Lagos, Nigeria(CNN)As part of its plans to make Africa a more integrated continent, leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have adopted the name 'ECO' for a planned single currency to be used in the region.
The 15 member group announced at the end of an ECOWAS summit in Abuja, Nigeria's capital on Saturday.
Six member countries, including Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana, could be swapping their currencies for a new one - the ECO.
Eight ECOWAS countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo) currently jointly use the CFA franc.
Originally intended to be launched in 2000, the ECO has been postponed multiple times, and the newest target date is 2020.
According to an internal document seen by CNN, ECOWAS will be working with the West African Monetary Agency (WAMA), the West Africa Monetary Institute (WAMI) and central banks to speed up the implementation of a new road map for the proposed single trade currency.
ECO is supposed to boost economic development in the West African region and improve cross border trade.
If implemented, countries across the region will be able to move and spend money across different countries without worrying about exchange rate costs says economic analyst, Tokunbo Afikuyomi.
"The single currency if properly implemented will improve trade by allowing specific countries to specialize at what they are good at, and exchange it for other goods that other countries in the bloc produce more efficiently," he told CNN.
The single currency will also help to address the region's monetary problems like the difficulty in converting some of its currencies and the lack of independence of central banks.
Replies
Years ago some friends of mine created the African Gold Bullion bank in Angola and the Natural Resouce bank Which was a joint effort by Pan Africanist from America and Africa.The new government of Angola still has it under review as the founder a personal friend of mine is currently being detained on corruption charges which are false.She is the one that first proposed a African diaspora city state in Angola.The current AU ambassador took the idea to Zimbabwe and Zambia her home country.This idea is not new but there has to be something backing the currency up.Also what about very poor performers like Liberia?.Also the Infrastructure to facilitate regional commerce and trade is not there as the Europeans Lebanese control the logistics in West Africa
Next step, is a Gold Dinar currency as well as a cryptocurrency, and drop the power of the world bank.
This plan was actually developed in 1978 by Liberian President William Tolbert a protege of Kwame Nkrumah called the Lagos Plan of Action
I pray it works.They should explore using crypto currency along with this new one