Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ABIDJAN1864
2005-11-09 14:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abidjan
Cable title:  

COTE D'IVOIRE INTENDS TO KEEP WEST AFRICAN CENTRAL

Tags:  ECON EFIN PGOV IV 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 001864 

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2015
TAGS: ECON EFIN PGOV IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE INTENDS TO KEEP WEST AFRICAN CENTRAL
BANK GOVERNORSHIP

Classified By: POL/ECON Jim Wojtasiewicz, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 001864

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2015
TAGS: ECON EFIN PGOV IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE INTENDS TO KEEP WEST AFRICAN CENTRAL
BANK GOVERNORSHIP

Classified By: POL/ECON Jim Wojtasiewicz, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (U) The term of Charles Konan Banny, the current governor
of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO),will
expire in December 2005. The BCEAO is the common central bank
for the eight West African Economic Monetary Union (WAEMU)
countries. The BCEAO governor is appointed by the Council of
Ministers (comprised of the finance ministers from the WAEMU
countries) for a renewable six-year period. Since 1975, an
Ivoirian national has held the governorship.


2. (U) Cote d'Ivoire has no formal entitlement to the
governorship. Indeed, the relevant language in the BCEAO
statute says that the governor "must be chosen in a manner to
call successively to this function a national of each member
state of the union." However, Cote d'Ivoire owns 30 percent
of BCEAO's reserves, and accounts for some 40 percent of the
region's GDP.


3. (U) This time, there appear to be some WAEMU countries
that would like the next governor of the bank to be
non-Ivoirian. The names that have been publicly floated to
succeed Banny include the Ivoirian finance minister and the
Ivoirian representative to the African Development Bank, but
also the IMF Africa Director, who is from Benin, and the
currnt BCEAO vice governor, who is from Niger. As yet, there
is no official proposal to rotate the governorship away from
Cote d'Ivoire, only informal communication between heads of
states.


4. (U) However, President Gbagbo made clear that Cote
d'Ivoire will not give up the BCEAO governorship, when he
said at an October 18 commemoration ceremony for former
Ivoirian President Houphouet-Boigny, "There are heads of
state who wrote me to propose candidates for the post of
BCEAO governor; we will not back-off one millimeter as the
governor has always been and will be an Ivoirian national."


4. (C) Comment. Even though the non-Ivoirians whose names
are being floated are from Benin and Niger, there is
speculation here that Senegalese President Wade might be
behind this move. Cote d'Ivoire's long political crisis and
relentless economic decline have already led to the transfer
of many international business operations and personnel to
Senegal, and Wade might see prying loose the BCEAO
governorship as a logical next step in the decline of this
country's economic leadership role in the region. End
Comment.
HOOKS