An Afrobarometer poll shows that French-speaking Africans are in favor of a single currency, not controlled by France.
It's an open secret: the announced reform of the CFA franc is largely floundering because of France, which wants to keep some control over the single African currency, and dissension between African states. Announced with great fanfare in December 2019, this reform has made little progress. While the guarantee agreement, signed in December 2020, was to establish a limited role for France and oblige Paris to transfer 5 billion euros to the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) , we thought we would see the birth of the ECO fairly quickly. But the new single currency is long overdue…
To believe that the leaders do not want a single currency. It must be said that the leaders are struggling to agree, especially between the West African and Central African zones. However, a survey shows that the African populations are firmly waiting for the end of the CFA franc. And the vast majority of them say they are in favor of a single sub-regional currency, without any European supervision being put in place.
When will there be real monetary reform?
The poll, dated July 2022, was carried out by the pan-African research network Afrobarometer under the title: “Sub-regional monetary integration is desired by citizens of Francophone West and Central Africa”. The results are indeed clear: more than 80% of the citizens of French-speaking West and Central Africa want an independent single currency. In Togo, this percentage even rises to 93%. In Gabon, Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire, 89, 77 and 82% respectively want the same thing.
These Africans refuse to have their currency controlled by “foreign powers like France”. In question, the fact that the people polled believe, for 8 of them out of 10, that the CFA franc benefits France more than the member countries of the CFA zone.
“These very strong positions in all the countries where data have been collected show that, for West Africa, countries should accelerate their efforts to finally give life to a sub-regional currency. In French-speaking Central Africa, even if the process of the single currency is not yet mentioned, the populations of these countries also seem to perceive the benefits and question the current attachment of the CFA franc to France”, indicates Afrobarometer.