Implementation of African Monetary Fund fails in Yaoundé

More than a year after the adoption of the articles by the African leaders of the continent at a June 2014 summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the operationalization of the African Monetary Fund (AMF) project has been blocked at its designated headquarters in Yaoundé.

The offices were closed after the departure of the members of the Steering Committee for financial reasons.

Under the leadership of the African Union (AU) and with the support of the Cameroon authorities, the group had taken office in 2009. It is headed by Jean-Marie Gankou, Senior Statistician and ex-Cameroonian Minister for economy and finance, and is assisted by five experts from Ethiopia, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Nigeria and Tunisia.

With his team, the former member of the Government of Cameroon had been at work for the mandate entrusted by the AU and preparing for effective commissioning of the FMA, an old project dating from independence. This Committee has therefore played an important role in the drafting of the organic institution texts validated in Malabo at the end of a long and laborious process.

"The State [Cameroon] spent at least 600 million [francs CFA, $ 1.2 million] for infrastructures and to operate the Steering Committee", reported M. Gankou to Xinhua.

For approximately two years, salary support was provided for by the AU Commission, which had declared itself unable to renew the mandates of the experts due to "financial constraints", according to a letter by Jean Ping, then leader of the Pan-African organization to Cameroonian Prime Minister, Philemon Yang in October 2011.

In the same correspondence, the Cameroonian government was requested to take the relay of this commitment, but this time for a small team, limited to the Chairman of the Steering Committee and his assistant.

Before that, the head of the Cameroon government had suggested an inter-ministerial meeting, held on February 8, 2010, to Essimi Menye, the Minister of Finance at the time, to make "available for a period of one year, the resources needed to strengthen the implementation of the activities of the Committee", according to an official document.

The same instruction was issued to Alamine Ousmane Mey, the successor of Essimi Menye at the head of the Department of Finance since the presidential election in 2011. So far, it has not been followed up. As a Result, the AMF offices were officially closed in Yaoundé and Jean-Marie Gankou tried to make things work out from private his residence.

"It is a very difficult situation to witness a matter as important as this one which should bring a plus to African economy." It is truly regrettable that it does not move at all. The impression I have is that Africans have not taken the measure of the challenge, the importance and the scope of this project", pitied the former Minister.

It is a folder in gestation since independence, "as the founding heads of State of the OAU (Organization of African Unity, the predecessor of the AU) had thought to put it in place in 1963. Nkrumah, Ahidjo, Sékou Touré, Bourguiba, Nasser, Selassie, among others had understood that to consolidate the independence of Africa, there is need for an institution like that. "Almost 60 years later, it is not operational!" To become operational, the African Monetary Fund must take another step, that of ratification of its Statute by at least 15 of the 54 countries of the African Union. This still not engaged mechanism requires authorities of Cameroon, taking into account the status of head of the institution, to conduct a diplomatic lobbying operation, according to sources at the UA.

"Cameroon, as one of them, has an interest in doing this project. See what Ethiopia earns, in terms of jobs and entries of currencies, with the presence on floor of the headquarters of the African Union and other institutions such as the Economic Commission of the United Nations for Africa! The Ivorian power understood it, while manoeuvring for the return of the ADB in Abidjan".

Meanwhile, the Summit of June 2014 in Malabo had recommended setting up a "provisional structure of Fund". Nothing has nadvanced in the implementation of this resolution, which would appeal to a need for monthly funding of nearly 15,000 dollars to be provided by the Cameroon Government, according to a source close to the folder with anonymity.

With a capital of $ 22 billion, the AMF aims to contribute to the economic stability and management of financial crises in Africa, encouraging macroeconomic growth and commercial development through the promotion of intra-African trade, estimated currently at 12% of the total trade of the continent. A response to the Western dictators, this institution is supposed to allow the creation of an African common market scheduled for 2017 and provide the continent with a single currency for regional economic integration paralysed for the time being by the existence of a multitude of currencies (50) non-convertible with each other.

Its creation is associated with that of the Central African Bank (BCA) in Abuja in Nigeria and the African Bank for investment (BAI) in Tripoli, Libya, which are also characterized by a slow introduction, today attributed to some on the death of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was reputed to be very active for the three projects.