Abidjan (AFP)
Eight West African countries and France have decided on a major reform of the CFA franc, which will change its name to be called Eco, announced on Saturday Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in the presence of Emmanuel Macron .
"We have decided to reform the CFA franc with three major changes (...) including the change of name" and "stopping the centralization of 50% of the reserves in the French Treasury," said Mr. Ouattara during the '' a press conference on the second day of the French president's visit to Côte d'Ivoire.
Third point of the reform: France will withdraw "from the governance bodies in which it was present".
Emmanuel Macron described this decision as "major historic reform". "The Eco will see the light of day in 2020, I welcome it," he added, adding that the CFA franc was "perceived as one of the vestiges of Françafrique".
This reform has been negotiated for six months, according to a French source, between France and the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
It does not currently concern the six Central African countries which use the CFA franc but which form a separate monetary zone.
Paris said it was "open" to this development after multiple discussions with African capitals, while the controversy over this currency had again grown in recent months.
The "franc of the French colonies in Africa" was created in 1945 and became the "franc of the African Financial Community" after independence.
The reform provides that West African central banks will no longer have to deposit half of their foreign exchange reserves with the Banque de France, an obligation that was also perceived as a humiliating dependence on France by critics of the FCFA.
On the other hand, the fixed parity with the euro of the CFA franc, the future Eco, is maintained (1 euro = 655.96 CFA francs), but this point is likely to change when the common West African currency comes into being.
© 2019 AFP