Overview of COMESA Monetary Institute

COMESA Monetary Instute (CMI) is an institution of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The CMI’s objective is to undertake all the technical, policy, statistical, institutional and legal preparatory work that will lead to seamless creation of the common central bank and the introduction of a common currency in COMESA. CMI is based in Nairobi, at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies (KSMS), an institution of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). 

The mandate to set up a monetary union is derived from Article 4(4) of the COMESA Treaty signed in Kampala, Uganda in 1993, which states that “the COMESA Member States shall in the field of monetary affairs and finance, cooperate in monetary and financial matters and gradually establish convertibility of their currencies and a payments union as a basis for the eventual establishment of a monetary union”.

This mandate was further reinforced in Articles 76-78 which respectively deal with COMESA Monetary and Fiscal Policy Harmonization (MFHP), establishment of currency convertibility and formation of an exchange rate union. Based on the above mandate, the COMESA Committee of Governors of Central Banks set up COMESA Monetary Instute, in order to undertake all actvities/programs related with making the region a zone of macroeconomic and financial stability and to ulmately achieve a monetary union. The Institute became operational in March 2011.