The president of the Africa Business Roundtable, Nigeria’s Bamanga Tukur, on Friday urged countries in West Africa to take every step to ensure the region adopts a common currency, the eco, by next July.
Speaking in Abuja, he said the first step will be to surmount challenges that have stood against their bid for a united and stronger region.
He said if African countries should dismantle the boundaries between them, a lot of achievements will be recorded in a short time.
”Our boundaries are artificial creations of colonial conquests resulting from the Berlin Conference and we must not allow them to block our path to progress and prosperity for our people,” he said.
Tukur, who is also the chairperson of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development trade committee, said the eco should be in circulation by next July as scheduled.
He noted that modern trends favour stronger international ties and argued that it is this resolve that has resulted in successful cooperation in Europe, leading to the adoption of the euro by European countries.
Tukur also urged members of the Africa Business Roundtable to work toward a United States of Africa, saying the monetary committee of the round table that he was addressing could form the nucleus for that dream.
He described Africa as a continent that has no business being poor with its natural resources.
”We have abundant wealth underground. We have gold, oil and other solid minerals. Above the soil, we have fertile land for the cultivation of grains, vegetables, rice, sugar cane and many other crops. All we need to do is to exploit these potentials,” he said.
Efforts made in the past by countries in the region to adopt a common currency have been frustrated by the fact that the former French colonies in West Africa have a common currency in the form of the French franc. — Sapa-DP