Nigeria and six other members of the Economic Community of West African States on Thursday demanded a crucial extraordinary meeting to discuss the controversial renaming of the CFA Francs as ECO by eight of their counterparts.
The demand was contained in a communique issued at the end of a meeting by the countries, namely Nigeria, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
On December 21, 2019, the eight French-speaking West African countries announced their decision to dump the French CFA Francs for the ECO single currency scheduled to take off this year.
ECO is the name adopted for the common currency of the ECOWAS by the Authority of the Community’s Heads of State and Government at their 55th Ordinary Session in Abuja.
The announcement was made by the Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara, on behalf of the eight countries, namely Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Togo Republic.
The adoption of the common currency, expected to be issued in June 2020, is part of efforts by ECOWAS to realise its over 30 years’ aspiration to establish a single currency among its members and ensure regional economic integration in the region.
Ghana had applauded the decision of its Francophone counterparts to break from the shackles of the French colonialism to team up with their ECOWAS colleagues.

Many analysts described the French President, Emmanuel Macron’s role in the eight former colonial territories as an attempt to hijack the ECO single currency project.
But, at the end of the extra-ordinary meeting, the Ministers of Finance and the Governors of the Central Banks of the West African Monetary Zone on the ECOWAS single currency programme condemned the eight countries for taking a unilateral decision over the issue.