ABCON Advises FG On Eco Currency Involvement

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has warned the Federal Government on France’s involvement in the Eco currency project.

ABCON's president, Aminu Gwadabe,  gave the warning during the association’s fourth quarterly Review of 2019 (Q4’19), where the president said that Nigeria should critically examine the role of France in the ECO currency project before taking a decision.

The president described the idea of accepting the decision to change the name of West African currency into a common currency (ECO) as a move to dominate the West Africa country's economy into a francophone colony.

Quoting the association, the president said "Nigeria must not adopt the currency with France or Euro as the background promoters to avoid enslaving West Africa economically".

“If the prime objective to facilitate cross border trade and economic development of the member states is still to be achieved, the structure of the system must be built on fundamentals in the sub region to complete with other economic blocks"

“Government is encouraged to pursue the project with sincerity of purpose based on sound policies devoid of interference from any economic block.

"The Central Bank of the sub region should be independent of investing the reserves in any world currency to satisfy the interest of constituent states,” he said.

Meanwhile, ABCON has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to address market structure that exposes a BDC firm to unconventional structure, unfair competition and risk.