The West African CFA franc (French: franc CFA or simply franc, ISO 4217 code: XOF; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the currency used by eight independent states in West Africa which make up the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

[update][citation needed] The initialism CFA stands for Communauté Financière Africaine (transl.

The West African colonies and territories using the CFA franc were Ivory Coast, Dahomey, French Sudan, Mauritania, Niger, Sénégal, Togo and Upper Volta.

From 1959 onward, the overall size and composition of the coins changed little, however "République française" and the stylized Marianne bust was dropped from all coins, replaced with the title "Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest" with the design on the 1, 5, 10, and 25 francs featuring a gazelle's profile, carried over from colonial issues, and a tribal mask between the denomination, which has become the emblem of the West African monetary union.

The 10 and 25 franc coins saw a redesign in 1980, depicting a family using a water pump and a young woman with chemistry tools, respectively.

In 1955, the Institut d'Émission de l'Afrique Occidentale Française et du Togo took over the production of paper money, issuing notes for 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 francs.

With the exception of a few early issues, the notes of the BCEAO carry a letter to indicate the country of issuance.

[12] For example, France guarantees the value of the currency as long as the central banks of all of the nations involved keep at least 50% of their foreign reserves in the French treasury.

Some see this as a way to keep the currency stable while other see it as limiting the economic independence of the West African nations that are involved.

Even though during the early 1950s to the mid-1980s, CFA countries experienced higher real GDP growth and lower inflation rates than other non-CFA Sub-Saharan countries, the economic shocks of the 1986 and 1993 caused the CFA franc to become increasingly overvalued and run increased deficits in the French treasury.

Also, they state that the reserve requirement should be restructured in order to give CFA countries more economic freedom.