News:
July 6, 2021
A former member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, who represented Ghana, Clement Kofi Humado is questioning if the sub-regional Community is abandoning ECO in favor of cryptocurrency as it is high on the agenda for discussion at a delocalised meeting in Burkina Faso.
He further questioned if cryptocurrency is up for discussion because it has found its way into the financial market in ECOWAS and “we want to see what the advantages and disadvantages are”.
According to him he had listen to a BBC and CNN programme on cryptocurrency and he is aware it is one of the main causes of money laundry globally; “people are able to launder money virtually from one country to the other.”
“Sometimes they bypass the central banks and run their own business, so if this issue has to be discussed at Burkina Faso, I think the issue of ECO should also come up and should be run alongside the cryptocurrency, and focus on the implication of the cryptocurrency on money laundering in West Africa”.
He cautioned that these days, because of terrorist activities of extremist jihadist, they can use the cryptocurrency to fund themselves by, bypassing the central bank and do whatever they want to do and this should also be focused on during the discussion in Burkina Faso.
In an interview on the five days delocalised meeting, he pointed out that he was surprised to hear that the ECOWAS Parliament is discussing the issue of cryptocurrency at its delocalised meeting, “not really that it is out of place, but I thought that our initial focus was on the ECO currency which should by now be in use by the 15 member countries in ECOWAS”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com