Abidjan, May 22, 2020 - At the end of the Council of Ministers, on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 in Paris, the French Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, has recorded the end of the CFA Franc after 75 years of existence, synonymous with a new era in Franco-African relations that will be marked by the official birth of the Eco.

The announcement was made by French government spokeswoman Sibeth N'diaye.

This decision also ends the presence of French directors on the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), thus giving the full management of the Eco to the members of the western zone of the CFA.

In addition, the operating account, the tension of all debates on the FCFA, officially disappears.

The French government's decision ends the centralisation of the foreign exchange reserves of the French-speaking African states with the French Public Treasury, in accordance with the agreement concluded at the end of December 2019 between the France and the WAEMU States.

50% of the assets of WAEMU countries were systematically paid into the operating account housed in the French Treasury. From now on, the BCEAO will have in its coffers the currencies generated by the trade flows of the WAEMU States that shared the FCFA.

Eco is the name of the single currency project of the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). According to the December 2019 agreement between the WAEMU and the France, it will have a fixed parity with the Euro.

However, the Bank of France will remain the guarantor of the convertibility of this new currency with the Euro.