By Kebba Ansu Manneh
Association of Africa Central Banks (AACB), on Sunday, 31st July, began a weeklong convergence of the 44th Ordinary Meeting of the Assembly of Governors in Banjul.
The event that is ongoing at Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre is expected to host forty-one (41) Governors of African Central Banks including heads of financial and monetary institutions with the theme; Digital Innovation and Future of the Financial Sector: opportunities and challenges of the Central Bank digital currencies.
Karamo Jawara, Director of Banking and Payment Systems, Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) described the event as the first of its kind in the country, disclosing that the event has been segmented into three events namely the Technical Committee Meeting, Bureau Committee Meeting and Assembly of Governors of African Central Banks.
According to him, AACB has designed a set of Convergence criteria that each member country must fulfill before it can partake in the deliberations, noting one of the criteria is inflation which must be 3 percent in the long term and 7 percent in the medium.
The CBG Director of Banking and Payment System doubling as Chair of the Local Organising Committee continued that countries’ public debt to GDP must also be at 65 percent before one can join the convergence. He noted that so far all member countries have qualified to partake in the convergence except two countries that are participating but yet to fulfilled all the criteria.
He highlighted that AACB is divided into five regions and each region has its own Chairman and Vice Chairman, adding that the Democratic Republic of Congo is the current chair of the AACB deputised by The Gambia.
“Other criteria that will be looked into include Central Bank financing to Government, financial stability issues in the Banking Sector among others. We expect that at the end of this meeting The Gambia will be the Chair of this association to drive its process for the next one year,” CBG, Director of Banking and Payment Systems highlighted.
The CBG Director of Banking and Payment Systems said the AACB convergence will also be looking into the structural differences existing among African countries. While he disclosed that for the African countries to be operating at the same inflation level the convergence will take into account the countries that are operating on fixed exchange rates and those on flooding exchange rates.
He added that another issue that the AACB convergence will look into includes a common Payment System and a Messaging System, and he said working on a common payment and messaging system is a necessity for Africa if it is to learn anything from the Ukrainian crisis.
Ebrima Wadda, Director of Research Central Bank of The Gambia highlighted that the country is well prepared to host the convergence, as all the necessary committees and the necessary arrangements have been put in place with the view to make the event one of its kind.
The CBG Director of Research continued that the 44th Meeting of the Assembly of Governors will be preceded by a symposium that will be looking into digital Innovation and cryptocurrencies, and there is no dispute on the importance of digital innovation but what challenges for the Central Bank’s monetary policy issues remain to be addressed.