ECO... New West Africa Currency

The goal of a common currency, first in West African Monetary Institute(WAMI)/West African Monetary Zone(WAMZ) countries[4] – The Gambia,[5] Ghana, Guinea-Conakry (which is French speaking but does not use the CFA franc), Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone – and later in the whole ECOWAS area, was officially stated in December 2000 in connection with the formal launch of WAMZ. The Eco was first planned to be introduced in 2003, but this was postponed several times, to 2005, 2010 and 2014. At a meeting of the Convergence Council of Ministers and Governors of West Africa on 25 May 2009, the start of the currency was rescheduled to 2015 due to the international economic crisis.[6] The December 2009 meeting also established a plan to begin work to merge the Eco with the CFA franc immediately upon the launch of the Eco; this was planned to be achieved by 2020.[7]

In 2001, the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) was set up with headquarters in Accra, Ghana. It is to be an interim organisation in preparation for the future West African Central Bank. Its function and organisation are inspired by the European Monetary Institute. Thus, WAMI is to provide a framework for central banks in the WAMZ to start the integration and begin preliminary preparations for the printing and minting of the physical money, just as EMI did before in the Eurozone before the introduction of the euro.[8] The current director general is J.H. Tei Kitcher.

Recent assessments of member countries' efforts to meet the criteria are very bleak. The performance scorecard presented at the 2012 Annual Statutory Meetings of the WAMZ shows that GDP growth was projected to decline to 6.9% in 2012 from 8.7% in 2011. The convergence scale of the whole WAMZ area was also projected to go down from a score of 79.2% in 2011 to 62.5% in 2012; as no member met all the convergence criteria. The average annual inflation rate also increased from 11.6% in 2011 to 12.6% in 2012.[10] The Director of Multilateral Surveillance ECOWAS Commission, Lassane Kabore, described the performance as "dismal", but he also affirmed the commitment of his commission to the establishment of the Eco.[11] In February 2018 ECOWAS affirms its intention to restart the process with an introduction in 2020 which is strictly impossible: it is therefore a declaration of intent. On February 23, 2018, according to the economist Jean Joseph Boillot, no serious work on the technical aspects of this implementation has yet been undertaken, either at the university level or at the state level.[citation needed]

In June 2019, the major financiers of the 15 ECOWAS countries stressed the importance of strengthening the macroeconomic convergence of the 15 countries.

Respecting the timetable for the implementation of the single currency will depend on the "efforts" of each country in this area, said the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Brou.

"Performance in terms of macroeconomic convergence is a sine qua non" for the single currency, insisted Adama Koné, adding that it was necessary "to strengthen the mechanisms of multilateral surveillance". A single currency "will bring a lot to our savings. This is an opportunity for integration that must be seized for African countries, because the markets are [currently] fragmented.

On June 29, 2019, the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) formally adopted the name of "Eco" for their project of the single currency and planned to introduce the currency from 2020.