The Africa Union (AU) is mooting the idea to adopt a single currency as part of the Agenda 2063 roadmap worked out by the organization, Anthony Mothae Maruping, AU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, said on Thursday.
The aim is to connect Africa through world class infrastructure, with a concerted push to finance and implement major projects, Maruping said on the sidelines of the 25th AU Summit taking place in Johannesburg.
African central bank governors have already met and deliberated on the establishment of a African monetary fund, but this will be the end result of the Agenda 2063, Maruping said.
Leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi have already signed a protocol in the Ugandan capital of Kampala for the adoption of a common currency in 10 years, said Maruping.
Although many economists and experts concur that the ambitious programme of a African single currency was achievable, the lack of clarity surrounding the issue remains a problem.
The Payment Systems Steering Committee of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has also proposed a system to facilitate cross-border payment and settlement. This system would allow the settlement of payment transactions in a central location on the basis of a single currency.
This model system will initially be tested on the current common Monetary Area countries that use the South African rand.
"We now have the framework required to unlock the promise of integration, and things are happening on the ground," Maruping told Xinhua...."the promise of integration." What could go wrong?
Xinhua
African Union moots single currency
5 comments:
I think I should offer free copies of my book to people at those central banks.
You wonder which interests are pushing this madness? Finance, possibly. But the financial sector isn't as powerful as it is in the so-called developed world. Outside powers are always involved in Africa.
Perhaps Wall Street and the City of London are getting ready for some "Scramble For Africa" style looting.
And with China heavily involved in Africa, maybe another confrontation between the US and China is in the offing.
Some people view what is happening now in Greece as a proof-of-concept rather than a debacle. Centralize the financial system under private banks and a democratically impervious central bank, freely extend credit to the least well-off members of the system and then reap the results: the dominant forces of concentrated capital acquire the ability to impose desired structural changes on the dependent and subordinate parties and politically neutralize pesky governments.
Great summary, Dan.
And we know that was the plan from the outset.They were being foxy, not stupid.
Greg Palast — Robert Mundell, evil genius of the euro
Tom, you're more right than you think: "They were being foxy, not stupid".
They won't be so foxy if and when the whole thing falls apart.
OK, Mundell and chums couldn't see the rise of China and Russia, but with these huge beasts on the horizon, you'd think that the EU and Washington might be pragmatic and stop torturing the EZ periphery. There are alternatives to neoliberalism, and Russia and China may yet hold out a hand to the periphery and thereby break the Washington consensus.
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