The governments of The Gambia and Guinea Conakry have been reported to the country's House of Assembly as the only two countries in the sub-region that have ratified and domesticated the legal instruments of the West Africa Monetary Zone (WAMZ), a zone which has a combined population of 19.1 million people, representing 75 per cent and 20 per cent of the population of ECOWAS and Africa respectively.

This development was revealed on Monday during the commencement of the third meeting of the National Assembly in the 2009 legislative session by Honourable Lamin Jammeh, National Assembly Member for Illiasa constituency. This was done while laying  down report for adoption on the regional forum on global financial crises for legislators, held in Accra, Ghana from the 20th to 24th July, 2009.

The Illiassa National Assembly member went on to reveal WAMZ's report that The Gambia has the smallest economy in the zone, constituting 0.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, but noted that it is also the only country  in the zone that has satisfied all the four primary convergence criteria in 2008, the third consecutive year of 100 percent performance, as well as full capital account liberalisation. "In the World Bank during  business report of 2009, it was indicated that WAMZ countries generally outperformed other ECOWAS countries with regards to the ease with which they did business. Ghana, Nigeria and The Gambia took the top three positions in the overall ranking in ECOWAS," reported Honourable Jammeh.

In the area of paying membership contributions, NAM Jammeh further reported that The Gambia is the only country with an outstanding amount of US$580,028, whilst Nigeria is to pay US$45 Million, Ghana US$12.7 Million, Guinea Conakry US$11 Million, and Sierra Leone US$5 Million.

Reacting to the report which was unanimously adopted by the lawmakers, the majority leader and National Assembly member for Serrekunda East, Honourable Fabakary Tombong Jatta commended The Gambia government for the development, noting that, although the country is the smallest in the zone but that it performed very well within the regional framework. He reiterated that the country has satisfied all the four primary convergence criteria in 2008, noting that it also owed the least to WAMZ.

Monday's Assembly session also saw the adoption of other two reports such as the 40th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Africa region conference held in Port Harcourt, Nigeria from the 13th -26th July, 2009, as well as the second meeting of the Alliance of Network of parliamentarians and elected councilors for the protection of the environment in West African countries.