Breaking News: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is halting it’s long-standing plans to create a single currency to be known as the ‘Eco’.
9AM News Nigeria recounts that the single currency initiative was proposed since the 1990s following advice from renown African economists believing it would catalize economic growth and ensure a positive turnaround in the economies of West African countries.
The single currency initiative was also hoped to foster deeper integration between West African nations and make business transactions within the region more seamless by the elimination of currency exchange hassles.
However, despite decades of consistent efforts to pave the path for the realization of the single currency goal, it is regrettable that the plan has been ditched owing to serious political differences between member states.
ECOWAS Joint Committees
Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Junior, the Co-chair of the ECOWAS joint committees on Social Affairs, Gender and Women Empowerment, Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Political Affairs, Peace, Security, and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) announced the news during an interview last weekend.
He regretted that political differences have caused the halting of the ambitious and progressive ‘Eco’ project’.
In his comments made available to 9AM News Nigeria Senator Edwin Junior said “There has been a lot of political situation that has to be addressed. It’s not that we don’t have good economists or analysts who can understand and implement it.
“We have had little or less problems from the English-speaking zone but because we have the French CFA with the reserve in France and then you have the BCEAO bank as another federal bank for the French-speaking country, we have to integrate the currency”.
“So, it still needs a lot of political will and that is why the last three countries that had coup d’état are talking about changing their currencies because their reserve is in France and not in West Africa or Africa,”.
Anglophone And Francophone Countries
Information gotten by Ogasabi of 9AM News Nigeria says ECOWAS is now planning a single currency for the Anglophone countries and another separate currency for the Francophone countries.
Asked about the dual-currency plan the Senator responded saying “Yes, we proposed that Nigeria, which is the hub of our region, in addition to Ghana, Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone, that is the five English-speaking countries, could have one currency for now”,
“Then, the Francophone countries could have another currency. Then you can ask Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde to join either the Francophone or Anglophone so that we have two currencies for now”,
“And then, over the years, those two currencies can migrate into a single currency” the Senator said.
“We have been more concerned with putting the region back together, resolving the security situation in the region and then we can put back the single currency issue on the front burner”, he concluded.
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