2018-03-26 Mon

Member nations of the West African Monetary Zone — Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Guinea, and Liberia are working to introduce a single currency by 2020 called “ECO”.

On 21st February, a meeting of a task force was conducted in Accra, where Ghana’s president discussed the release of this new common currency. He stated that the population of West African nations is going to increase from 350 million to 500 million in the next 20 years. There is an exciting market for goods produced in these countries due to the increasing population and a total GDP of some US$600 billion. Nations participating in this shared currency will have to first work on inflation rates, deficits, central bank financing, and reserves.

However, the concept was first discussed in 2000. It was supposed to go live in 2003 but has been continuously postponed.

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