Africa has suffered from decades of economical decline and marginalization since post independence time, the early hopes of rapid development and progress after independence were not only crushed by kleptocratic leadership struggles but also were shuttered by poor economic policies, and civil wars. Thus most of the countries on the continent have overtime been pushed to the corners and have become beggars on the world scene despite the massive resource capacity of the continent, however with increased mindset change initiatives and pan Africanism calls on the continent, there has been an ideology that Africa needs to take care of its own destiny and has to organize its house internally.
There have been loudest cries from most of the leaders in Africa advocating for adoption of a single currency on the continent. The major argument for this advocacy is to ease trade with efficient and unified payments in Africa. With many continental and regional development projects happening in Africa, Africa needs to have one common currency to have structured and streamlined financial transaction, for this to happen, Africa needs to empower the African Central Bank to be the sole issuer of the African single currency.
The African central bank is one of the original financial institutions of the African Union, others include; African Investment Bank, African Monetary Fund and the Pan-African Stock Exchange. The main role of these institutions is to implement the economic integration through a controlled monetary union.
However monetary union cannot guarantee fundamental development targets though it addresses very few Africa’s fundamental ills. At its best it can minimize inflation thus increasing productivity and increased purchasing power allowing business in Africa to grow without raising prices on the continent.
Africans have to be aware monetary union doesn’t guarantee automatic growth and development, at its worst; it distracts attention from essential goals and targets. A more promising initiative is the New Partnership For African Development (NEPAD) a platform through which African countries hope to exert pressure to correct governance failures and thus make progress in the struggle to make Africa great.
Why the need for one common currency on the continent
There are two principal reasons for the enthusiasm for one common currency in Africa. First it is clear that the successful adoption of common currencies in other parts of the world has stimulated development in such places, from Latin America to the Middle East, to Asia to Europe monetary union is seen as a way of reinforcing regional cohesion and demonstrating a commitment to regional solidarity, however its sometimes forgotten how long the road to monetary union in Europe actually was, the transition was met with much obstacles and missteps and African planning bodies have to be aware of such.
The second important motivation for single currency in Africa has been the desire to counteract perceived economic and political weakness by putting in place structured regional institutions, of which a single common currency and monetary union would be potent symbols. Many regional bodies such as COMESA, ECOWAS, and SADC hope to be empowered with single currency to control trade barriers in member countries
Kamukama Rukundo Clinton is pan Africanist baed in Kampala Uganda.
