Africa’s largest currency union will pilot a retail central bank digital currency in early 2026, pressing on with a centralised strategy even as momentum shifts increasingly in favour of stablecoins as an alternative.
“We are at the proof of concept [stage] now, and after that we will move to the pilot stage,” Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), told The Banker, with the pilot due to begin in the new year.