Posts claiming trio of states in Sahel launched a common currency are false

Published on April 9, 2025 at 14:57
4 min read
By Oluseyi AWOJULUGBE, AFP Nigeria

The creation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to pursue economic and security self-reliance has been accompanied by the spread of false information. Posts on social media claim the AES has now launched a new currency called “Sira”, ending the decades-long use of the West African CFA franc. But the claim is false; while plans are afoot to establish a single currency by the AES, this is years away. Major foreign exchange platforms still list the West African CFA franc as the legal tender of these three countries.

On March 13, 2025, a TikTok page called “Oska.films tv” shared a video with its almost 150,000 followers claiming the AES has abandoned the CFA franc and launched a new currency called Sira.

The video's caption reads, “Sira is here to stay,” while the clip’s narrator calls on member nations of the rival Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to congratulate the AES.

Screenshot of the false TikTok post, taken on April 4, 2025

“You see ECOWAS could not introduce eco currency for the past three decades till now. Congratulations to the AES (sic),” reads a comment on the post.

“The guys are more than serious. May God be with them,” says another, indicating that some people believe the post.

The same claim has also appeared multiple times on Facebook, such as here and here.

The governments in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger were ousted in military coups in 2020, 2022 and 2023 respectively.

In turn, ECOWAS suspended each of the new regimes from the regional bloc and imposed strict sanctions on Niger and Mali (archived here).

Amid deteriorating relations, the three countries announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS in January 2024, accusing the group of being ineffective in fighting the jihadist insurgency in the region and of being manipulated by former colonial power France (archived here).

But claims that the AES launched a single currency are false.

Design inconsistencies

The bills shown in the video do not include denominations or the issuing financial authority – two of the typical features of a banknote.

A reverse image search did not return any record of when or where the purported currency was launched. There were also no details about what the name Sira meant.

Images circulated on social media also had different fonts of the name of the currency.

One of the banknotes shared on social media had three different serial numbers, which would not occur in reality as serial numbers are used as unique identifiers for currencies (archived here).

Screenshot showing inconsistencies in the name of the currency (circled in red) and the different serial numbers on one banknote (circled in blue).

In the pipeline

During a state visit to Russia on April 3-4, Niger’s Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare said the alliance was eager to mint its own currency (archived here).

“The first instrument of sovereignty is currency. Because our struggle is built around sovereignty. You cannot be sovereign if someone else mints your currency. It’s clear that we’re not going to stay in this CFA franc affair. France itself knows it,” Sangare told Russian broadcaster RT in an interview.

“We are made to believe that we’re not capable of putting a currency into circulation — yet some countries have done it on their own. So why couldn’t the three of us (Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso) do the same? We know that our sovereignty begins with the minting of currency, and we will do it.”

Sangare did not provide a timeline for the launch of the proposed currency.

Modibo Mao Makalou, an economist and former advisor to the Malian presidency on economic and financial affairs, said that several steps have to be taken before a new currency can be introduced.

“Creating a new currency for the AES would require leaving the UMOA (the West African Economic and Monetary Union) and its central bank, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), which currently prints banknotes and makes coins,” he told AFP Fact Check on April 4, 2025.

“After that, the AES would need to set up its own central bank, which would issue and manage the new currency.”

Makalou said the three AES countries are still a part of the UMOA, which includes eight West African countries that use the CFA franc.

In February 2024, the head of Niger’s junta Abdourahmane Tiani also mentioned the possibility of a new currency and described it as “a step out of colonisation” (archived here).

Major currency exchange rate platforms like OandaFX still show the CFA franc in use in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali (archived here).

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