Ghana remains com­mitted to the Economic Communi­ty of West African States (ECOWAS)’s single currency agenda despite the current economic challeng­es facing the country, Chief Director of the Ministry of Fi­nance, Ms. Eva Esselba Mends, has said.

She said the country’s eco­nomic challenges would be re­versed and sustained macroeco­nomic stability re-established.

Mrs Mends stated this at the 53rd meeting of the Technical Committee of the member states of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) as part of the 2023 Mid-Year Statutory Meeting of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), West African Monetary Agency (WAMA) and West African Monetary Insti­tute (WAMI), which began on September 5, 2023 and would end on September 15, 2023 and being hosted by the Ministry of Finance under the auspices of the Bank of Ghana.

As part of the programme, Ghana was elected to chair the Technical Committee (TC) for the next six months.

The Gambia chaired the Committee for the last six months.

Ms Mends, who was the rep­resentative of the host country, said Ghana’s performance on the harmonised convergence criteria had always been above average.

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance said Gha­na’s economic growth remained positive despite the significant impact of multiple crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war.

“Government remains fo­cused and resolute on restoring macroeconomic stability. Gha­na, like many other economies, continues to contend with re­cord-level inflationary pressures. Nonetheless, outlook in the near-term is positive as inflation has peaked,” she stated.

Ms Mends emphasised that the government was committed to bringing inflation under con­trol through prudent monetary policy measures, including the elimination of monetary financ­ing of the budget as well as the on-going fiscal adjustments, add­ing that those efforts at securing stability would greatly enhance the prospects of economic inte­gration in the sub-region.

The Chief Director stressed that in spite of the economic cri­ses facing the ECOWAS region, such spiralling inflation, growing public debt and political instabili­ty, the region must “Urgently and deliberately pursue the economic integration of our sub-region and rake in the extensive benefits for our peoples”.

She said the 53rd meeting of the Technical Committee of the WAMZ was timely as it provided the platform for deliberations of issues of common interest, particularly the goal of a single currency for ECOWAS.

The Director-General of WAMI, Dr. Olorunsola Olowofeso, in his remarks, said the meet­ing would deliberate on public debt-economic growth revenue nexus in the WAMZ, macroeco­nomic and convergence issues in the WAMZ.

According to him, all the member states of WAMZ achieved the convergence crite­rion gross external reserves, but missed the inflation criterion as of the end of last year.

“Overall, the Zone’s perfor­mance has declined in the review period, compared with the previ­ous period last year,” Dr. Olowof­eso stated.