President Muhammadu Buhari has cautioned that the ambition for the Eco currency could be in ‘serious jeopardy,’ unless member-states complied with agreed processes of reaching the collective goal. He was also concerned about the decision of francophone countries that form the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) to replace the CFA Franc with Eco ahead of the rest of the member-states.
The President delivered Nigeria’s position on the new regional currency on Tuesday at a virtual extraordinary meeting of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ). The meeting discussed the implementation of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP) and the ECOWAS Single Currency Agenda.
“Your excellencies, you all are familiar with the history of the Eco thus far, so I will not bore you with that. We reverted to a single-track approach, giving up Eco which is the original idea of the WAMZ so the ECOWAS-wide programme could thrive,” the President was quoted as saying in a statement by his media adviser, Femi Adesina.
He added, “In this regard, we have made remarkable progress, including the adoption of the Exchange Rate regime, the name and model of the common Central Bank, and the symbol. “We have urged our ministers towards an expeditious path to success. It, therefore, gives me an uneasy feeling that the UEMOA Zone now wishes to take up the Eco in replacement for its CFA Franc ahead of the rest of the Member States.”
President Buhari decried that this was in addition to deviating from the Community Act on consistent attainment of convergence in the three years running up to the introduction of the currency, and the subsequent reinforcing directives.
