Katy LEE AND Rémi BANET -
It has featured among complaints by French “yellow vest” protesters and in populist Italian rhetoric: Africa’s CFA franc currency has become an unexpected hot topic on Europe’s political fringes.
When a list of unofficial “yellow vest” demands went viral in December, some observers were surprised to see scrapping the CFA franc included alongside domestic requests such as a minimum wage hike. If most “yellow vests” are chiefly concerned by the rich-poor divide at home, among their ranks is a hard-left minority which sees the CFA franc as a tool of French neo-colonialism.
It’s a charge that has simmered for years among anti-imperialist intellectuals who argue that francophone Africa could have developed faster if it wasn’t for the shackles of the franc.
The issue continues to generate strong opinions on the streets of cities like Abidjan and Bangui, and in 2017 protesters staged anti-franc demonstrations in Benin, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Mali.
And this week the CFA franc cropped up again in a diplomatic spat between France and Italy, with Paris summoning the Italian ambassador over incendiary remarks by deputy premier Luigi di Maio. He accused France of continuing to “colonise” African countries, charging that it “hampers development and contributes to the departure of refugees” through the CFA franc.
But what exactly do anti-establishment politicians like Di Maio and some French “yellow vests” have against a currency used by some 155 million people in Central and West Africa?
The CFA franc is technically two different currencies.
One version is used in West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo) and the other in central Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon).
It was introduced in 1945, 15 years before these former colonies declared independence from France. All but two of the countries using it are former French territories.
Arguments both for and against the franc hinge on whether the currency, which has a fixed exchange rate with the euro, is healthy for African economies.
Some economists argue this “peg” overvalues the franc, making African exports more expensive than they should be. This would hurt local companies and hamper growth.
More broadly, critics say the peg forces African central banks to coordinate their monetary policies with Europe’s, which is not necessarily in their interests. — AFP
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