Franc Zone Ministers to meet in Yaoundé

The Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé, will on 8-9 April, host the biannual meeting of the Finance Ministers of the franc currency zone, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey.

Apart from ministers, this meeting will also be attended by central banks’ governors, the leaders of institutions of the eight member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA), the 6 member countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), the Comoro Union and France.

The topics on the agenda of the meeting will focus on the state of the actual nominal convergence with the franc zone, the adaptation of public policies to face the fall in prices of extractive materials and the improvement and mobilization of tax revenue.

The main stakeholders expected at the meeting include the French Minister of Finance and Public Accounts, Michel Sapin, the President of the CEMAC Commission, Pierre Moussa, his UEMOA counterpart, Adjibou Soumare and the Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission for CEMAC, Mario Zamaroczy.

It could be recalled that the franc zone is governed by four fundamental principles: unlimited convertibility guarantee by the French Treasury, fixed parities, the free transferability and centralization of foreign exchange reserves.

It groups Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo and the Central Afican Republic (CAR).