ABSTRACT
The idea of financial integration in West Africa dates back to the colonial era. With the partition of Africa and the imposition of colonial rule, Britain and France emerged as the main colonial authorities in West Africa. Britain, for its part initiated early attempts to establish an economic and political system for the smooth functioning of its colonies. It took a number of steps to control the supply of currencies in its new colonies First Britain outlawed all pre-colonial currencies. Then in 1912 it created the West African Currency Board (WACB). The WACB’s role was to provide and control the supply of money in the colonies.1 Some observers have argued that in reality, the WACB did nothing more than act as a Bureau de Change issuing as much local currency as the banks wanted to buy for sterling and vice versa. Thus the WACB was not in the strict sense of the word a monetary authority with a role in deepening monetary integration amongst Britain’s colonies.
