ECO REGIONAL SINGLE CURRENCY LAUNCHED FACING ANOTHER SET-BACK
LTM NEWS. Economy/Politics
After almost 20 years of its proposal, ECOWAS member states agreed in 2019 to adopt a single regional currency, to aid the fluidity of commerce amongst themselves and strengthen regional economic growth. The laudable initiative has scaled through many huddles since its proposal in the year 2000 to its adoption in 2019 and now at the implementation stage. ‘’ECO’’ was adopted on 29 June 2019, as the official name for the proposed common currency.
The process of adopting the idea of a single currency has lasted for almost two-decades of back and forth negotiations, amongst ECOWAS states. It was as if all was set and ready for the big launch in 2020, with a free flow of commercial activities expected to increase amongst the 15 member states.
But the move has been rocked by a late blow with the Nigerian government, tweeting on Monday 10th February 2020 of her decision to call for a postponement of the launch owing that necessary agreements are still yet to be signed by some member’s state. Nigeria is the biggest economy in the region, and her opinions are highly respected by the committee.
Eight of the fifteen members' states of ECOWAS use the CFA franc and sees the ECO currency as a solution that will help them sever economic dependency ties with their former colonial masters France, who currently hosts half of their foreign reserves.