Two separate CFA francs serve 14 states in non-interconvertible unions pegged to the euro.
Evidence
This tether, invisible but firmly secured, is not the product of Yapsy’s imagination: it actually exists and has been in place since the colonial period, precisely since 1945, when the CFA franc was created. It doesn’t bind France only to the Ivory Coast, but to a total of 14 countries, grouped into two monetary zones: the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known by its French name UEMOA: Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine), comprising Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo; and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC from its name in French: Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale), which includes Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo. These two monetary unions each have their own central bank. They use two distinct CFA francs, but which share the same acronym: for the CEMAC franc, CFA stands for ‘Financial Cooperation in Central Africa’, while for the WAEMU franc it stands for ‘African Financial Community’. The two CFA francs work in exactly the same manner and are pegged to the euro with the same parity. However, the CFA banknotes of these two monetary unions are not directly convertible into one another: if you want to exchange a CFA franc of the CEMAC for a CFA franc of the WAEMU, or vice versa, you generally have to go through the euro. A fifteenth state, the Comoros, uses another franc, the Comorian franc, but is also linked to France by the same rope. These 15 states comprise the so-called ‘franc zone’, an area governed by common principles of monetary management. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 40
Categorization
- DEFINE: Names the two monetary zones, their member states, the differing CFA acronym expansions, and the non-convertibility rule.
- XREF: connects to: Fourteen countries plus the Comoros use CFA-linked francs dating from 1945.; Two CFA francs serve 162 million people across 15 states under one franc zone
Related
- Two CFA francs serve 162 million people across 15 states under one franc zone (similarity 0.96)
- Fourteen countries plus the Comoros use CFA-linked francs dating from 1945. (similarity 0.94)
- CFA francs are non-convertible among the three African franc-zone sub-units (similarity 0.85)
- CFA francs are not convertible anywhere in the world outside the French Treasury framework (similarity 0.83)
- EMU’s creation transferred monetary authority making France legally unable to renegotiate the franc zone (similarity 0.83)
- The proposed eco currency is the CFA franc under another name. (similarity 0.82)
- France avoided needing dollars to buy from CFA-zone countries. (similarity 0.81)
- Portugal replicated France’s currency cooperation model with Cabo Verde. (similarity 0.81)
- France introduced the CFA franc to several African colonies in 1945 (similarity 0.81)
- EMU law forced France’s CFA agreements into the exchange-rate cooperation category (similarity 0.81)
- The CFA franc was created on 25 December 1945 by French decree. (similarity 0.81)
- French Treasury guarantees unlimited convertibility by lending money to franc zone central banks (similarity 0.80)
- The CFA franc’s parity was set without regard for local economic realities (similarity 0.80)
- Colonial-era monetary system survived into independence as four interlocked principles (similarity 0.80)
- CFA franc notes are printed in France rather than by member states (similarity 0.80)