{"id":40298,"date":"2026-07-22T14:35:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40298"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:35:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:35:49","slug":"ecowas-leaders-reaffirm-2027-target-for-single-currency-launch","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/ecowas-leaders-reaffirm-2027-target-for-single-currency-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"ECOWAS leaders reaffirm 2027 target for single currency launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heads of state and government within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have reaffirmed their commitment to launching the region&#8217;s single currency, the ECO, by 2027.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meeting to review progress on the long-delayed monetary union, leaders agreed on a phased approach. Under the strategy, only member states that meet the strict economic convergence criteria will participate in the initial launch phase.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The decision signals a renewed push by West African nations to overcome persistent economic hurdles and deliver on one of the most ambitious regional integration projects on the continent. Achieving a monetary union is viewed as a vital step towards boosting intra-regional trade, lowering transaction costs, and building economic resilience across West Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15873,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-40298","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"West African leaders agree phased rollout for ECO single currency by 2027","published_date":"2026-07-22 14:33:33","news_description":"West African leaders agree phased rollout for ECO single currency by 2027","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40299,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40298\/revisions\/40299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}