Togo welcomes the Estates General of the eco, the future West African currency
Headquarters of ECOWAS, in Lomé, Togo.
AFP PHOTO PIUS UTOMI EKPPEI
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5 mins
Nearly 200 guests are in Lomé from this Wednesday to discuss the new currency, the eco, decided on December 21, 2019 in Abidjan by the French and Ivorian presidents, Emmanuel Macron and Alassane Ouattara.
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With our correspondent in Lomé,
Peter Sassou Dogbé
It is expected that this currency will eventually replace the CFA franc in the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, to later become the single currency of the 15 countries of the Economic Community of African States. Where is. How should the transition from CFA to eco be made? A question that has sparked a debate among academics but also political figures and civil society with a view to proposing a roadmap to Heads of State and Government to help them in their decision-making.
It is an initiative of the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Lomé to circumscribe the contours of the new currency and to see to what extent it creates or not a separation with the CFA franc, to what extent it embraces the 15 ECOWAS States and how the transition from the CFA franc to the eco will be made.
A whole program that will be done in two formats: a first bringing together economists with an econometric model and a second in the form of a panel with civil societies, politicians and opinion makers.
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To read also: West Africa waiting for its single currency
Among the two hundred guests, we find the anti-CFA, such as the initiator of the conference, Kako Nubukpo, who for 20 years has considered that the CFA franc is not a good currency because, he says, it is a too strong a currency, pegged to the euro, it functions as a tax on exports, a subsidy on imports leading to a structurally negative trade balance.
There is a research objective, to feed the gray literature on the monetary fact in West Africa.
And alongside, our ambition with this forum is to propose a roadmap.
Kako Nubukpo, economist, Commissioner of Togo at the West African Economic and Monetary Union (Uemoa) and initiator of these States General
Jeanne Richard
Next to him, we find the supporters of the CFA among which Lionel Zinsou from Benin, Michel Khalif from Togo.
Ceillou Dalein Diallo from Guinea-Conakry, Ousmane Sanko from Senegal and Succès Masra from Chad are expected to take part in the debates by videoconference, their countries having refused them to leave the territory.
The general states of the eco end this Friday 28 but the appointment must be renewed.
From now on, the “Lomé Monetary Conversations” will be held every two years to take stock in particular of the evolution of the eco.
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To read also: The eco, currency of the ECOWAS, postponed to 2025?
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Currencies
ECOWAS
Togo