ECOWAS launches travellers cheques

Travellers cheques for the 16-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), denominated in West African Units of Account (WAUA), officially went on sale on last week, Reuters reported. The cheques will be in denominations ranging from five to 100 WAUA. WAMA Director of Research and Operations, George Osaka, told Reuters in Freetown that his bureau would fix the exchange rate between national currencies once every two weeks. Banks, Reuters reported, would be allowed a maximum one-percent spread around the exchange rate when buying and selling the cheques. However, they will not be allowed to charge commissions. The cheque's launch had been delayed for technical reasons in Cote d'Ivoire, and perhaps in several other countries within the franc zone, an official of the Ivorian branch of their common central bank, the Banque Centrale des Etats d'Afrique de l'Ouest(BCEAO), told IRIN on Monday. "In Cote d'Ivoire, the UEMOA has not yet received specimens of the cheques," Samuel Meango, the chief of technical studies for the Ivoirian branch of BCEAO, said. However, he said advertisements had been placed in Ivorian newspapers informing the public of the cheques' impending circulation. The cheque, valid only within West Africa, would enable people to travel within the community without having to seek hard currencies such as US dollars and French francs. People encountering problems transacting business in the cheques, Meango said, could as a first measure complain to the central bank of the country they are visiting. The cheques were officially launched on 30 October, 1998, by ECOWAS heads of state meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. ECOWAS countries are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. All but Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria and Sierra Leone are in the CFA monetary zone.