In 1950, with its 41 million inhabitants, the French population was larger than that of the current franc zone, which at the time had 30 million inhabitants. Today the relationship is reversed: the 15 African countries of the franc zone are two and a half times more populous than France (162 million inhabitants against 64 million in 2015). By 2100, they will count 800 million inhabitants against 74 million in France, according to UN projections. The ability of Paris to ‘guarantee’ the African currencies will inevitably be weakened, because the French economy will probably no longer be big enough to lend credibility to such a promise.

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 337