Eco (currency)

At a meeting of the Convergence Council of Ministers and Governors of West Africa on 25 May 2009, the start of the currency was rescheduled to 2015 due to the international economic crisis.

Thus, WAMI is to provide a framework for central banks in the WAMZ to start the integration and begin preliminary preparations for the printing and minting of the physical money, just as EMI did before in the Eurozone before the introduction of the euro.

[12] On 29 June 2019, the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) formally adopted the name "eco" for their project of the single currency.

[14] Quoted by the Nigerian press agency NAN, the chair of the ministerial committee said that only Togo, among the ECOWAS countries, would meet the main requirements or criteria for the adoption of a single currency.

On 21 December 2019, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara announced that the West African CFA franc would be reformed, including renaming it the eco.

For Kristalina Georgieva, these changes "constitute a key step in the modernization of long-standing arrangements between the West African Economic and Monetary Union and France".

[18] On 29 December 2019, the president of Ghana expressed his desire to adopt the new eco which is being established to replace the West African CFA franc.

On 14 January 2020, the central banks of the ECOWAS sub-region began an extraordinary general assembly to deliberate on questions relating to the introduction of the single currency, the ECO, scheduled for 2020.

The committee of central bank governors is also expected to discuss the implications of the recent announcement by French-speaking ECOWAS countries on the proposal to introduce the single currency ECO to replace the CFA franc.

The talks will also determine the way forward for the member states of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) in accordance with the roadmap for the introduction of the single currency — the CEE.

The ECOWAS technical team, however, is expected to present proposals made by the West African Monetary Institute regarding the CEE.

On 16 January 2020, Nigeria and several West African countries, notably English-speaking ones, denounced in Abuja the decision to replace the CFA franc with the Eco, saying that it was "not in conformity" with the program recently adopted by the entire region to establish a single currency.

In all cases, the six countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) "noted with concern the declaration aiming to unilaterally rename the CFA franc to Eco by 2020", according to a press release issued after this extraordinary meeting between the various finance ministers and the governors of the central banks.

These countries consider that "this action is not in accordance with the decisions" of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with a view to "adopting the Eco as the name of the single currency" of the whole region.

In publicly criticizing the decision of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (Uemoa) to rename the CFA franc “eco” by 2020, the finance ministers and central bank governors of The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have not only revealed the divisions of ECOWAS.

On 31 January 2020, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara clarified the alleged rejection of the Eco by the 7 countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ).

He explained that, according to Nigeria, the convergence criteria are not met by the majority of countries and that it is therefore necessary to extend the deadline for the launch of the ECOWAS single currency.

Entitled Entry into the Era of Eco: Implications of Reform in West Africa, it aims to address the uncertainties arisen from the announcement of this substitution by Presidents Ouattara and Macron on 21 December 2019.

[20] The second step towards the disappearance of the CFA franc and its replacement by a single currency called Eco, the French Parliament should adopt before the end of the third quarter the bill initialed on 20 May 2020 in the Council of Ministers and intended to ratify the agreement of monetary cooperation concluded in Abidjan on 21 December 2019 with the governments of the member states of the West African Monetary Union (Umoa).

In September 2020, Alassane Ouattara, President of Côte d'Ivoire, announced the decision of the 57th ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS to proceed with the implementation of the eco "within three to five years.

The ECOWAS Commission says it would do everything possible to ensure that the processes and programs outlined in the roadmap for the launch of the common Eco currency remain on track and on schedule.

The commission will accelerate the establishment of the West African Central Bank and other relevant bodies necessary for the success of monetary integration in the sub-region.