France promoted the birth of the CEAO in 1973 with the aim of countering Nigeria's ambitions to lead the process of regional integration through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an institution created in 1975 with headquarters in Abuja and comprising 15 countries. In 1994, Nigerian officials believed for a moment that the devaluation of the CFA franc was a signal that France was cutting Africa loose to focus on European integration. But faced with the creation of the WAEMU, which they saw as a further brake on the push towards regional integration, they had to rapidly reconsider.

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 289