Monetary History Overview

In December 1912, the West African Currency Board was created by a memorandum of British Secretary of State for the Colonies to unify the currency for the Western African colonies. It began operations in June 1913, and Gold Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Gambia proclaimed the West African Pound in separate legal acts. It was at par with the Pound Sterling and remained so until the end of the colonial rule. Beginning with Ghana in 1956, the members of the currency union attained independence one by one and gave up the common currency some time afterwards. The West African Currency Board ceased its activity in 1964 and was formally dissolved in 1973.

In 2001, the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS) founded a Monetary Institute based in Accra (Ghana). After several earlier attempts, the Economic Community Ministerial Conference decided to create a common currency. Its introduction was originally planned for 2015, but this did not materialize. In 2018, the start of the convergence process was set for 2020. Members meeting the convergence criteria modelled on the European Monetary Community could introduce the currency. In June 2019, the name of the future currency was set to be "Eco". In late 2019, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) also decided to abolish the currency name "CFA Franc" for its colonial connotations and change it into "Eco" as soon as the currency is no longer tutored by France. Even if ultimately, a single common currency in all Western Africa could emerge, the identical designations have created controversy. Both the introduction of the introduction of the common ECOWAS currency and the renaming of the UEMOA currency are on hold beyond 2020.

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