BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The African Development Bank has approved a $750,000 grant to drive reforms that will deepen the West African Monetary Union regional financial market and make it more competitive and attractive to investors.
The grant will be sourced from the Capital Markets Development Trust Fund, a multi-donor fund administered by the African Development Bank and financed by the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Trade and Cooperation.
Under the second phase of the African Development Bank’s Regional Financial Market Development Support Project, the grant funding will cover the development of a monetary and financial code for the WAMU region.
It will also promote the deepening of mortgage and securitization markets through capacity building and the overhaul of relevant legal and regulatory frameworks.
The project is expected to define an operational framework for setting benchmark rates in close alignment with international best practices as set out by the International Organization of Securities Commissions.
“We welcome this continued partnership with the Conseil régional de l’épargne publique et des marchés financiers (CREPMF). It aims to improve financing conditions, support the economic and social development of West African Monetary Union member countries, and increase the role of the regional financial market in financing the region’s economies,” said Ahmed Attout, head of the Capital Markets Development Division at the African Development Bank.
The Conseil régional de l’épargne publique et des marchés financiers, the regulatory authority of the regional financial market of the West African Monetary Union, is implementing the project. Its Secretary General, Ripert Bossoukpé, said, “this new commitment of the African Development Bank is in line with the dynamics of the structural transformation of the regional financial market to respond to the strong aspirations of the West African Monetary Union authorities and the private sector.”
The West African Monetary Union consists of eight countries of the West African franc zone: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
