The CFA guarantee arrangement secretly benefits France at Africa’s expense

Evidence

Ultimately, we are in the presence of a mechanism that defies belief: France uses its presumed role of ‘guarantor’ as a pretext and as a tool to blackmail its former colonies in order to keep them in its orbit, both economically and politically, as we will see in Chapters 4 and 5. Worse, the African states not only guarantee the convertibility of the CFA franc with their own reserves, but continue, in fact, to ‘guarantee’ France’s leading position in the global economy, by accruing important benefits to its economy. All the foundations of the CFA system are based on a mug’s game. Therefore, it is not surprising that African leaders, following their countries’ independence, immediately mobilised against the CFA franc. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 146

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The CFA franc persists because French and African elites both profit from it; The CFA franc’s real purpose was draining colonial wealth to France.; France’s guarantee is backed by pooled African reserves and French central bank seats (+33 more)

Related

• CFA convertibility guarantee is cheap only because African economies stay small. (similarity 0.93)
• The CFA franc persists because French and African elites both profit from it (similarity 0.93)
• The CFA franc’s real purpose was draining colonial wealth to France. (similarity 0.92)
• The French guarantee of the CFA franc was illusory since African reserves exceeded debts (similarity 0.92)
• France’s guarantee is backed by pooled African reserves and French central bank seats (similarity 0.91)
• The CFA franc was a colonial instrument depriving African actors of credit. (similarity 0.91)
• African deputies publicly exposed the CFA franc as a tool of the colonial pact (similarity 0.91)
• Self-interest blinded the French to unequal benefits of development (similarity 0.90)
• The convertibility guarantee costs France under 1.3 percent of GDP (similarity 0.89)
• The CFA franc persists because French and African elite interests both benefit. (similarity 0.89)
• The CFA franc was a political choice that deprived non-adapting African actors of credit (similarity 0.89)
• France’s convertibility guarantee was a fraud that would never actually materialize (similarity 0.88)
• African countries lost 250 billion CFA francs by depositing reserves in operations accounts (similarity 0.88)
• CFA franc’s real aims were draining colonial wealth into France, not African progress. (similarity 0.88)
• CFA francs are non-convertible among the three African franc-zone sub-units (similarity 0.88)

Broader Connections

• African operations-account credits function as preferential loans to France #expands (0.80) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 251
• The French guarantee of the CFA franc was illusory since African reserves exceeded debts #complicates (0.70) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 159
• The CFA franc persists because French and African elite interests both benefit. #complicates (0.65) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 360
• The CFA franc’s fixed peg forced colonies to absorb French devaluations helplessly #expands (0.65)
• France’s strong-franc policy transmitted its appreciation shock to the CFA zone #expands (0.60) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 206
• France has allocated zero euros to guarantee CFA franc convertibility #expands (0.55) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 246
• France kept sole CFA responsibility by convincing EU partners the guarantee cost nothing #expands (0.50) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 227
• A French finance ministry lobby defends the CFA system for investor profits. #expands (0.50) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 257