The president of the Republic of Benin, Patrice Talon, has announced that West African countries will be withdrawing their foreign reserve CFA franc, from France. Talon said in an interview with France24 that it is a unanimous decision by user-countries in the West African region to withdraw the fund.

“We unanimously agree on this, to end this model,” he said.

“The Central banks of African countries of WAMU (West African Monetary Union) will manage all these foreign currency reserves and will distribute them to the various central banks partners in the world,” he added.

Since 1945, the West and Central African Francophone countries have been tied to CFA Franc, which reserve is in France. The situation has technically tied the economies of the West African countries to France and by extension, the European Union (EU), which means, EU economic policies affect Francophone West African countries.

In January, Liugi Di Maio, an Italian deputy prime minister blamed France for contributing to the immigration crisis in Europe through its financial activities in Africa. He said France has been exploiting former West African colonies through CFA franc, currently being used by 14 countries in Western and Central Africa. According to ANSA, the Italian news agency, Maio said of the French president, Emmanuel Macron; “first he lectures us, then continues to finance public debt with the money with which he exploits Africa,” he said.

When the CFA franc was created in 1945, it was pegged to the French currency then, the French Franc (FF). The CFA franc continued to be used until recently when members of the Francophone region decided to create something that will represent freedom from colonialism. There are now two different versions of it: the CFA franc of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which has eight member countries, and the one for Central African Monetary and Economic Community, which has six members.

However, both versions of CFA are still pegged to the Euro and tied to the French economy. France holds 50 percent of the foreign exchange reserves of the countries using CFA, 14 of them in all. Recently, there has been a loud call for the CFA franc countries to assert their total independence from what has been described as neocolonialism that has left countries without control of their own currency.

In August 2017, a protest erupted in Dakar, the Senegalese capital over the continuous use of the CFA by African countries. Led by Kemi Seba, the infamous activist who burnt a 5,000 CFA note in defiance, it was a wakeup call to all francophone countries that still use the currency to create their own and demonstrate their total freedom from colonialism.

Pro-democracy youth movements in West Africa such as Y’en a Mare in Senegal and le Balai Citiyen in Burkina Faso have recently made the scraping of CFA their focal point. They say it’s time to end the obvious influence that France is still exercising on Africa.

These movements and protests have the complement of Liberate Africa from Monetary Slavery: Who Profits from the CFA Franc? A book published in 2016, by a group of African and European economists. The book criticizes the CFA as a means of post-colonial exploitation by France. Though France has always maintained that the participation of member countries has been out of their willingness, and the CFA reserve initiative has been to help stabilize the currency of her former colonies, using Guinea as an example, economists disagree. Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria all broke away from the CFA to issue their own currencies, which when compared to countries in CFA are significantly stable.

The argument has been that the CFA is a good currency for those who benefit from it. Talk of the major French and overseas corporations, the executives of the zone’s central banks, the elites wishing to repatriate wealth, heads of states who are not ready to step on the toes of the colonial masters yet.

France has evidently been the highest beneficiary of the CFA, a fact clear by their attitude toward African leaders who oppose the arrangement and those who support it. African leaders who support the CFA franc have enjoyed quid pro quo from France, in the form of a total support for them no matter what they do, while those who showed signs of dissent were fiercely opposed by the French government.

France holds a de facto veto on the boards of the two central banks within the CFA franc zone. Since 2010, when the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), was reformed, the conduct of monetary policy has been assigned to monetary policy committee. The French representative is a voting member of the committee, while the president of WAEMU commission attends only in an advisory capacity. Moreover, the European Central Bank also dictates the monetary and exchange rate policies CFA franc zones.

The French authorities have kept mum on the recent events regarding CFA franc, and so did African leaders until Talon broke the silence. But during his presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron was quoted to have said that moving away from the CFA is the decision of African countries.

Since 2015, the 74-year old French legacy has seen increased dissent from around the world. In 2017, Kemi Seba’s protest against the CFA, through his NGO, SOS Pan-Africa (Urgences Panafricanistes) garnered momentum across Africa, Europe and in Haiti. Pan-Africanist, economists and activists all came together to urge the countries in the CFA zone to break away.

The resuscitation of the call to break away from CFA, and move the African funds to other destinations in Europe, is however, highlighting the incredible fact that Africa still lacks the capacity to function independently. One of the economic challenges the continent has faced is a single currency to facilitate easy exchange and intra-African trade.

