The 15 West African states have launched the process of creating a single currency. The process is all the more advanced as this currency called ECO will see the light of the year 2020. During his visit to Côte d’Ivoire, Emmanuel Macron and his Ivorian counterpart Alassane Ouattara announced the end of the CFA franc, this currency inherited from colonization and which is increasingly decried by pan-Africanists, and the imminent birth of the ECO.
Even if for many observers, CFA franc and ECO, it is white cap white cap, the fact remains that this creation of the new currency has many consequences. The first consequence is of course the disappearance of the various central banks of the States which have decided to merge their national currencies into the new single currency.
Also, on the side of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) will disappear to make way for the Central Bank of the West Africa (BCAO). As provided for in point 17 of the manifesto on the creation of Monetary Union: “With regard to the name of the ECOWAS Central Bank, the conference adopts this one: Central Bank of West Africa (BCAO). “
The CFA franc will certainly be sacrificed on the altar of the ECO, but on analysis, the old currency will be reincarnated in the new single currency of West Africa. However, this transmigration risks being done without Nigeria and Ghana, two English-speaking countries which have their own currencies and which refuse to be pegged to another currency. What would ECO be without these two economic forces which make up nearly 75% of the economy of West Africa?
We also learn that only the eight UEMOA countries will use the ECO for the time being. Monetary reserves will no longer be deposited in the accounts of the French Treasury, but the question of the exchange rate regime and fixed parity with the Euro remains a thorny subject.
