Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara has met recently with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and discussed wide-ranging issues of bilateral and multilateral importance. One important point that has cropped up during the discussion with the French President and while talking to the media was the monetary union of the West African nations. Alassane Ouattara said that the West African nations who meet the criteria to join the single currency should do so by 2020.
Countries in the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) zone, which have made significant efforts in terms of good management, good governance, deficit control, and debt control, should join the Union by 2020 and added that it was for each country to make a conscious decision. The single currency proposed for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is called ECO. The currency was proposed some three decades ago to boost the cross border trade and investment. Last month, the 15 member states of ECOWAS, adopted the ECO in Nigeria and its launch is scheduled for 2020. But many feel that the target date is not feasible because of some recent developments. Foremost is the recent formation of AfCFTA, which subsumes, in essence, all sub-regional trade groupings, making it the largest trade bloc in the world. It is to be seen how the various sub-regional trade groups harmonize with the pan-African AfCFTA.
Recently, the 15 member group of ECOWAS met in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Six countries in the group, including Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana could switch over to the ECO. Eight ECOWAS countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo) currently use the CFA franc along with their local currencies. ECO was originally intended to be launched in 2000, but postponed multiple times for one reason or the other. The proposed monetary union will be working with the West African Monetary Agency (WAMA), the West Africa Monetary Institute (WAMI) and central banks to speed up the implementation of the single trade currency. This will enable countries across the region to spend money across different countries.
