Board urges Bank of Central African States to introduce common digital currency: Report

Central African Banks, which serve Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo, or Banque des tats del’Afrique, are reportedly likely to approach the release of the Central Bank’s digital currency. At the prompt of that board.

According to a Friday report from Bloomberg, the board of directors Sent Emails asking regional banks to introduce digital currencies to modernize payment structures and promote regional financial inclusion. The Central African Republic (CAR) passed a law in April that adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as the national legal tender, but it does not recognize the Central Bank’s digital currency (CBDC).

The Central Bank of Nigeria is one of the first banks in the region to launch the CBDC called eNaira in October 2021, and the Reserve Bank of South Africa continues to explore the possibility of using the CBDC through the Project Khokha initiative. .. Banks of Central African States have also criticized Nigeria’s acceptance of BTC as fiat currency, making the move “problematic” and potentially having a “substantial negative impact” on the Central African monetary union. Said there is.

Sub-Saharan African countries can face significant challenges in deploying cryptocurrencies and CBDCs in areas where access to electricity is restricted, both in transfer and mining.Both CAR and Chad are according to World Bank 2020 data Rank The lowest percentages of the population with electricity are 15.5% and 11.1%, respectively.

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Following the adoption of Bitcoin, CAR President Forstan Archantuadela announced in June that he would adopt a crypto initiative called the Coral Project, which includes a “legal crypto hub” and the Metaverse Special Economic Zone. Africa remains one of the fastest growing digital asset markets in the world. Cointelegraph reported in March that crypto trading increased by up to 2,670% year-on-year in Cte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Dakar.