Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja on Monday met with the visiting governor of the Bank of Central and Western African States (BCEAO), Philippe Henri Dacourey-Tabley, to discuss measures to bring the bloc out of the global economic crisis.
At the end of the meeting which was also attended by Finance and Economy Minister Mahamane Lamine Zene, the BCEAO governor said he had
discussed with Niger's president "on the activities of BCEAO" to overcome the effects of the global economic downturn.
"I came to inform the president of the Republic the evolution of the bank's activities during the period of economic crisis," he said.
The BCEAO chief also informed the president that the "central bank was at the center of some measures being taken to overcome economic crisis and reduce its impact on the economies of member states."
"We have a financial plan of restoring the members' exchange value with the grants from the Monetary Fund which is about 450 billion FCFA (900 million U. S. dollars)," he said.
Dacourey-Tabley also pointed out that his institution had pre-financed the flotation of the public debts of member states on the financial market with about 453 billion FCFA (906 million dollars) in order to pay the internal debt arrears for the member states.
According to the BCEAO governor, "the head of state expressed his intention to see Niger re-appropriate her development, internalize it and become the master of her own economy."
"I think that this is a great initiative which, after 50 years, shows that African states have become conscious of real development which should be driven by themselves," he said.
The eight-member grouping includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea- Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.