By Abdourahmane Diallo
The countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) are finding it increasingly difficult to raise funds on the regional market.
In its crusade against inflation, the Central Bank of West African States (Bceao), like its peers at the global level, has repeatedly raised its key rate. This is currently at 3%. This policy has led to a scarcity of liquidity on the regional market at a time when the States need it most to support their economies heavily affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Due to the same measures taken internationally, the eurobond market is temporarily closed. ” It would be suicidal for a State to venture there because it risks coming out with double-digit rates. Yields of 10% or 11% are huge in a context where countries have a debt problem “, underlined Professor Babacar Sène.
Faced with this situation, the Director of Studies and Statistics at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar invited the leaders of UEMOA to move towards syndicated loans at the international level. ” Instead of soliciting the international market, we will solicit international banks and negotiate on the table to have fairly acceptable rates in order to be able to raise funds. This is one of the solutions to this specific problem related to market liquidity “, he urged.
Sène spoke on Thursday in Dakar on the occasion of the workshop for the restitution of the work to develop the risk map and the establishment of a risk management system for the regional financial market of the Monetary Union. West African (UMOA).
This research is part of the implementation of projects aimed at making this financial center a safe, dynamic and secure space.
« The challenge of setting up a mapping is, on the one hand, to distinguish the problem linked to the development of the market and the risks borne by investors, and on the other hand, to achieve one of the important objectives regulation of financial markets, namely the reduction of systemic risks », explained the Secretary General of the Financial Markets Authority of the West African Monetary Union (AMF-UMOA), Ripert Boussoukpé.
According to Mr. Boussoukpé, the implementation of this tool should not only enable the AMF-WAMU to develop its regulatory and supervisory approach by basing it on risks, and the players to improve their process risk management to guide and develop their activities.
The same applies to the Financial Stability Committee, a body set up by WAMU financial sector supervisors. Its objective is to limit systemic risk by dealing with the main externalities of the financial system, in particular the collective failures of institutions due to their interrelationships and their common exposures, indicated Ripert Boussoukpé, specifying that this mapping will be a tool for defining the macro-prudential supervision policy of the said committee.
ARD/APA