The Assembly of Governors of the Association of African Central Banks (AACB) rose from its 39th Ordinary meeting on August 19 in Abuja, electing Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria as President of the AACB for the 2016- 2017 year.
Hence, the Bureau of the AACB for this period comprises:
• Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, President of the AACB;
• Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Chairman of the West African Sub-region;
• Governor of the Central Bank of Mauritania, Chairman of the North African Sub-region;
• Governor of the Bank of Central African States, Chairman of the Central African Sub-region;
• Governor of the Banque de la République du Burundi, Chairman of the East African Sub-region;
• Governor of the Central Bank of the Kingdom of Swaziland, Chairman of the Southern African Sub-region;
• The nomination for Vice President of the AACB which comes from the Southern African Sub-region would be communicated later.
The meeting of the Council of Governors was preceded by a Symposium which was held on August 18, 2016, with the theme “Unwinding Unconventional Monetary Policies: Implications for Monetary Policy and Financial Stability in Africa”.
The Symposium was officially opened by President Buhari.
In his opening speech, the President stressed the pressing and urgent need to strengthen the economic and monetary integration of Africa in an international environment characterized by weak global demand, budget deficits, increasing public debt and illicit capital flows.
He noted the importance of central banks in the search for lasting solutions to deal with the crisis facing particularly African countries.
The Assembly of Governors of the AACB, otherwise, particularly examined the state of implementation of the African Monetary Cooperation Programme (AMCP).
The Governors pointed out the inability of African states to sustainably meet some of the criteria for macroeconomic convergence because of the negative impact of the international environment including the fall in prices of raw materials and commodities.
They called on countries to strengthen efforts at implementing structural reforms, in order to diversify their economies, improve the business environment and promote intra-regional trade, in order to strengthen their resilience in the face of external shocks.
The Governors also reviewed the implementation of the work programme of the Community of African Banking Supervisors (CABS). This program has helped to set up an intranet platform to facilitate exchange of information between banking supervisors across Africa.
To support the actions of the CABS, a project for collecting information on the activities of cross-border banks will be implemented in the coming months. It will allow for the identification of risks associated with these activities.
The Assembly of Governors chose the following theme for the year 2017 Symposium: “Prospects for monetary integration in Africa: Lessons learned from the experience of monetary and financial integration of Europe”
