Currency: the launch of the eco planned for 2027 after a year of stoppage
Jean Claude Kassi Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission announced that the eco should arrive by 2027. © NIPAH DENNIS / AFP
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The common currency project for the fifteen ECOWAS countries is back on track after being suspended due to the pandemic.
Saturday, June 19, during the summit of heads of state of ECOWAS, the president of the commission Jean-Claude Kassi Brou presented a new roadmap.
The eco will be launched in 2027.
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Since 2020, the process has stopped.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ECOWAS member countries had suspended their monetary convergence pact.
It will resume in 2022, announces Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission, until 2027. By that date, the savings will have come close enough to allow the adoption of the eco.
Still, this calendar, the fourth already announced by ECOWAS, may seem very tight.
According to Senegalese economist Mubarack Lô, it seems difficult to make a country like Nigeria and its 10% inflation converge with those of the UEMOA zone, the West African economic and monetary union, the current franc zone, where inflation is below 2%.
In addition, the divergent economic interests between the oil producing countries on the one hand and the importing countries on the other hand must be reconciled.
Which, again, can take time.
For Mubarack Lô, if the political leaders are in their role by presenting a roadmap, it will ultimately be the real economy which will decide the future of the common currency.
Emancipate oneself at the monetary level
In the meantime, the countries of the current franc zone must for their part complete the reforms undertaken in December 2019 with the signing of a new monetary treaty with Paris.
The national parliaments of the eight countries will have to ratify the text and examine fundamental questions, such as the exchange rate of their common currency and the guarantee bond proposed by Paris.
A strong sovereignist current within the UEMOA pleads for a total emancipation.
►Also read: Togo hosts the states general of eco, the future West African currency
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Currencies
ECOWAS
Nigeria
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