The West African Monetary zone Thursday rejected the move by eight French speaking ECOWAS members to unilaterally name the planned regional single currency “Eco”.
This was the fall out of an extraordinary meeting of ministers of finance and governors of central banks in the region’s monetary zone convergence council.
Nigeria’s minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed spoke the mind of member countries like Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra-leone at the meeting in Abuja
The ministers are requesting for an urgent meeting with the authority of heads of state and government of the region’s monetary zone to discuss the issue further.
Track up
This meeting comes about a month after the eight French-speaking West African countries announced their decision on the ECO single currency.
The countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo.
The controversy became heightened following allegations of undisguised involvement of the French government, which analysts accuse of attempts to hijack the region’s single currency project.
ECOWAS the regions’s political and economic union, said the rollout will be gradual with countries meeting the laid-out criteria.
However, critics worry that Nigeria, the regions biggest economy, will dominate monetary policy and stall the projected benefits
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