Eight W. African countries on December 21, 2019 announced to change the name of their common currency CFA to “Eco”. The announcement was made during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Ivory Coast, which is also the world’s top cocoa producer.
- The renaming of the currency is symbolic: CFA originally stood for Colonies Françaises d’Afrique, or French Colonies in Africa.
- The CFA Franc was initially pegged to the French franc and has been linked to the euro for about two decades. Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo currently use the currency.
- All the above countries are former French colonies with the exception of Guinea-Bissau.
- The CFA franc was created in 1945 and has been used in two African monetary zones, one for eight west African countries and the other for six mostly petro-states in central Africa.
