Côte d'Ivoire: ECOWAS chief urges protection of CFA franc

02 Octobre 2017

ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire, October 2 (Infosplusgabon) - Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission President Marcel de Souza on Monday described the CFA franc as an island to be preserved within the regional economic union of 15 countries.

The CFA franc is the common currency of eight ECOWAS member states and the Mr. De Souza said it should remain intact until the establishment of the West African Monetary Zone, which is currently envisaged to take off in 2020.

The ECOWAS chief was speaking on 'Integration and emergence: the role of the private sector and the Africa-France partnership' at the opening of the Africa 2017 Meeting in Abidjan, Cote d' Ivoire.

In his view, people opposed to the use of the CFA franc have not proposed a better currency that would guarantee the stability of the economies of member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

The WAEMU countries face a critical but common challenge of creating sufficient fiscal space to finance ambitious growth, development, and poverty-reduction programmes.

WAEMU President Abdallah Boureima shared the analysis of President de Souza saying that these countries should use the current monetary space as an option to develop an open and competitive market economy that can achieve a strong, sustainable and inclusive growth.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/MIN/GABON 2017

© Copyright Infosplusgabon