The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, has been elected as the President of the Association of African Central Banks, AACB.

The Election was held during the 39th ordinary meeting of the Assembly of Governors of the AACB in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Emefiele succeeds Lucas Nchama who is now the Governor of the Bank Of Central African States.

The Governor of Central Bank of Burundi was elected Chairman of the East African sub-region while the Governor of the Central Bank of the Kingdom of Swaziland was elected Chairman of the Southern African sub-region.

Others elected are the Governor of the Bank of Ghana as Chairman of the West African sub-region and Governor of the Central Bank of Mauritania as Chairman of the North African sub-region.

Emefiele’s tenure will run from 2016 to 2017.

In a communiqué at the end of the meeting, the new AACB President noted that the nomination for the Vice Chairman of the AACB, which was zoned to the South African Sub-region, would be made known in due course.

The association adopted “Prospects for monetary integration in Africa: Lessons learned from the experience of monetary and financial integration of Europe,” as the theme for the 2017 symposium.

It also stressed the necessity for African countries to diversify their economies and improve exports, while limiting imports.

The assembly of African CBN governors emphasised the urgent need for coordination between monetary and fiscal policy across all African countries.

The Assembly further urged African countries to strengthen efforts at implementing structural reforms in order to diversify their respective economies, improve the business environment and promote intra-regional trade as a way of strengthening their resilience amidst external shocks.

The meeting was attended by 27 member Central Banks and the African Union Commission, AUC.