The West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) recently held a regional workshop on practical aspects of economic and financial analysis for journalists at its headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, from June 18 to 22, 2007.

In his keynote address, the Director-General of WAIFEM, Dr Osi C Itsede, said that the quest by countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) for a single zone, has recorded a significant progress with virtually all of them improving on the convergence criteria.
Dr Osi Itsede pointed out that a progress report indicated that two countries, The Gambia and Nigeria, have met all the four primary convergence criteria, while Sierra Leone, Ghana and Guinea met three, two, and one primary criterion, respectively.

He noted that while the WAMZ project is on course to be materialised in December 2009, Intra-WAMZ trade can be promoted, through the use of local currencies in sub-regional transactions. He mentioned that the informal sector in the region is already a step ahead, by practising the free convertibility of regional currencies in their cross border activities with appreciable success.  However, he commented that the bulk of intra-regional trade is still transacted on cash basis, stressing that the use of this medium of trade has little prospects of meeting a single economic space in the sub-region.

In this light, the Director-General listed the following benefits as accurable from formalising the use of WAMZ countries’ currencies in intra-regional transactions: Opportunity to trade in a bigger market, reduction in transaction costs, increased in economics of scale, which will translate into lower prices for goods produced in the zone, elimination of exchange rate risks among participating countries, low interest rates implying reducing in the cost of borrowing, and lower inflation, and higher value for money.

He concluded that the mass media represented at the workshop should take active part in sensitising the citizens of their various countries on the WAMZ project.
The main objective of the workshop was to update the knowledge and upgrade the skills of editors, journalists, news producers, anchor personnel and other media practitioners in economic and financial policy formulation, analysis, performance, monitoring and reporting.

It was specially expected to increase the “economic quotient” of attendees to enable them use their job functions to cultivate a more enlightened electorate that will engender greater popular participation in the national economic and financial agenda.

The covered included, the role of journalists in economic management, structure of financial market instruments, West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), monetary and fiscal policies, fiscal decentralisation; interpretation of financial and economic indicators, basic statistical tools for economic and financial analysis, and budget speech analysis and reporting in a group work.

The workshop was attended by twenty-nine middle, senior, executive level officials involved in editing, reporting and producing macroeconomic and financial news from the public and private sectors of The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
The workshop was facilitated by a team of experienced practitioners drawn from the sub-region and WAIFEM faculty.