CHAPTER 3 Money laundering ? Devote some time and resources to studying cross-border trafficking of funds and its relation to cross-border trade and money laundering. ? Consider the possible role the banking system in Ghana could play in reducing the large sums of cash that Africans tend to carry around to conduct legitimate cross-border trade and other operations. ? Study more closely the money transfer business to ensure that it does not become a vehicle for money laundering. Objective 5: Accelerate regional cooperation and integration i. Self-assessment 114. The CSAR states that the Government of Ghana has always agreed that regional economic growth could greatly benefit the economic development of the region. Ghana has participated in almost all the regional initiatives in this respect. Hence, Ghana has been a member of ECOWAS and has acceded to the second West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) initiative. 115. The CSAR claims that consensus exists among stakeholders in Ghana that the benefits from ECOWAS trade liberalisation schemes have not been encouraging. It is generally felt that full reciprocity in the implementation of agreed protocols has been lacking among other member countries. ii. Findings of the CRM 116. During the CRM, there was much discussion on regional economic integration efforts, mainly because the civil society and private sector participants do not have substantive issues of governance to raise in this context. They are broadly supportive of the idea of furthering regional economic integration in Africa, and for Ghana to be one of the leaders in such an exercise. They agree that the Ghanaian authorities should always be mindful of Ghanaian producers and consumers when negotiating protocols and treaties in ECOWAS, WAMZ, or any other grouping. They expressed the hope that, in addition, the Ghanaian authorities will keep the citizens well informed about government activities in regional integration efforts, and not enter into any agreement without the express support of the people of Ghana. 80