In short, if a state wants to leave the franc zone, it does not need to ask for permission. He just has to assume its responsibilities. Having said this, we need to distinguish between two possible exit scenarios: an individual exit and a collective exit. The first could be described as a 'nationalist exit': the countries that decide to follow this path would simply begin to mint their own currency. Obviously, if one of the leading countries of the two monetary unions, Cameroon, Ivory Coast or Senegal, chose to leave the franc zone, as Algeria, Guinea, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia and Vietnam did, the CFA system would likely not survive. The solution of an isolated exit, however, involves many risks and uncertainties and would not be immune to sabotage attempts (as several countries experienced in the past; see Chapter 3). The other option is the so-called 'pan-African exit': in this case, the African countries of the same monetary union would decide to abolish the monetary cooperation agreement and the agreement on the operations account with France in a collective and solidary manner. Instead of a single country leaving the monetary union, France would be the one to be 'kicked out', while the monetary union would remain in place. As a result, the operations account, the centralisation of the foreign exchange reserves in Paris and the French 'guarantee' of convertibility would disappear. Obviously, France would no longer be represented in the central banks and the foreign exchange reserves would come under the control of the African countries.

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 340