West African Leaders Agree New Plan, Pushes Single Currency To 2027 -Report

Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS had planned to launch a common currency but postponed the plan due to challenges posed by the Pandemic in 2020.

ECOWAS in an extraordinary meeting in Ghana, adopts a new plan to launch ‘ECO’ single currency in 2027.

The new road map was agreed by heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, president of the ECOWAS Commission, told a news conference after a summit of the leaders in Ghana on Saturday.

The countries hope a single currency will help to boost trade and economic growth

“Due to the shock of the pandemic, the heads of state had decided to suspend the implementation of the convergence pact in 2020-2021.

We have a new road map and a new convergence pact that will cover the period between 2022-2026, and 2027 being the launch of the Eco,” he said, referring to the name of the new currency.

Following the First or initial plan to launch the Eco there has been a lot of bottle necks In the Implementation Of the Single Currency In the Region but Analyst say If the criteria Involved In getting the Plan Rolling Is Surmounted then the How will be the next hurdle; That takes us to questions on Implication of a Single Currency in West Africa.

Kelechi Deca an Economy Analyst says the many criteria of the Single currency implementation has been a major challenge since introduction, the implication for each member country is that for example Nigeria will have to let go the Naira, Ghana will also have to leg go the Cedi for the single currency to take effect.

Nigeria, the largest economy in West Africa, currently operates a managed float for its currency, while eight others including top cocoa producer Ivory Coast, use the France-backed CFA, pegged to the Euro.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara has said West African nations who meet the criteria to join the single currency should do so by 2020.

Outtara said this after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in 2020.

“Countries that are ready, such as countries in the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) zone that are ready and have made significant efforts in terms of good management, good governance, deficit control and debt control, will probably be ready in 2020.