiscal deficits, inflation, public sector wages, and government arrears.

UEMOA institutions:

• a common central bank - Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest - BCEAO (see BCEAO brief), a Regional Banking Commission, and regional Stock Exchange since 1998, and a partially functioning Securities Exchange Commission.
• The BOAD (Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement) is considered as an independent, specialized institution under the UEMOA treaty (see BOAD brief).
• Institutions also include a Court of Justice, a General Accounting Office, regional Chamber of Commerce, and, eventually, a Parliament, none of which is fully functioning. President Wade has been Chairman of the Conference of Heads of State for 2002 and is likely to be reelected for 2002.

• The Commission consists of a President (always from Senegal, Mr. Moussa Touré since 1995) and 8 commissioners (one from each country), three dealing with macro policy (public finance, trade, macroeconomics) and five others dealing with sectoral policies.

Economic Background

The UEMOA region has a population somewhat smaller than the East Africa Community, and a GDP slightly larger. It consists broadly of two distinct zones – a Sahelian zone, largely landlocked, and a more humid, forested coastal zone. Income levels and economic potential and constraints vary between the two zones, and create substantial interdependencies – especially in terms of infrastructure services.

As a result of the establishment of the customs Union, intra-regional trade as a share of total trade has increased from at some 10 percent in 1994 to about 16% in 2000. Two countries – Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal – dominate the economy, accounting for over half of GDP and most of the internal trade. The economic and financial situation in UEMOA countries improved significantly during the four-year period following the devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994. The annual GDP growth rate in UEMOA countries has been around 5 percent, 2 percentage points above the Sub-Saharan African average, and export growth surpassed by 3-4 percentage points the Sub-Saharan average. Meanwhile, fiscal and external imbalances were significantly compressed.

In 2001 the sub region saw an acceleration of economic activity with a growth rate of 2.4% against 0.9% in 2000. In any case, this rate remained lower than the demographic growth rate estimated at around 3.0%. The 2001 growth rate was mainly fostered by the secondary and tertiary sectors and was accomplished amidst some inflationary tensions with annual CPI growth of 4.1% vs. 1.8% in 2000. The recent conflict in Côte d’Ivoire will undoubtedly affect the performance of UEMOA for 2002.

¹Benin, Burkina-Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Guinea-Bissau which joined in May 1997.