Central African Republic willing to embrace crypto

Another African country made a step towards crypto.

Last week the Central African Republic ’s Parliament passed a crypto law aimed at boosting the country’s financial sector and innovation.

The law is now in the hands of the Assembly that is tasked with examining it.

The full text is yet to be made public, but the parts that have leaked so far would imply not only giving legal status to cryptocurrencies, but also imposing them as a means of payment alternative to the existing CFA franc.

The CFA franc is basically a colonial money used by 14 African countries and de facto managed by France, notably via its representatives on the Central Banks’ boards. In case of the CAR, its money is managed by the Central Bank of Central African States, which quite remarkably was not consulted on the project of law.

What’s more, CAR’s Minister of telecommunications and the law’s active supporter Justin Gourna Zacko said that Central Bank is making it difficult to send and receive money to/from the CAR. He added that “With cryptocurrencies, Central Bank’s control is no more”.

CAR’s desire to bypass the legacy monetary system and be responsible for its own fate is understandable. Using crypto to achieve it (instead of trying to create another poor-performing fiat) looks like a laudable initiative to us, even if some CAR’s deputes have raised concerns about money laundering.

It is not clear yet whether CAR will be able to proceed with the law. It is however quite obvious that crypto’s independent and borderless qualities make it a great alternative to the tight currency controls imposed by the de-facto exterior administration trying to manage sovereign countries.

And it looks like the process has already started: earlier this month three other Central African states – Cameroon, Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, reported considering embracing crypto with different projects on TON blockchain.