Best Bitcoin Exchange for Senegal

Senegal is a West African country with an economy dependent on agriculture and exports. Senegal is a member of several economic forums such as the World Trade Organization, ECOWAS and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). The country uses the West African CFA franc as legal tender. Senegal is dependent on economic aid from developed countries. The headquarters of the Central Bank of West African States is located in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

Digital currency

Senegal is one of the first African countries to introduce a digital currency both in Africa and abroad. The eCFA was developed in partnership between eCurrency Mint Limited and Banque Regionale de Marches. The currency, which will be introduced in 2016 and introduced in 2017, is a unique digital currency as the central bank controls the money supply. The currency is also linked to the e-money regulations of the West African Central Bank. The Senegalese currency offers high flexibility as a currency and enables transactions across different banks and mobile money platforms.

eCFA

Senegal will start using its electronic money called eCFA in 2017. And if everything goes well for Senegal then the electronic CFA or eCFA will also be used in Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo and Guinea Bissau. The eCFA will not make the physical CFA franc disappear but will be used in parallel.

The eCFA will be issued by the Regional Bank REGIONAL MARKET BANK in collaboration with the Central Bank of West Africa using technology developed by eCurrency Mint Limited allowing central banks to issue their money in electronic form in a more secure way than the physical currency version.

However, Tunisia is the first country in Africa to issue its currency in electronic form in January 2016 on the bitcoin block chain, eDinar, using the platform of Monetas, a Swiss company. Therefore, the eDinar is the first crypto to have legal tender status in a country in the world. However, Ecuador was the first country where the government itself decided to issue national currency in electronic form.

Let us return to the case of Tunisia. Speaking of currency, eDinar Johann Gevers, Monetas’ CEO explains that “Monetas’ deployment in Tunisia is the first implementation of a complete ecosystem of electronic payments. By using the Android application of the Tunisian Post deployed on Monetas, Tunisians will be able, with their mobile phones, to make instant money transfers, pay for goods and services online and in person, pay salaries and invoices and manage official government identification documents.

The French West African Franc

The West African colonies of France used the French West African franc as their currency. The currency was introduced into the colonies in 1903 and used until 1945 when CFA francs were introduced. The West African Bank distributed the coins and banknotes of the currency in various denominations. The coins were made of aluminium and bronze and were denominated in 50 centimes and 1 franc. The denominations were 1, 2, 5, 10, 50 and 1000.

The CFA Franc

The CFA franc is the currency used by a group of 14 countries in Central and West Africa. Central Africa uses the Central African CFA franc, West Africa the West African CFA franc. In theory, the two currencies are the same and have the same value, although the difference lies in their geographical areas of use. Senegal has used the West African CFA franc as its official legal tender since its introduction in 1945. The currency is shared by eight West African states that make up the African Financial Community. The currency is abbreviated as XOF with the symbol CFA. Each franc has 100 divisions, called centimes (c). The central bank in the regional states issues the West African CFA franc in various forms and values. The CFA coins are denominated in 1-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, 200-, 250- and 500-francs, while the banknotes are denominated in 500-, 1000-, 2000-, 5000- and 10000-francs. The CFA franc is linked to the euro at a fixed exchange rate of 655.957 CFA francs per euro. The US dollar is traded at a rate of 0.001731 US dollars for each West African CFA franc.

Inflation

The institution of economic reform in the 1990s led to a 50% devaluation of the CFA franc, which increased inflation rates, especially for imported goods. The exit of Senegalese society was also a consequence of the devaluation. However, the reforms saw an increase in GDP growth and eventually a reduction in inflation rates.