The proposed currency (Eco) that could have served as an alternative to CFA was due to go into use in 2015, but has been deferred until 2020. So there is no alternative currency for the 14 countries currently on CFA.

Although, Talon didn’t give a timeframe for withdrawal of the fund, 2020 is just around the corner with its uncertainties. If Ecowas fails once again to facilitate the circulation of Eco, the quest to withdraw from CFA will likely mean moving from the influence of one European country to the other.

If you’ve ever stopped abruptly in the middle of a breakfast, a project review or a cofounder’s meeting to wonder what might happen if a colleague puts a bullet in her head, you’re not alone.

For Entrepreneurs working with a cofounder, or more, to start and run a high growth business, employee suicide is just one kind of workplace challenge that they’re vulnerable to; cofounder suicide is another.

As John Arnold, a guest writer at the Entrepreneur writes in Preventing Startup Suicide. Literally, “You would think that depression among entrepreneurs is tied to failure, or perhaps workload and stress. But the truth is that many entrepreneurs struggle with mental health issues in all types of entrepreneurial situations.”

While you might be immune to depression and thoughts of suicide, your cofounder might be wallowing under its grip.

If she’s constantly expressive about killing or harming herself, whether through speech or social media posts; if she constantly compares her current emotional situation to that of suicide victims; if she’s always talking about her death and seems unusually withdrawn, isolative and sad after surviving a traumatic incident; then she might be suicidal.

When you lose a cofounder to suicide, the effects can be very devastating for you, for the mental health of other team members and on your company’s ability to remain competitive.

Your ability to concentrate on work objectives, to perform at an optimal level in the same workspace that you shared without momentary mental distractions on the tragedy or to keep the business running while you’re empathizing with her loved ones or seeking a new cofounder will be severely tested. This can lead to higher stress levels and declining performance.

But that’s not all.

Your team is likely to be emotionally affected too. Your workers and cofounders closest to her might find it hard to keep the fire of entrepreneurship aflame especially if there’s a lot of media attention and scrutiny on the tragedy.

How to help a suicidal cofounder.

If you have fears that a cofounder is suicidal, then you should trust your gut and act. Here are certain tips, which I’ve culled and adapted to fit this situation from a guide on how Managers can respond to suicide warning signs among employees by the Cigna Corporation that you can adopt to help your cofounder.

1. Meet your cofounder and ask her questions to determine the next steps.

• Once you become aware of the warning signs, find the cofounder and don’t leave her alone.
• Take her to a quiet, private place to have a conversation to determine next steps.
• Be direct and let her know what you’ve learned. You might start with, “I’ve heard you say repeatedly, ‘My life is not worth living.'”
• Ask your cofounder if she’s had thoughts of ending her life. Research shows that most suicidal people feel relief, not distress when asked this question.
• Give your cofounder a chance to explain. Listening is the most important thing you can do at this time.
• Let your concern and support shine through your attitude. Be compassionate, even if you feel angry or upset about what she is considering.
• Don’t challenge her values or minimize their pain. For example, avoid saying things like, “You don’t want to do that,” or “Think about what it would do to your family.”
• You can offer hope that, with the right help, solutions can be found for the problems that are leading her to feel suicidal. But avoid the urge to question the employee about their problems. Don’t give advice or suggest solutions. Stay in the present.
• Protect her privacy as far as is practical, but do not promise to keep the matter confidential. Rather, say you’ll do everything you can to protect their privacy and will only share information as necessary for their safety.

2. If your cofounder is telling you that she intends to harm herself.

• Call the Nigerian suicide prevention initiative helplines: +234 806 210 6493 or +234 809 210 6493. You can also call the police. Her safety should be your priority. Also, never transport her to the hospital yourself. This could be dangerous for both of you.
• You can say to her, “Given what you’ve told me, I have concerns about your safety. I have a responsibility to make sure you get immediate help. Your safety is the most important thing right now.”
• When calling for help, give all the details that your cofounder has shared with you and any statements she reportedly made to others.
• When the emergency responders arrive, they will talk to your cofounder to assess further and determine next steps.
• You can also call for help in situations where your cofounder works offsite or has not reported to work and is not reachable. If the information you have presents an urgent concern, it’s better to call immediately to do a welfare/safety check than wait another day to see if your cofounder will report to work.