Press Release No. 15/188

Press Release: West AFRITAC Steering Committee Hails Increased Assistance to Member Countries

May 4, 2015

Members of the West AFRITAC Steering Committee met in Abidjan on April 30, 2015 to review the activities of the fiscal year ending in April 2015 and approve the work program for the coming year. The meeting was attended by representatives of member countries, regional institutions (BCEAO, WAEMU Commission, AFRISTAT, and UNDP-Pôle de Dakar), donors (the African Development Bank, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany), and IMF staff.

The Steering Committee expressed appreciation for the increased volume of technical assistance provided by the Center, noting the important support to regional economic integration. The Committee also welcomed the progress made by member countries in the area of public finance reforms.

At the conclusion of the Steering Committee meeting, Thomas Azandossessi, Permanent Secretary of the ministry of economy, finance and denationalization programs of Benin and Jean Le Dem, Director of West AFRITAC, made the following joint statement:

“The Steering Committee is pleased with the progress made so far and endorsed the work program for the upcoming fiscal year, which it considers to be in line with the strategic orientation of the center. The program aims at finalizing the implementation of customs risk management systems in Benin and Burkina Faso; expanding the tax base of medium-size enterprises centers in Côte d’Ivoire; structuring the investment budgets of a pilot group of ministries in Burkina Faso; finalizing the government of Mali’s directory of accounting standards; producing a table of government financial operations compliant with the 2001 IMF Government Finance Statistics Manual in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal; disseminating national accounts in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire; producing a debt sustainability analysis in Guinea; adopting regulatory texts that will enable the transposition of Basel II and Basel III banking standards in the WAMU; and making operational macroeconomic forecasting models in Benin, Mali and Burkina Faso.

“The Steering Committee also welcomed the expected increase in training and peer-learning program, including regional workshops or seminars, an IMF Institute course on regional integration, as well as increased South-South cooperation, where member countries will benefit from study trips organized to more advanced countries in the region. Lastly, the Steering Committee commended the implementation of recommendations from the 2013 external evaluation and agreed that its next meeting will be chaired by Burkina Faso and held in April 2016 in Ouagadougou.”

Background

The Center is a member of the AFRITAC Initiative, bringing together five regional technical assistance centers in sub-Saharan Africa. This initiative came into being in 2002, following the request made by African policy makers meeting within the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to the IMF to help strengthen the institutional and human capacities of their states for the design and implementation of economic policies apt to accelerate economic growth and stem poverty. Launched in 2003, West AFRITAC has been based in Abidjan since 2012. It intervenes in areas of competence of the IMF, namely, customs and tax administrations, expenditure management, macroeconomic and financial statistics, public debt management, banking supervision and control, and macroeconomic analysis and forecasting. The activities of West AFRITAC are carried out essentially in the form of technical assistance missions, national workshops, regional seminars for the benefit of member countries and regional organizations, as well as monitoring of the peer-learning programs.

Useful links:

AFRITAC de l’Ouest

Assistance technique du FMI

Centres régionaux d'assistance technique du FMI