Finance Ministers from CWA countries to meet in Accra
Finance Ministers from Seven African countries participating in the G-20 Compact with Africa (CWA) initiative will meet in Accra on Wednesday September 6, to address the critical role that it can play in economic transformation of those countries.
The CWA is a G-20 partnership programme to support the African Union Agenda 2063 and the meeting, to be held at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel, will be the first one for the group.
A statement issued by the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) said the programme engages African countries in building a reliable financial and macroeconomic framework, in order to expand investment opportunities, create employment and push for more sustainable infrastructure on the continent.
The meeting is also expected to consider how to overcome some challenges in the CWA’s implementation including optimizing strategies to improve the business environment, boosting domestic resource mobilization, increasing public investments in transformative infrastructure, and accessing de-risking instruments.
“Ghana’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) is organising this event as the first peer-to-peer convening, with technical support from the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET),” the statement said.
The seven Compact countries—Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Ethiopia, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia—will participate in the meeting. Other observer countries expected to attend are Burkina Faso, Benin, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia and Togo.
Representatives of the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the IMF will share perspectives on the three Compact frameworks—macroeconomic, business and financial—and the roles they will play to support countries in implementation.
According to ACET, the meeting is also intended to provide an opportunity for the Finance Ministers to initiate a peer learning framework for countries to learn from each other as they address common challenges and leverage the Compact for their growth agendas.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance stated: “We are determined to put Ghana beyond aid, and this compact squarely fits into our broader agenda of increasing private sector investment to drive economic development on our continent,” adding “I look forward to welcoming my colleague Finance Ministers to this meeting, which presents us with the opportunity to make clear decisions on how to sustain a peer learning platform to deepen and sustain the CWA initiative”.
The CWA was launched following the June 12-13 G-20 Africa Partnership Conference in Berlin and the G20 Summit of 7-8 July in Hamburg.
Initially seven countries agreed to participate in the CWA and additional countries are likely to join.
Source: GNA