Unified West African currency versus the Euro

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, , language: English, abstract: The need for a unified currency for West African countries is borne out of its many years of economic ties since the formation of the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS on 28 May 1975 through a Treaty signed in Lagos Nigeria. Nigerian Head of State Yakubu Gowon was the first President of ECOWAS between 28 May 1975 and 29 July 1975 ECOWAS has 15 member states as at February 2017. There are 5 English-speaking, 8 French-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking members. The countries within the bloc occupy an area of 5,114,162 km2 and an estimated population of over 350 million. The main goal of the bloc is to achieve 'collective self-sufficiency' through the formation and preservation of a common trade block and the maintenance of a joint peacekeeping force for regional stability. Peacekeeping efforts were successfully carried out in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013 and there was an intervention in Gambia in 2017 that forestalled impending crises. The operations of ECOWAS are implemented in three cooperating languages- English, French and Portuguese