(Business in Cameroon) - The Cfa Franc currently in use in the eight countries of the UEMOA zone (Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo and Niger) should soon become a de facto currency in the six countries of the CEMAC (Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, CAR and Chad). The governors of the BCEAO, Tiémoko Koné and BEAC, Lucas Abaga Nchama, assured this on 9 April 2016 in Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, during the concluding press conference of the biannual meeting of Finance Ministers of the Franc zone.

“I will not give an exact dcate, but i twill come soon, in order to consolidate the integration” of both our regions, Lucas Abaga Nchama highlighted. “We have worked hard on the subject. Unfortunately, the development of the situation is leading us to take more stringent measures”, Tiémoko Koné added.

Indeed, the governor of the Central Bank of Western African States indicated, while much progress has been made on the path to interchangeability of Cfa Francs from the CEMAC and UEMOA zones, “the risks have now become more important”, due to the rise of terrorism in these two areas of Africa and the risks of money laundering.

Thus, we learned, the two central banks are currently working on “the interconnection of the payment systems” of the two regions, in order to avoid the interchangeability of Cfa issued by the central banks of UEMOA and CEMAC countries opening the way to the financing of terrorism and money laundering. “Soon, we will set up the system”, Tiémoko Koné assured.

BRM