The Ivorian head of state, Alassane Dramane Ouattara , is the current president of the Conference of Heads of State and Government (Cceg) of Uemoa. At the end of the twenty-first ordinary session of the said Conference, held on July 12 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, he spoke with the men of the media on the position of the UEMOA countries on the implementation of the ECOWAS single currency, the Continental Free Trade Area.

The Nation : Mr. President, the implementation of the Eco, the single currency of ECOWAS, is announced for July 1, 2020. Does this mean that we are tending towards the disappearance of UEMOA?

Alassane Dramane Ouattara :
As you know, on June 29, we decided unanimously, during the summit of heads of state and government of ECOWAS in Abuja, that the single currency will be called “Eco”. It is within this framework that we work. Obviously, a common currency requires convergence criteria. The countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) are also working in this direction. We hope that everything will be done so that in 2020 we will be able to meet these criteria. From there, we will see with the other countries, in particular the non-UEMOA countries, how we must continue to evolve so that the common currency of all the fifteen ECOWAS countries is effective in the coming months. or the next few years.

Where are the UEMOA countries in relation to the convergence criteria?

You know that at the level of ECOWAS, we have leading convergence criteria which concern the budget deficit, the financing of the Central Bank, the public debt. In fact, there are four primary and two secondary criteria. The most important at the moment are the leading criteria. And most of the UEMOA countries, almost all of them, meet these criteria today, but not completely. We are around 4% in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deficit, budget deficit on GDP. For Côte d'Ivoire, this is the case. But our objective is to be at 3% in 2019. We believe that other countries are making equivalent efforts so that in 2020 we can meet these criteria in order to give us the prospect of going to the single currency as soon as possible.

In the current state of things, will the Eco be indexed to the Euro like the CFA franc?

If the Eco should come to adoption in 2020, there will be no change in parity with the Euro. Today, the exchange rate of the Euro against the CFA franc is 655.9. If the Heads of State decided next year to change the CFA franc to Eco because we would have met all the convergence criteria, this rate would not change immediately. Of course, it's not just the UEMOA countries; we hope that during the implementation of the Eco, that others can join us and that we will go to ten, twelve why not the 15 countries of the Community at the end of this process. I think it will take several years, as we have seen with the European Union which started with eleven countries and it took them about ten years before arriving at twenty-seven countries. It will be with a flexible exchange rate possibly if it was the wish of those who will be in place, to ensure that the fixity compared to the Euro can evolve. But we consider that the fixed exchange rate of the CFA franc against the Euro has served our economies well, controlling inflation. This allows us to have the highest growth rates on the continent, to improve governance in all sectors and above all the living conditions of our populations. You see, I am an economist, a banker. There is nothing worse for people than inflation. I am very proud to say that Côte d'Ivoire, for seven years, has never exceeded an inflation rate of 2% per year. Which is something exceptional and it must be maintained.

The operational phase of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (Zlecaf) started at the end of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, on July 7 in Niamey .What to do so that within the countries of the UEMOA, intra-African trade happens with
fewer barriers?

In fact, the Continental Free Trade Area is not an easy thing. It took 40 or even 50 years to have the treaty itself. As you know, the treaty has been signed by all member states of the African Union but has only been ratified by half of the countries. So for its implementation, obviously, the States have to get involved. I indicated at the summit that Côte d'Ivoire is a model in this area because the average rate of intra-African trade is 7%; but Côte d'Ivoire has almost 23% because of our trade with Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and other neighboring countries. We have installed many non-Ivorian companies on Ivorian soil. I take the case of Mtn from South Africa or Nigerian banks established in Côte d'Ivoire. My wish would be that Ivorian companies can also settle in these countries, that we can import without hindrance into our country, especially since we have quality entrepreneurs who have now demonstrated their ability to trade with neighboring countries. . They can go much further, beyond the sub-region.