Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
On June 27, 2014, at the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union held in Malobo, Equatorial Guinea, member states of the Africa Union adopted the Protocol on the Establishment of the African Monetary Fund (Fund).
Plan for the Fund is not new but dates back to the 1963 Charter of the Organization of African Unity (the predecessor to the Africa Union) as well as to the 1991 Abuja Treaty—the agreement that established the African Economic Community and put in place a framework for continental integration. The Constitutive Act of the African Union (Constitutive Act) adopted in 2000 also envisaged the establishment of the Fund. Annexed to the Protocol is the Statute of the African Monetary Fund (Statute). As envisioned in the Abuja Treaty, the Fund, together with continental institutions such as the Africa Investment Bank and the African Central Bank that are still in the pipeline, are critical to efforts to create a continental economic and monetary union in Africa.
1 The 23rd Ordinary Session of the African Union ends in Malabo, Africa Union (June 30, 2014), http://summits.au.int/en/23rdsummit/events/23rd-ordinary-session-africanunion-ends-malabo Google Scholar.
2 Charter of the Organization of African Unity, May 25, 1963, 479 U.N.T.S. 39 (entered into force Sept. 13, 1963).
3 Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community, June 3, 1991, 30 I.L.M. 1241, [hereinafter Abuja Treaty].
4 See generally, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Assessing Regional Integration in Africa V: Towards an African Continental Free Trade Area (2012)Google Scholar.
5 Constitutive Act of the African Union, adopted July 11, 2000, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/23.15 (entered into force May 26, 2001).
6 World Economic Forum & World Bank, The Africa Competitiveness Report 2013, at xi (2013)Google Scholar.
7 Id. at 3–4 (defining competitiveness as “the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country”).
8 Abuja Treaty, supra note 3, art. 6.
9 The following eight regional economic communities are recognized by the African Union: Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and Arab Maghreb Union (UMA).
10 Abuja Treaty, supra note 3, art. 6(2)(f)(iv).
11 Constitutive Act of the African Union, supra note 5, arts. 5(1)(i), 19(b).
12 African Union [AU], Decision on the Location of the Headquarters of AU Institutions in various AU Regions, AU doc. Assembly/AU/Dec.64 (IV) (Jan. 31, 2005).
13 Protocol on the Establishment of the African Monetary Fund, article 2(1), (2), adopted June 27, 2014, http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/PROTOCOL%20ON%20THE%20ESTABLISHMENT%20OF%20THE%20AFRICAN%20MONETARY%20FUND%20-%20EN_0.pdf.
14 Id. art. 2(3).
15 Id. art. 3(1).
16 Id. art. 4.
17 Id. art. 10(1).
18 Id. art. 10(2).
19 Id. art. 10.
20 Id. art. 7.
21 Id. art. 9(1) (stating that the Fund will enter into force thirty days after the deposit of the fifteenth instrument of ratification).
22 Statute of the African Monetary Fund, art. 2(a), adopted June 27, 2014, http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/PROTOCOL%20ON%20THE%20ESTABLISHMENT%20OF%20THE%20AFRICAN%20MONETARY%20FUND%20-%20EN_0.pdf.
23 Id. arts. 3(a), (b), (c).
24 Id. art. 5, § 1(1).
25 Id. art. 5, § 2(2).
26 Id. art. 5, § 3(1).
27 Id. art. 9(1).
28 Id. art. 9(2).
29 Id. art. 9(3).
30 Id. art. 9(4).
31 Id. art. 27(1).
32 Id. art. 27(2).
33 African Union, Minimum Integration Programme (2010)Google Scholar, available at http://ea.au.int/en/sites/default/files/MIP%20Big%20Doc%20English%20Version%20Web.pdf.
34 Michael, Rettig, Anne, W. Kamau & Augustus, Sammy Muluvi, The African Union Can Do More to Support Regional Integration , Brookings (May 17, 2013, 4:39 PM)Google Scholar, http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2013/05/17-african-unionsupport-regional-integration-kamau (observing that AU’s efforts have barely influenced the integration process in the region and arguing that the AU “should balance its successes in minimizing African conflict with the importance of doing more to promote economic integration”).