Banknotes from the West African States, issuing the West African CFA franc. Curre.ntly used by Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo.

The West African CFA franc (XOF) was introduced in 1945 as the franc des Colonies Françaises d’Afrique and initially pegged at 1 CFA = 1.70 French francs, later strengthened to 1 CFA = 2 francs in 1948. After independence, the region preserved monetary unity through the BCEAO, whose membership has included eight enduring users—Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and later Guinea-Bissau (joined 1997)—as well as short-lived participants like Mauritania (until 1973) and Mali, which left in 1962 to create the Malian franc before rejoining the XOF in 1984. The currency remained fixed to the French franc until the 1994 devaluation (1 French franc = 100 CFA, formerly 50), and then to the euro from 1999 at 1 euro = 655.957 CFA. The XOF has thus evolved from a colonial unit into one of the world’s longest-running regional monetary unions, blending shared issuance with a stable external peg that has shaped West African economic integration.