It must be recognized that the CFA and Comorian francs are neocolonial currencies, in the sense that they have survived formal political independence and today continue in subordinate relationships vis-à-vis the former colonial metropolis, concealing their true nature. As such, they are completely unsuited to the real needs of African economies and societies.

There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, the stability of the exchange rate is essentially derived from the fact that the strategy imposed on African “partners” reflects the monetary policy followed in the eurozone—much more than France’s acceptance to “take up this burden,” as Rudyard Kipling would poetically say. The currencies of these franc zones are only current extensions of the euro on African soil, as they were previously those to the French franc, to the extent that the absolute priority of securing fixed parity takes precedence over any other objective. Nevertheless, the historic, geographic, demographic, and socio-economic realities of Europe and Africa are, to say the least, different. The latter, on the periphery and even deemed the fourth world in the global capitalist system, has been dominated by the former, at the center, despite having lost its hegemony; and continues to be so. This means that such monetary stability mainly benefits foreign agents—from locally based transnational corporate management to “expatriate” individuals—much more than local actors.