African Central Bank creation, progressing well

The Association of African Central Banks (AACB) Thursday welcomed the progress made in preparing for the establishment of an African Central Bank, stating that it would work to accelerate its creation. "The Board of Governors considered the state of monetary cooperation in Africa. The Governors welcomed the progress made in the preparatory work for the establishment of the African Central Bank," said a statement from the AACB which ends the work of the 36th meeting of the board, completed Thursday evening in Algiers. The Governors "have taken some decisions to accelerate the realization of this project," said the document. The future African Central Bank will have its headquarters in Nigeria, said the governor of the Bank of Algeria (BA), Mohamed Laksaci during a press briefing following the meeting. A working group set up by the AACB at the Central Bank of Nigeria is currently considering how to start this project. Laksaci explains that the membership conditions to the bank will obey the same criteria of macro-financial convergence between states, required monetary integrations, creating a single currency or central banks of several countries. "This is a set of criteria that are followed, the rate of inflation, the budget deficit to GDP ratio, the level of reserves and the degree of involvement of central banks in the financing of budget deficits." It recalls that the monetary cooperation program, currently being conducted by African states, was to follow this level of convergence at the continentally and sub-regionally. The Governor of the BA underlined the commitment of African countries in which monetary integration should also be strengthened with the creation of an African Monetary Fund in Cameroon and an investment bank in Libya.