West African Nations to Withdraw from France CFA Reserves

French-President African countries have agreed to withdraw their CFA reserves from France. The announcement was made by the president of Benin Republic, Patrice Talon.

According to the President, the eight French-speaking countries in the region have unanimously agreed to withdraw their CFA reserves from France and allow their central banks to manage the reserves.

The bold move has been commended by many social commentators across the continent and beyond who claim that this shows that African nations and leaders are beginning to identify the problems of the continent.

Benin Republic’s President, Patrice Talon made the decision public during an interview with French public broadcasters, RFI and France 24. The President further went on to applaud the bold move made by all member countries to agree on the decision.

"We unanimously agree on this, to end this model," he said, adding that the current model was more of a "psychological problem" than "technical."

"The central banks of African countries of WAMU (West African Monetary Union) will manage all of these foreign currency reserves and will distribute them to the various central banks' partners in the world."

Talon said the regional bank's task was to be dispatched "very quickly", but he fell short of giving a specific timetable.

Countries under WAMU include Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Niger and Guinea-Bissau. It goes by the French initials, BCEAO.

Since 1945, the West African and Central African CFA has been pegged to the French francs, and later the Euro and its reserves have been kept in France.

The Central African bloc of countries that use the CFA includes Chad, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

Some experts stressed that the move kept African economies mostly dependent on the European monetary policy, a situation others routinely labelled "neo-colonialism" and which has evoked stern critique of France over the years.

In early October, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said France was open to an "ambitious reform" of the CFA franc. He was echoing the thoughts of French president Emmanuel Macron whiles addressing students during a visit to Burkina Faso a few years ago.

Bruno Le Maire was quoted as saying: 

"What I can tell you is that the president of the Republic is ready for an ambitious reform of the franc zone. But I repeat: it is up to the member states of the franc zone to take the initiative, make proposals and measure how far they wish to go."

Header Image Credit: Benin Web TV