By RFIPublished on 12/22/2019 Modified on 12/22/2019 at 5:03 p.m.

The CFA zone will therefore disappear from 2020, according to the announcement made this Saturday December 21 in Abdijan by the Ivorian presidents Alassane Ouattara and French Emmanuel Macron. France is withdrawing from the management bodies of the CFA which can therefore operate its transformation into an eco zone. However, the implementation schedules are still unclear.

Officially, the new monetary agreement signed between Paris and the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) zone takes effect immediately. In reality, the implementation of these provisions will start in 2020, after June, at the time of the annual reviews. France will then leave the ship.

If the operating principles of the eco are acquired, it is now necessary to resolve technical questions. When will the new tickets be printed? When will they take effect? It will take several years for RFI, the Beninese finance minister, Romuald Wadagni, to be able to hold the eco in his hand. If the former West African CFA zone will constitute the vanguard, on what date will the other countries of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) join the eco zone and adopt this currency?

Still great efforts for the ECOWAS

So far, the ECOWAS has advanced the date of 2020 , but this is no longer certain indicated on Saturday December 21 the Minister of Finance of Nigeria, Ngonzi Okonjo-Iweala. Because within the ECOWAS countries do not sufficiently meet the convergence criteria.

These criteria, such as the inflation rate or the budget deficit must be more or less aligned in all countries, in order to ensure that the common currency is stable. The work to be done is therefore still long. But what is hoped is that the transformation of the CFA zone into an eco zone gives new impetus to all the countries of the ECOWAS.

► Also read: The CFA franc, a whole story

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