This archive report was first published on 22 November 2019.
On November 22, 2019, a historic one-day summit in Yaounde brought together leaders from Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo to discuss the future of the CFA franc.
Cameroon President Paul Biya hosted the summit, stating, "This meeting gives us a new opportunity to exchange and agree on additional measures that can consolidate the economic recovery of our region."
Five of the six nations were represented by their heads of state, while Gabon, whose President Ali Bongo Ondimba suffered a stroke the previous year, sent its prime minister.
The CFA franc, a currency jointly used by the nations as members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), was a major topic of discussion.
According to a press kit distributed by Biya's office, "The currency inherited from colonization divides economists and heads of state in the (CFA) franc zone. It is being presented by numerous financial experts as a brake to development."
Launched on December 26, 1945, as a "franc of the French colonies of Africa," the CFA franc has undergone significant changes over the years, including the creation of two geographic variants for western and central Africa.
Member countries of the CFA zone must lodge reserves with the Bank of France, and the currency is essentially pegged to the euro at a fixed rate of 655.96 CFA francs per euro.
However, detractors argue that the CFA franc is a "post-colonial" contract that prevents countries from exercising sovereignty over their currency or enables France to wield influence in Africa.
Prospects of earlier changes to the region's currency surfaced this month when Benin leader Patrice Talon stated that the western African states planned to pull their reserves from the Bank of France.
