THE CFA FRANC ZONE: THE IMPASSE

Why does the CFA franc zone persist, despite growing contestation and partial reforms that have not altered its essential architecture? This working paper argues that the system’s persistence is explained neither by its technical performance alone, nor by a unilateral French will to maintain it. It results from the silent convergence of multiple individual rationalities — French, African, institutional, private — none of which is willing to assume alone the cost of the decision that would clarify the system’s future. Each actor capable of transforming the CFA franc zone has structural reasons not to do so. This non-concerted convergence produces a structural non-decision that is taking hold. The 2021 UEMOA reform, the pressure of the Alliance of Sahel States, and the adoption of the CEMAC Act by the US Congress in 2025 have reshuffled the configuration of constraints without resolving the fundamental question — in doing so, breaching the boundary that has traditionally separated defenders and opponents of this colonial-era survival. This working paper is drawn from a forthcoming book: Zone franc: l’impasse (Kurukan Publishing, Yaoundé, 2026).