At the 57th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held in Niamey on Monday 07 September, ECOWAS announced its decision to move forward to launch its single currency ECO

 The launch of the single currency that west African states are considering, is slow to be achieved because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the problems of convergence within the West African body.

"The agenda of our single currency programme has been changed. Indeed, the year 2020 should be the year of the launch of the ECOWAS single currency. At the last summit in December 2019, our conference noted that 13 out of 15 states met at least three of the four first-tier convergence criteria," said Nigerien President Mahamadou Issifou.

West African leaders also took advantage of their last meeting to discuss the convergences born during the announcement of the launch of this currency by the countries of the West African Economic Union (WAEMU).

"Our present summit must (...) develop a new roadmap while maintaining a gradual approach to the launch of the common currency in line with the recommendation of the Task Force on accelerating the monetary programme," Issifou added.

In December 2019, Ivorian President Alasane Dramani Ouattara announced that the WAEMU countries would appropriate the ECO currency without taking into account the opinion of their neighbors who do not agree with the conditions under which the currency would be implemented.