English-speaking West African countries denounce the "unilateral" decision to rename the CFA franc to "eco" on the sidelines of a meeting held thursday, January 16 in Nigeria. The six countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) "noted with concern the declaration to unilaterally rename the CFA franc to eco by July 2020". The finance ministers and central bank governors of the six English-speaking ECOWAS countries consider in a statement that "this action is not in accordance with the decisions" of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with a view to "the adoption of the eco as the name of the single currency" of the whole region. This information revives the debate around a currency supposed to unite the 15 ECOWAS countries from 2020.

The 8 countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, which present macroeconomic profiles in accordance with the convergence criteria defined in the framework of this currency, were the first to announce, on December 21, 2019, through the voice of the Ivorian Alassane Ouattara, President-in-Office of the Union, their decision to join the common currency. The announcement made as part of a bilateral summit between Emmanuel Macron and Alassane Ouattara, on the sidelines of a signing ceremony between WAEMU and France, symbolically marking the end of the CFA Franc agreements, sparked much debate.

 
If officials speak of a "historical evolution", anti-CFA activists evoke a sham while economists denounce the evocation of an "Eco with fixed parity" instead of the "Eco flexible" decided by ECOWAS. This major political crisis of ECOWAS is blessed bread for a large country like Nigeria, still far from the convergence criteria and reluctant to abandon its national currency, the Naira, and countries like Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, subscribers to inflation rates at Olympic records.

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