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UEMOA

UEMOA (fr. – Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine) (Engl. WAEMU – the West African Economic and Monetary Union) is an organization of 8 West African states. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc (XOF) as a common currency.
UEMOA members are: 7 French-speaking countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and 1 Portuguese-speaking – Guinea-Bissau.

CEMAC (fr. – Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale) (in Engl. EMCCA – the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa) is an organization of 6 states of Central Africa. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc (XAF) as a common currency.
CEMAC members are: 5 French-speaking countries – Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Gabon, and 1 Spanish-speaking – Equatorial Guinea.
UDEAC – predecessor of CEMAC – signed a treaty for the establishment of CEMAC to promote the entire process of sub-regional integration through the forming of monetary union with the Central Africa CFA franc as a common currency; it was officially superseded by CEMAC in June 1999 (through agreement from 1994).
In 1994, it succeeded in introducing quota restrictions and reductions in the range and amount of tariffs. Currently, CEMAC countries share a common financial, regulatory, and legal structure, and maintain a common external tariff on imports from non-CEMAC countries. In theory, tariffs have been eliminated on trade within CEMAC, but full implementation of this has been delayed. Movement of capital within CEMAC is free.

UEMOA and CEMAC together form the zone franc CFA.
Monetary policy UEMOA and CEMAC controlled by their central banks, - respectively -
- Central Bank of West African States (fr. - La Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest - BCEAO - http://www.bceao.int/), headquarter - in Dakar (Senegal);
- The Bank of Central African States (fr. - Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale - BEAC - https://www.beac.int/), headquarter – In Yaoundé (Cameroon).
UEMOA and CEMAC are integration organizations. In their framework implemented:
- Currency union with a single currency - the franc CFA. Franc CFA UEMOA (franc CFA XOF) and CEMAC (franc CFA XAF) has the same parity with the euro with a fixed exchange rate 1 EUR = 655.957 francs CFA;
- Regional banks;
- Regional stock exchanges;
- Customs union with a common external tariff;
- Harmonization of fiscal policy;
- Harmonisation of business law.

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UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997 Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organization’s eighth (and only non-Francophone) member state.

Institutional Background
An economic and monetary union (formally created in January 1994, but based on the pre-existing West Africa Monetary Union of the CFA franc zone) with eight members, a currency guaranteed at fixed parity to the Euro (655,957 to 1) through an operations (overdraft) account arrangement, the French Treasury coupled with stringent zone-wide fiscal and monetary rules.

Patterned after European Union, with a Commission located in Ouagadougou financed by a share of a one percent levy on all imports into UEMOA. The Commission is spearheading efforts to establish a customs union, harmonize investment incentives, public financial management procedures, and taxation, and monitor key macroeconomic convergence criteria -- including fiscal deficits, inflation, public sector wages, and government arrears.

UEMOA institutions:
- common central bank - Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest - BCEAO (see BCEAO brief) – http://www.bceao.int/,
- BOAD (Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement) is considered as an independent, specialized institution under the UEMOA treaty (see BOAD brief),
- Regional Banking Commission,
- Regional Stock Exchange since 1998,
- a partially functioning Securities Exchange Commission.
Institutions also include a Court of Justice, a General Accounting Office, regional Chamber of Commerce, and, eventually, a Parliament, none of which is fully functioning.
The Commission consists of a President (always from Senegal) and 8 commissioners (one from each country), three dealing with macro policy (public finance, trade, macroeconomics) and five others dealing with sectoral policies.

INTEGRATION IN THE FRAME OF WAEMU (UEMOA):

- common currency – Franc CFA, which has a fixed exchange rate against the euro: 1 euro = 655.957 francs CFA;

- regional bank – Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest – BCEAO – http://www.bceao.int/, headquarter is in Dakar (Senegal). The Bank was founded on April 4, 1959, began operations in 1962;

- Regional Stock Exchange – The Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières SA ("Regional Securities Exchange SA") or BRVM. This is joint-stock company. Together with the Regional Council on cash deposits of the population and Financial Markets (fr. – le Conseil régional de l’épargne publique et des marchés financiers – CREPMF) BRVM forms regional financial market in West Africa.
When BRVM was launched in September 1998 its market capitalization was approximately 890 billion Francs CFA (1,3 Bln. Euros), and at the end of 2012 - about 4,000 billion. Francs CFA (6,1 Bln. Euros) http://bfin.brvm.org/ ;

- Common Accounting System – West African Accounting System (SYSCOA) (fr. - Système Comptable Ouest Africain - SYSCOA) – was launched on January 1, 1998. In 2003 the regional bank UEMOA – BCEAO created an interstate regional structure "Interbank Monetary Association " (fr. “Groupement Interbancaire Monétique de l’Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine” – GIM-UEMOA). GIM-UEMOA incorporates 100 banks, financial and mail institutions of WAEMU (UEMOA). Since 2006, with the aim of deepening the integration of the financial space, UEMOA Central Bank launched the system of money calculations in real time;

- Harmonization of fiscal policy - In July 1998, the Council of Ministers adopted a program of UEMOA on harmonization within the association of indirect taxation, in which were adopted Directives on the harmonization of value added tax, excise tax, taxation of petroleum products, the tax regime for bank deposits. In addition, in UEMOA were adopted tax convention on avoidance of double taxation between Member States, the directive on income tax. The directive on tax legislation was adopted In June 2009, which formulates guidelines for the implementation of fiscal policy;

- Customs union with a COMMON EXTERNAL TARIFF (CET) – UEMOA customs code was adopted in 2001. In the structure of the CET UEMOA the main part constitute several articles:
- Statistical duty (fr. - La redevance statistique - RS) - 1%;
- Union Solidarity duty (fr. - Le Prélèvement Communautaire de Solidarité - PCS) - 1%;
- Customs dues (fr. - Le droit de douane - DD). Rates of the last depends on the degree of social need for the product and the degree of the processing (more degree of processing, than higher import duty): respectively 0% (for example, for medicines), 5%, 10%, and the maximum - 20%.
Thus, the rate of the constant part UEMOA CET ranges from 2 to 22%.
Also, the structure of the UEMOA CET comprises two temporary degressive fee (declining proportionally to the income):
- Degressive protection tax (fr. - La Taxe Dégressive de Protection - TDP) with a maximum rate - 5%, and
- Conjuncture import tax (fr. - La Taxe Conjoncturelle à l'Importation - TCI) with a rate - 10%. http://www.uemoa.int/Pages/UEMOA/L_UEMOA/Historique.aspx , [Customs Duties And Taxes In The West African Economic And Monetary Union (WAEMU). - The International Customs Journal. – No. 103. – WAEMU. – August 2003].