DAKAR - The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) said Monday its growth this year would be 5.7 percent, slightly below that of 2021, as its eight members grappled with global crises and local security demands.
WAEMU comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, gathered under a 1994 treaty to build an integrated economic space in West Africa. In 2021, growth across the region was 6.1 percent.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, speaking after a summit in the country's economic capital Abidjan, said WAEMU members had not been spared from "the deep crises which are affecting the entire world.".
Three WAEMU countries -- Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger -- are wrestling with a bloody jihadist insurgency that threatens also to spread southwards, towards Benin, Ivory Coast and Togo. Part of spending that should have gone on health and education is now having to be diverted to "defence and security", Ouattara said.
