In the Italian political world, the recent resurgence of the migration problem has sparked controversy over the franc Cfa. The president of Fratelli d'Italia, Giorgia Meloni, speaking on “Non è l’Arena” on La 7, he showed a CFA franc note and a photo of a child from Burkina Faso working in a gold mine and said: “The solution is not to take Africans and move them to Europe but to free Africa from certain Europeans, like the French, who exploit it". Statements that matched those later pronounced by Luigi Di Maio and Alessandro Di Battista, who pointed the finger at Paris, accused of being the main exploiting power of the countries of the African continent.
The topic is, in some ways, certainly oversimplifying: Africa's problems are many and very profound, geopolitical issues, economic and social to which are added a strong race for control of the continent by the major powers and issues such as land grabbing which remove large portions of African territories from the sovereignty of their peoples. However, in certain contexts the interference of Paris is recognizable and macroscopic. And the CFA franc presents itself as a fundamental instrument for this interference.

History and structure of the CFA franc

This currency system was created in 1945 like Franco of the French Colonies of Africa, creating the acronym which significantly remained unchanged after the development of the replacement African Financial Community starting from the 1960s. Two currencies refer to the CFA franc, one for West Africa and one for Central Africa and 14 Villages: Cameroon, First, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
According to an agreement between France and its former colonies, the CFA franc was linked to the French franc first and then to the euro through a fixed exchange rate, with Paris guaranteeing full convertibility of the currency and internal transfers to the monetary area through the Ministry of the Treasury, who however asks for the deposit, took a ministry account, of the 65% of the foreign reserves of the countries adhering to the monetary union.

The problems of the CFA Franc

According to analyst Giuseppe Masala, This is where the problems relating to the currency system in question begin. “In fact, the fixed exchange rate eliminates the exchange rate risk for investments by Western multinationals in the countries of the Monetary Union”, write Masala up Globalist glimpsing the “devil of colonialism” behind the CFA franc. “It's not enough, the fixed exchange rate (furthermore guaranteed by the French Treasury) favors the accumulation in the coffers of Western banks of immense treasures fruit of corruption of local rulers . As if that wasn't enough, all this happens to the detriment of the local real economy, suffocated by the rigidity of the exchange rate with a very strong currency like the Euro".
“The second point is probably even worse than the first. Which sovereign nation would deposit, to guarantee the convertibility of your currency, I am the province 65% of its foreign reserves at the Treasury Ministry of a foreign state, moreover that of the former colonial country? No sovereign country would ever do such a thing, what a delivery the keys to development (or underdevelopment) to a foreign nation".
And here we get into slippery terrain: There are numerous doubts regarding the actual sovereignty of the CFA franc countries. And Paris, in this context, contributed to thickening them. Just think of the lightheartedness with which France considered the pre-carrè African as a real "backyard". From the Ivory Coast to Mali, passing through the Central African Republic, Paris has been at the forefront of political-economic interference and the race for resources, among which Nigerien uranium, vital for its atomic industry, has stood out for years. The connivance of local governments did the rest, with France which has engaged in a real subsidiary operation making Chad its regional "gendarme" in recent years.

What role does the CFA franc have in the underdevelopment of African countries?

However, Masala's criticisms and the awareness of Paris' influence in the Sahel and in the rest of the former colonial area must not lead to reversing the terms of the issue: it is not so much the CFA franc that is the direct cause of the notable problems that the relations between the center and the former periphery of the French colonial empire present today, but rather the currency to be a fundamental component of a system that prefigures the maintenance of an umbilical link between Paris and its former colonies.
As he writes Rare Metals, “The CFA franc has not been able to eradicate the chronic problems of African economies, although it is not easy to determine to what extent it contributed to worsening the situation. Of course, has shaped the functioning of these economies and, since it is a hard currency, it certainly doesn't help exports. Probably, in countries with fragile agricultural sectors and industries in their infancy, the rigidity of this currency and the difficulty in devaluing it (French approval is required) they are a major obstacle to development”.
But this helps us understand how, in the last resort, the problem is purely political: Changing the currency will not help the countries of the African continent to obtain a decent level of development if the local ruling classes do not reach a level of development that makes autonomous action possible. And this, if you look closely, Paris doesn't like it.

Beyond the CFA franc: This is how Paris influences African governments

The CFA franc appears to be functional as an instrument of control of numerous African countries which has promptly swallowed up all the leaders who have tried to change the status quo. The most emblematic case is that of the Pan-Africanist hero, the Burkinabe President Thomas Sankara, killed in 1987 shortly after having proclaimed his desire to break the debt slavery that oppressed African countries.
But the numbers that concern the Françafrique they go beyond the famous Sankara case and are sensational. “The list of coups d'état carried out in Africa, especially in the former French colonies, it's impressive", writes Italy Today. “Five in Burkina Faso and the Comoros. Four in Burundi, Central African Republic, Niger and Mauritania. Three in Congo and Chad. Two in Algeria, Mali, Guinea Conakry. At least one in Togo and Ivory Coast. Historians have calculated that in the last 50 years there have been 67 coups d'état in 26 African countries, 16 of which were former French colonies. It is concrete proof that, dal 1945 onwards, France did everything, by any means and at any price, in order to keep its former colonies under control". Sylvanus of Olympias, President of Togo killed in 1963, and Modiba Keita, President of Mali overthrown in 1968, they were ousted from power shortly after explicitly criticizing the outspoken CFA.

Added to this is the theme of military dependence of African countries from Paris. Currently, France is linked to 12 countries from defensive military agreements, and is present in 10 countries with military missions, for a total of over 5 thousand units present. All this contributes to outlining a picture of dependence that cannot and must not be reduced to a single monetary issue, but look further, in the knowledge that yes, the CFA franc is a problem for African countries, but within a broad context in which France dominates. With devastating effects on the lives of hundreds of millions of people, inhabitants of countries without real prospects and autonomous sovereignty who too often seek in emigration the answer to the unsustainability of the contexts in which they live.
source – http://www.occhidellaguerra.it/cose-franco-cfa-la-moneta-coloniale-parigi/