First Congress of African economists held in Kenya

26 Feb 2009

NAIROBI: The first Congress of African Economists will be held at the Kenya International Conference Centre in Nairobi Kenya from 2 - 5 March 2009. The theme is “Towards the Creation of a Single African Currency: Review of the creation of a single African currency: Which optimal approach to be adopted to accelerate the creation of the unique continental currency”.

Recommendations will be submitted to the Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance (CAMEF) for consideration and adoption, before they are submitted to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government for consideration and adoption for implementation.

Issues to be addressed during the congress include:

Why does Africa need to be integrated; political or economic integration, which comes first: what lessons can be learnt from the European Union: removing socio-economic bottlenecks to achieving the African single currency; creating monetary unions, cases of ECOWAS, COMESA, SADC and ECCAS: what lessons can be learnt from the RECS: the determinants and consequences of the choice of an exchange rate system in the context of African economies: lessons to be learnt from harmonisation of sectoral policies: lessons to be learnt from the CFA zone: and the AU Commission's vision on monitoring the monetary integration process.

The congress aims to focus on efforts of the African Union in building an African Economic Community.

In order to build the AEC, the AU has set initiatives in motion among which are the rationalisation of the Regional Economic Communities, which are the pillars of integration, and the acceleration of the establishment of financial institutions provided for in the Constitutive Act of the AU. The Department of Economic Affairs of the AU Commission, in collaboration with the RECS, is organising the Congress of African Experts, in order to consider, analyse and propose an appropriate and holistic solution to the economic challenges impeding the development of the RECS.

Attending the Congress will be researchers, member states of the AU, RECS, the AU Commission, and development partners i.e. EU, UNDP, AfDB, ECA, ACBF, and BADEA among others. Wycliffe Ambesta Oparanya, Kenyan Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 will open the congress, while the AU commissioner for Economic Affairs Dr Maxwell Mkwezalamba will present the AUC's statement at the opening ceremony.