The CFA Franc ORIGIN NAZI, an insult to the sovereignty of African countries 2012-10-09, Issue 255 October 5, 2012, France and the fifteen countries of the franc zone celebrated 40 years of monetary cooperation agreement. This cooperation which places the bulk of the former French colonies of Black Africa in a situation of dependency money, windscreen fierce criticism from several economists continent. These anti-CFA highlight the negative impact of this change on the economic growth of our country. Is celebrated in October 5, 2012 the forty years of the CFA Franc, you inspire such an event? Demba Moussa Dembele - Unfortunately it does is nothing to celebrate because these agreements are part of a neocolonial pact sealed at the time of independence. The former colonies were trapped by General (Charles) de Gaulle and the French government. So monetary cooperation and defense agreements, etc., are simply tools to perpetuate domination of France on our countries and the monetary level is a key instrument to dominate our economies. More than 50 years after independence we find that all vital sectors of our economies are controlled by French companies. So people who are paid to the neo-colonial ideology and who think and breathe only by France, will celebrate this somewhere in France. But we, we have nothing to celebrate. Instead we must denounce these agreements are an insult to the sovereignty of our country and our economic emancipation. Exactly critics point a negative impact on the CFA the economic development of the franc zone countries components, can you tell us more? DMD - for example when you take the free transfer between our country and France, it is a means by which the money leaving our country to go abroad because from the moment the capital are in France they can go anywhere in the world. So this freedom of movement of capital between us and France, it is a way to encourage the financial drain of our countries. With this freedom to transfer that excludes any form of control of movement of capital, our domestic savings may simply move to France. However, supporters of FCFA you easily retort that its peg to the euro has allowed monetary stability and keeping inflation countries of the Franc Zone ... DMD - This is not a valid argument, I compared with other countries such as Angola and the inflation rates are not even comparable, and its growth rates are higher than ours, then this country attracts ten once more foreign direct investment (Ide) our country. Ghana is next is now in good health, the cedi is doing well and the country attracts more capital than our country with their so-called financial stability. The Nigerian giant with all its problems attracting more foreign capital that we who are in the CFA zone. So it is not stability or low inflation rate which is a performance index is a simplistic monetarist vision that has nothing to do with the reality of economic and social development. You have countries like China is now the second world economy where inflation rates are higher than the rates recorded here, simply because we are forced to blindly follow the policies of the European Central Bank, as our two central banks in Dakar and Yaounde are corresponding with the French Treasury. We do not have sovereignty over our monetary policy and that is to the detriment of our economies. Then if you take the fifteen countries that use the CFA Franc including the Comoros, with the exception of Gabon, all others is to say, including Côte dIvoire and Cameroon, are classified in the least developed countries (LDCs) in the Heavily Indebted Poor countries (HIPC). Then (...) where is the asset of the CFA here? And I add to this that 50% of our foreign exchange reserves, you realize, are deposited to the French Treasury. How do you expect countries with half of the reserves are deposited in another country to develop, it is not possible! Criticism against this system are legion, but what are the arguments we have to reclaim our monetary sovereignty? DMD - First the argument that everyone can see is that the CFA is a failure, we can continue fifty years but it still will not move. You know, a country he soon becomes independent, if he wants to assert its sovereignty, has three symbols: the currency, the anthem and the flag. You have the small side Gambia and has its Dalasi is -this one is better off it? Fifty years after the first finding is that the CFA is one of the obstacles to the development of our countries. Deuxièmemt if we who are within the ECOWAS (Economic Community of the States of West Africa, ed), that is to say fifteen countries and 300 million people, so outnumber the combined European if we are not able to have a currency to serve as a social and economic development lever, then it is not worth being independent. But its been years that we discuss the establishment of a West African currency. Besides, at a future meeting in Dakar, the director of the Monetary Agency of West Africa will make us the state of play on this issue. Today what speech should I wear for the heads of state in order to respond to this question? DMD - The message we need to do is to tell them that any currency that circulates without your currency alienates your sovereignty. And besides you remember that in 1994 when the devaluation of the CFA, we did not ask the opinion of our heads of state, they came to inform them. And at that time it was not the French president who had come nor his Prime Minister even less the finance minister but the Minister of Cooperation, who had come to inform fourteen Heads of State and Government, you go Sign Up! We locked them up in a hotel and was told that it is their take it or leave it, you do not have a choice and they signed. This humiliation shows that they have no control over this currency. I think the point of view of their dignity, they should know that it is time to do as all the other countries of the world, even the small ones that create their own currency. No African country can Emergent with the CFA franc Pr. & Olivier Nicolas Agbohou Ndenkop Pambazuka - The CFA, an insult to the sovereignty of African countries
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 18:44:45 +0000