Devaluation of the CFA (XOF, XAF): Ramblings of Cameroon's Finance Minister.

It may be too late to save the African franc (XAF and XOF). Both the BEAC XAF of Central African Former French colonies and the West African XOF will loose about 40% of their value soon.

Initially programmed for early January 2012, after the African Diaspora would have completed remittances to their families back in Africa for the end of year holiday celebrations, the devaluation may be coming sooner. Monetary authorities are doing all they can to mitigate the premature leak that is causing a halt in the flow if cash into the CFA franc countries, and the massive capital flight that is currently taking place.

In a weak and rambling rebuttal of the imminent devaluation of the CFA franc, Cameroon's Minister of Economy and Finance went on national radio and could not raise any solid argument to prove that the CFA franc won't lose 40% of its value. Speaking in a hesitant manner without any figures to back his assertions, he went on about how Cameroon's economy is doing great and he is the one in charge who makes all the decisions, whereas we all know that Monetary policy in the BEAC and BCEAO regions is tightly regulated from the french treasury and the African Ministers simply execute instructions. In a Freudian slip, France's former prime minister and vice president of the french senate, Jean-Pierre Rafarrin, someone who can speak with authority on this matter said that CFA franc countries stand to benefit from the devaluation!

If a bank is failing and does not have enough cash at hand to fulfill its obligations to its customers, there is no way that it will be publicly acknowledged that the bank is no longer solvent. This is to prevent the classic run on the bank, where everyone who gets wind of the information hastily clears out their account. In fact, in some cases, a healthy bank may go bankrupt because all depositors want their money at the same time.

But this is a global financial tsunami that has already brought down governments in Greece, Spain, Italy, and is knocking on the door of France. The very Euro, the currency the binds the Euro zone together seems to be raveling. Anyone who fails to see that Africa is the next stop of this global financial meltdown simply will land back on earth when they go hungry for a couple of days early next year after the devaluation of the CFA.


The CFA Franc, both the XAF and XOF are pegged to the Euro at a more or less fixed parity. Within the last couple of weeks, looking at historic data, one can see that the Franc has appreciated relative to the Euro. A stronger franc means that ill gotten money from the likes of the son of the Equatorial Guinea strongman Theodorin Nguema could be used to buy luxury cars, while the population remains oppressed and without clean drinking water or medicines.

The elites know too well what will happen when the devaluation of the CFA franc goes into effect. There will be rising costs of basic necessities like rice, cooking oil and gasoline. Riots will ensue, and since most of them went to the polls this year, they could very easily be swept from power by popular revolutions. The internet has brought freedom of speech which has been denied millions of hard working people in the past, and never, never should Africans accept to be deceived by their manipulative leaders.