Opposition Leader Says It Will Be A Disaster For Cameroon To Create Its Own Currency, When The Biya Gov’t Is Still In Power

The debate as to whether Cameroon should pull out of the French neocolonialism which the franc CFA represents, and create its own currency, took an interesting turn on Sunday, September 20, 2024. This was in a debate during the weekly flagship programme of Vision 4 TV in Yaounde, known as ‘Club D’Elites’.

Prof Oliver Bile, the leader of the opposition alliance for the 2025 presidential election, known as the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition in Cameroon, who was one of the invited panelists in the discussion, said he was strongly in support of the idea that Cameroon should assert its independence by creating its currency. He said Cameroon has the capacity to create and sustain its own currency, and that it will be for the great interest of the country to pull out of the Franc CFA

But Prof Bile explained that while he is strongly in favour of the creation by Cameroon’s of its own currency, it should however not happen when the Biya or CPDM Government is still in power, considering the reckless way in which the government manages money. He said if Cameroon creates its own currency under the Biya Government, it will not take long for the currency to become useless, because the Government will violate all the international rules and regulations or international norms guiding the printing of money and minting of coins by a country, and will every now and then be ordering the Central bank to print more money. (Remember the film on the former Uganda leader, Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada).

Prof Bile sent the other panelists choking with laughter, when he said if Cameroon creates its own currency under the Biya or CPDM Government, the currency of Cameroon will drop to the level where for one to go and buy a loaf of bread in the store, he will need a wheelbarrow to transport money (It happened during the days of Robert Mugabe in power in Zimbabwe).

So Prof Bile cautioned that while it is a great idea for Cameroon to create its own currency, it will instead be a disaster for the country, if the currency is created   when the Biya regime or the CPDM Government is still in power.

Meanwhile it should be noted that FCFA which was imposed on former colonies by France to continue its neocolonialism, means: Franc of Financial Cooperation in Africa (Source of the definition – Development Bank of Central African States, BDEAC).