DAKAR, Senegal — A bloc of West African states took a step away from a French-backed regional currency that dates back to the colonial era, making a significant symbolic break from the past.

The president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, speaking at a joint news conference with the visiting president of France, Emmanuel Macron, said on Saturday that the bloc was changing the name of the C.F.A. franc, used in eight West African countries, and renaming it the Eco.

C.F.A. stood for the French Colonies of Africa when the then-colonial power introduced the currency in 1945, though it was changed after independence to the Financial Community of Africa. It is seen by many as a relic of “Françafrique,” the unofficial system under which France exerted influence over its former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa long after independence.

“This is a historic day for West Africa,” Mr. Ouattara said in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan.

Most of the criticism of the C.F.A. has centered around the requirement that the countries that use it are required to keep 50 percent of their foreign currency reserves in the French treasury. Under the agreement between France and the eight countries, this requirement will be scrapped when it becomes the Eco, as will the stipulation that a French representative sit on the currency union’s board.