Ghana’s Wampah elected Chair of WAMZ central bank governors bloc

Dr Kofi Wampah, Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has been elected Chairman of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) Committee of central bank governors.

WAMZ is made up of six West African nations, namely; Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Guinea.

Dr Wampah’s election followed after he was nominated by Sierra Leone at the Committee’s meeting in Accra today July 25, 2013.

Dr Wampah, who went unopposed takes over the Chairmanship from Nigerian Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Dr Wampah will steer the affairs of the Committee for the next six months.

This is Dr Wampah’s first time of attending the meeting since he was appointed substantive Governor of the BoG.

Dr. Wampah was once the Director of the Research and Statistics Department of the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), responsible for the overall supervision and coordination of the work programme of the Department.

He supervised the planning and implementation of the Macroeconomic Convergence monitoring programme of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), and was extensively involved in preparing the Zone for a monetary union, in the areas of macroeconomic convergence and policy harmonization (monetary policy, statistics, fiscal policy and exchange rate management).

Dr Wampah obtained a B.A. (Hons) Economics and Statistics degree in 1977 from the University of Ghana, Legon. He studied for a Masters’ degree (1983) and a Ph.D (1986) in Economics with specializations in econometrics and public finance from McGill University.

He had his secondary education at Hohoe E. P. Secondary School (GCE ‘O’ Level) and Konongo-Odumase Secondary School (GCE ‘A’ Level).

By Ekow Quandzie