Fifteen Years of WAEMU: Results and Strategies for the Future

Women Leaders and Social Performance: Evidence from Financial Cooperatives in Senegal

“…7 In the late 1980's and early 1990's, the region experienced a major economic and banking crisis (Seck, 2013). In response, the banking sector was restructured and liberalized, including the closure of public development banks, which had been a failure (BCEAO, 2013 cooperatives, not only because of environmental characteristics, such as the prominence of low-density rural areas, but also because of the influence of DID.…”

“…It was created in 1994 to replace the West African Economic and Monetary Union, intensify the intra-zone trade, and reinforce the supervision of public deficits (Seck, 2013). WAEMU has a single currency, the CFA franc (CFAF), which has a fixed parity with the euro (EUR 1 = CFAF 655.957).…”

Fiscal Policy and Monetary Integration in the Ecowas

“…In terms of the month of import criteria, the WAEMU has done impressively well by continually surpassing the ‘ external reserve > 3 months of import’ benchmark but this is not too surprising given that as a member of the CFA zone, the risk of a balance of payments crisis is eliminated de facto, as long as the guarantee by the French Treasury of unlimited convertibility of the (African Financial Community) CFA Franc is ensured. According to Seck (2013) and as recently alluded in Alby (2018), this is a big advantage for these countries that are basically exporters of primary commodities. Considering the case of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, for instance, that have a similar economic structure as exporters of primary commodity (cocoa), this scenario is succinctly demonstrated in the spectacular deterioration of Ghana’s macro-financial situation during a period when Cote d’Ivoire remained resilient even in her post-electoral crisis in late 2010 and early 2011.…”

“…Thus, recognizing that the convergence criteria are critical for the adoption of a common currency, recent effort appears to have extended well beyond their merit (see e.g Debrun et al, 2005; Gali et al, 2003; Saka et al, 2015; Seck, 2013). What now appears to be the major subject of discourse is; how best should macroeconomic convergence criteria be structured, and how best should compliance be enforced to enable participating countries to comply better?…”