Africa Union Begins the Introduction of Single Passport and Currency Among Member Countries

As the European Union risks falling apart in the wake of Brexit, regional integration in Africa, once modeled after the EU is making progress. At the Africa Unio (AU) summit later this month, the AU will introduce a single passport to make travel to all the 54 member countries of the union possible. The AU passport is part of an eventual goal of creating a "continent with seamless borders".

Establishing a single common currency for the AU, while still far off, may not be all that unrealistic.

Regional blocs are already moving closer to using a common currency. This week, former Nigeria president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo called on the Economic Community of West Africa State, better known as ECOWAS, to introduce the "eco" a single currency for currency for West Africa.

ECOWAS officials  have previously committed to introducing a single currency for the region by 2020.

"We have decided that our unity of currency will be 'eco'. Let us now start usin eco. Let eco be our unity of currency"

Obasanjo said at a meeting of the ECOWAS commission on July 4. Advocate of the common currencies like the eco say that it would reduce exchange rate uncertainties, attracts more foreign investments and help regional economic integration.

Other regional blocs have already moved in this direction. The CFA franc zone, of mostly former French colonies, uses the euro-pegged franc.

East African states, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania have agreed on a protocol for establishing a common currency among them within the next decade.

The southern Africans Development Community are planning of introducing same currency in 2018 as for now is piloting a cross-border payment system in countries that are already using the South Africa Rand.

Countries like Lesotho, Swatziland, and Namibia are already using the South Africa Rand.

From the look of things, a single currency for the whole of Africa countries is still far off from becoming a reality.

In the early 1990s, establishing a single monetary union was laid out at a goal that would be achieved by the year 2020. It has since been put on the back burner with the African Union deciding not to include as part of it's 2063 agenda for integration.

Rather the AU passport will be the first main step to make by the Union.