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Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States on Saturday converged in Nigeria’s capital Abuja for the 55th Summit of the Heads of State and Government.

Current chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government is Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari.

He is hosting this meeting due to his position as chairman of ECOWAS.

Issues relating to insecurity, good governance, trade policies and political stability in the sub-region are up for discussion.

The issue of a single currency is also on the agenda.

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Last year the regional bloc said it was not sure about it’s 2020 deadline for the introduction of a common single currency.

The three primary criteria that are being used are a budget deficit of not more than 3 percent; average annual inflation of less than 10 percent with a long-term goal of not more than 5 percent by 2019.

The three secondary convergence criteria that have been adopted by ECOWAS are public debt or Gross Domestic Product of not more than 70 percent.

Then the issue of central bank financing of budget deficit not more than 10 percent of previous year’s tax revenue, and nominal exchange rate variation of plus or minus 10 percent.

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The latest doubt about the deadline for introducing the ECO is coming on the back of several shifts in the deadline.

Source: Africafeeds.com