15 West African Countries Plan to Introduce the Eco in 2020
Right now a number of countries within the great continent of Africa are facing economic uncertainty and have issues with their sovereign issued currencies. This can be seen in regions that are suffering from hyperinflation like South Sudan and Zimbabwe but also in countries dealing with wavering monetary unpredictability. Some nations are having troubles with their sovereign issued tender and citizens tend to use multiple currencies like the CFA franc, euro or U.S. dollar for trade. On Saturday, the 15 member-country regional bloc called the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) agreed to issue a new fiat currency called the eco. The single currency has been discussed for a number of years and was supposed to be launched in 2000.

There are currently 15 member countries in the Economic Community of West African States: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Local media reports “a real firm political will” for the member countries to adopt a single monetary unit this time around. Some of the West African States use the CFA franc and six of the member countries, including Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana, have been having multiple currency issues for quite some time. The ECOWAS leaders will collaborate with the West African Monetary Agency (WAMA) and the region’s central banks in order to speed things up for 2020 adoption. Eco is not going to be a digital currency nor will it use blockchain technology and the new fiat reserve aims to bolster cross border trade.

“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,” economic analyst,Tokunbo Afikuyomi told the press on Monday.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: news.bitcoin.com