“Sango” – Central African Republic’s new crypto hub

The second country to adopt Bitcoin as a national currency after El Salvadore was the Central African Republic, making Bitcoin an official currency alongside the CFA franc.

The bill was passed last month by the Central African Republic’s parliament and approved by the president Faustin-Archange Touadera, who believes that integrating the most popular cryptocurrency will improve the lives of the country’s citizens and put CAR on the world map as a visionary state. The full policy has not yet been revealed, however, a new undertaking has been announced - the Sango Project. The initiative is set to lure in businesses and investors as well as form a cryptocurrency hub. The announcement came in on the 24th of May via Touadera’s tweet with a link to Sango’s official website, where the project is described as “a Crypto initiative that was started by the National Assembly and supported by the Central African Republic and the President”. “Sango” is directed at re-establishing the country’s financial sector, yet details of the launch date or the project’s strategy have not been set forth. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra also claims that the bureaucratic system is holding back the full potential of the Central African Republic, which is currently considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its natural gold, diamond, iron ore, and uranium reserves. The Central African Republic’s general population is 4.8 million and a 2021 report conducted by “We Are Social” and “Hootsuite” illustrates that only 11.4% use the internet and 30.7% have a mobile connection. The “Crypto Initiative” was created in order to build the first legal cryptocurrency hub in Africa. The project entails the construction of a crypto island “Sango” with a “digital infrastructure” and the completed crypto policy will be ready by the end of 2022. The presentation of the initiative also states that cryptocurrency exchanges will be exempt from taxes and regulatory work will be conducted by a new institution - the National Agency for Regulation of Electronic transactions. A Digital National Bank, a Layer 2 crypto wallet, and metaverse-related projects are also in the works. Nonetheless, not everyone is as enthusiastic about this ambitious strategy. For example, the International Monetary Fund predicts that such a big venture may lead to high risks and result in financial instability. The World Bank also stated that it shall not support the “Sango” crypto island as it is impossible for the financial institution to provide such funds for the project. That being said, on May 5th the Central African Republic received a $35 million grant from the World Bank which was aimed at developing the financial sector and the country’s digitalization.