In a reaction to the development yesterday, the federal government through the Ministry of Finance, Budget and national Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed said: “Nigeria has received the news of the change of name of UEMOA currency, the CFA (Communicate Financiere d’Afrique) to Eco supposedly as the ECOWAS single currency.”
The ministry said that “Nigeria is studying the situation and would respond in due course.”
The government’s position was contained in a statement issued by the media aide of the minister of Finance, Budget and National, Yunusa Abdullahi.
Nigeria currently hosts the secretariat of the ECOWAS, which reportedly adopted the name “ECO” for the sub-region’s envisaged single currency. The plan is to make West Africa a more integrated bloc.
The eight ECOWAS countries that currently use the CFA franc are Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
The single currency is expected to help address ECOWAS’ region’s monetary problems, including the difficulty in converting some of its currencies and the lack of independence of the central banks.
However, it appears there is a division among member countries over the modalities for implementation of the policy.
