Monrovia, August 5, 2025: In a daring step towards deeper regional cooperation, the Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS) has formally commenced its 2025 Mid-12 months Joint Statutory Conferences, bringing collectively key monetary establishments and coverage stakeholders throughout the area.
The digital conferences, which run from August 4 to 18, 2025, are anticipated to offer strategic course on regional financial integration, macroeconomic coordination, and preparations for the launch of the ECO, the area’s proposed single forex by 2027.
Convened underneath the auspices of the ECOWAS Fee, the conferences unite three of the area’s foremost financial establishments, the West African Financial Company (WAMA), the West African Financial Institute (WAMI), and the West African Institute for Monetary and Financial Administration (WAIFEM) in a coordinated effort to advance West Africa’s financial governance framework.
The classes are attended by governors of central banks, ministers of finance, macroeconomic coverage specialists, and representatives of growth companions, reflecting the high-level significance of the statutory conferences. Discussions are structured throughout a collection of specialised technical and strategic classes, every aimed toward reviewing progress, addressing regional challenges, and aligning coverage selections with ECOWAS’s long-term integration goals.
The 2025 conferences deal with vital elements of West Africa’s regional financial structure, together with, the 2024 ECOWAS Macroeconomic Convergence Report , the implementation standing of the ECOWAS Roadmap, particularly concerning coverage harmonization, fiscal self-discipline, and financial surveillance, tendencies in alternate charges, inflation, and monetary market dynamics, Efficiency of the ECOWAS Solidarity and Stabilization Fund, designed to help macroeconomic stability throughout member states
Developments in regional digital cost techniques and monetary sector reforms.
Preparatory steps towards the adoption of the ECO single forex, together with financial convergence standards and authorized frameworks.
The conferences come at a time of heightened international financial uncertainty, rising inflationary pressures, and unstable alternate charges, which have had direct impacts on the West African Financial Zone (WAMZ) and different ECOWAS member states. These exterior pressures, mixed with inner structural challenges, have prompted renewed urgency for stronger regional coordination.
In response to specialists, inflation and forex depreciation proceed to undermine intra-regional commerce, funding flows, and buying energy in lots of ECOWAS nations, threatening the area’s broader financial convergence agenda.
Liberia is an lively participant within the 2025 Mid-12 months Conferences, represented by each the Ministry of Finance and Growth Planning (MFDP) and the Central Financial institution of Liberia (CBL).
“These statutory conferences reaffirm our collective dedication to regional integration and financial transformation,” mentioned Henry F. Saamoi, Govt Governor of the Central Financial institution of Liberia. “They supply a platform for evidence-based dialogue and coordinated motion to deal with shared challenges and speed up the belief of the ECO.”
The outcomes of the 2025 conferences are anticipated to affect key financial and financial coverage selections throughout the area in the course of the second half of the 12 months, whereas laying the groundwork for stronger long-term methods in help of the 2027 launch of the ECO.
The ECO is envisioned as a single regional forex that can facilitate commerce, cut back alternate fee volatility, and promote financial stability and financial progress throughout ECOWAS’s 15 member nations. Its profitable implementation would mark a milestone achievement in Africa’s regional integration historical past.
As ECOWAS navigates the trail towards financial union, the 2025 Mid-12 months Joint Statutory Conferences are extra than simply bureaucratic workout routines; they’re a strategic platform for realigning priorities, mobilizing political will, and reaffirming the area’s shared future.
With a watch on 2027, West Africa is taking deliberate, coordinated steps towards a unified, resilient, and affluent financial bloc, one able to withstanding exterior shocks whereas delivering tangible advantages to its folks. -Edited by Othello B. Garblah.
