Common Currency for Africa?

What are your thoughts on this and how possible is it to have a common currency for all of Africa, just like Euros for Europe?

With all the devaluation and depreciation going on with our currencies, many of our currencies aren't worth much...wouldn't having one common currency increase the value of African money?

Never did any business or economics related subjects at school so I don't really know much about the criteria countries need to meet in order to make this happen.

Feel free to share your opinions, and any recommended articles from other sites about this subject, thanks.

...or...a..common..currency..for..the..whole...world..

Unfortunately the differences in African economies are so huge that it is not realistically possible at this point to implement a single currency in the continent. The well-off economies will end up carrying the load for the less fortunate ones. Plus specific issues such as choosing the location of the central bank and its management, controlling the money supply etc. will be very difficult to handle in a much divided African continent. You could see a single country mismanagement seriously impact on the economies and inflation rates of others (imagine Zimbabwe sharing the same currencies with other African countries).

In Europe, Western European economies were less disparate, and the new ones to be admitted into the single currency zone had to meet certain requirements before admission (inflation rate, unemployment rate etc.). Plus they could agree in having Germany, the main economy of the region, and to a lesser extent France, play the major role for the central banking.

Makes sense...thanks Pat.

If it were possible to make a common currency would it be called "the Afro"?   

Or Afrodollar? 

Yup..."The Afro".

According to a Wikipedia article:

The Seychelles may not join as a result of economic fears and may, like Cape Verde, attempt to join the euro at a later date.

  I really hope they meant "The Afro" and not Euros ..."Economic fears"?? What's that supposed to mean...with the way things are in my country, I thought we'd be the first one jumping in on this idea.

The current timeline established by the Abuja Treaty calls for the afro to be instituted by the African Central Bank by 2028.

20 more years...

LOL, here are what the bills would probably look like if we were to have a single currency: http://www.deberlinisation.de/archive/afro/afro.html

..first divide africa in parts south africa. east africa west africa n north africa...divide central africa into four prts east west north south...probl solved...then make it easier for muslims to join their brothers on the north