Sahel States Eye New Currency – Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso say they will launch a “Sahel Central Bank” and new regional currency to break free from CFA franc.

Inside the printing rooms, gold vaults and late-night meetings where Europe’s oldest colonial currency faces its biggest threat.

The first hint came not in a press release but in the whirr of high-speed presses inside a heavily-guarded print-works on the outskirts of Bamako. Workers in dust coats were told to swap the familiar blue-and-violet CFA notes for trial sheets of a new design: baobab trees, gold nuggets and the shared emblem of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

“We were ordered to drop everything else,” one printer told this paper, voice lowered. “The supervisor said: *‘From today, this is our money.’

That overnight shift, three sources inside the Malian finance ministry confirm, was step one in the most audacious monetary break-up West Africa has seen since independence: the creation of a Sahel Central Bank and a new, still-unnamed common currency that Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso intend to circulate before the end of 2026.

A vault in Niamey, a vault in Paris

For 79 years, the West African CFA franc—pegged to the euro and backed by 50 % of member reserves parked in the French Treasury—has been the financial oxygen of eight countries. Paris argues the arrangement guarantees stability; critics call it a “post-colonial tax” that keeps former colonies on a monetary leash.

The leash is now fraying. In September, the AES finance ministers quietly approved a founding charter for the Confederal Bank for Investment and Development (BCID-AES) with an initial paid-in capital of 500 billion CFA francs ($820 million) drawn from central-bank surpluses and a new 0.5 % import levy imposed on goods from non-member states.

“This is not just a bank,” Mali’s minister Alousséni Sanou told state TV. “It is a declaration of economic sovereignty.”

Gold in the vault, guns on the border

Behind the swagger lies a simple equation: the three countries control 75 % of WAEMU’s land mass, half its population and, crucially, the region’s only working gold refineries—in Bamako and Ouagadougou. Customs data show combined official output of 73 tonnes last year, worth $4.4 billion at current prices. Add informal production smuggled across the Sahara and the figure could double.

The new currency will be “resource-backed”, officials say, though they refuse to say how much metal will sit in the vault for every note printed. Analysts warn a rigid gold link could handcuff governments during downturns; supporters reply that “at least the gold will be physically here, not in a Paris cellar.”

Printing secrecy, counting confusion

Neither the name, the symbol nor the exchange-rate band has been made public. What is known:
- De La Rue, the British security printer, has been approached for 1.2 billion banknotes, tender documents show.
- China Banknote Card Industry Co. (CBNIC) offered a 20 % discount if Beijing is allowed to build a satellite earth-station for the bloc’s biometric passport project .
- France’s Oberthur, long-time printer of CFA notes, was not invited to bid.

Economists fear a two-currency cliff edge. Mali remains technically inside WAEMU; its banks still clear payments through the regional central bank in Dakar. Exiting overnight could freeze liquidity, deplete reserves and trigger a run on deposits. Ivory Coast, the zone’s largest economy, has already hinted it will seize Malian assets in the regional stock exchange if Bamako defaults on its 147 billion CFA franc obligation to UEMOA .

Street reactions: hope, fear and price stickers

In Niamey’s Diori Market, vegetable seller Hadiza Moussa has started pricing tomatoes in both CFA and “future Sahel”:
“Customers ask: *‘Will my savings evaporate?’* I have no answer.”

In Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second city, importers hoarded rice and cooking oil last month, betting on a devaluation spiral. Prices jumped 18 % in a week; the junta responded by banning export of cereals, a move WAEMU says violates regional free-trade rules it no longer recognises.

Diplomatic trenches

- Paris calls the plan “economic suicide”, warning the trio could lose access to the regional bond market where they have raised $3.8 billion since 2018.
- ECOWAS, which the AES quit in January, says any parallel currency will be “null and void” inside WAEMU territory.
- China has offered a $1 billion stabilisation credit, repayable in gold concentrate, according to a term-sheet seen by this paper.
- Russia dispatched central-bank technicians to Ouagadougou last month to audit gold stockpiles, two Burkinabe officials confirmed.

The transition map (leaked)

A confidential “monetary road-map” dated 2 November outlines:
Phase Milestone Deadline
1 Finalise BCID-AES statutes Dec 2025
2 Freeze-print CFA notes bearing national letters Jan 2026
3 Launch dual-currency period (CFA + Sahel) July 2026
4 Full legal tender of new unit Jan 2027

The document warns of “possible 30 % depreciation” if confidence collapses and urges capital controls on large transfers.

Bottom line

Breaking the CFA franc is more than changing banknotes; it is a geopolitical divorce with France, a gamble on gold and a test of whether three of the world’s poorest states can print their way to sovereignty without triggering inflation, isolation or another coup.

As a senior Malian banker told this paper over lukewarm attaya:
“We can mint coins, we can mint hope. But we cannot mint trust. That has to come from the streets, not the vault.”

For now, the presses keep rolling, the gold keeps arriving and the clock ticks toward July 2026—the month West Africa may discover if freedom from Paris is liberation, or just a heavier chain forged at home.

This has been The Red Hot Report from Pepper-Room. The news that bears it all.

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