eCurrency Mint Ltd. has announced its partnership with Banque Régionale de Marchés (BRM) in order to provide a digital currency in the West African Economic and Monetary Union.

According to the official release, there will be a digital tender, eCFA, issued by BRM bank that can be transacted across all existing payment platforms and will be equivalent in value to physical legal tender. According to the bank, the eCFA distribution will begin in Senegal and will be extended to Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo and Guinea-Bissau later.

The eCFA can be held in all mobile money and e-money wallets due to its high security digital feature. The digital instrument will secure universal liquidity, enable interoperability, and provide transparency.

“The mission of eCurrency is to preserve the secure and inclusive characteristics of physical fiat currency in our rapidly emerging digital world. We are realizing this important mission in the WAEMU region through the implementation of eCFA by BRM,” Jonathan Dharmapalan, Founder and CEO of eCurrency said.

The electronic digital legal tender provides citizens a means by which to save and transact in a secure digital instrument. This eCFA will be issued in order to coexist with other forms of currency, offering a digital form to seamlessly send, receive, store, and transact digitally.

“We are committed to bringing digital financial services and true financial inclusion to West Africa. We are very happy to announce the eCFA capability here. An eCFA backed by our banking system and the central bank is the safest and most secure way to enable the digital economy. We can now facilitate full interoperability between all e-money payment systems. This is a great leap forward for Africa,” Alioune Camara, CEO of BRM said.

BRM’s electronic money uses high cryptographic protocols in order to make sure that it cannot be counterfeited. It can be issued only by an authorized financial institution and it provides transparency and promotes governance and regulation by the central bank.