BANGUI (Reuters) – The Central African Republic has adopted bitcoin as its official currency, the presidency announced on Wednesday, becoming the first country in Africa to make the move and only the second in the world.
Despite its reserves of gold and diamonds, the Central African Republic is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, and has also been the scene of violence for years.
A bill governing the use of cryptocurrency was unanimously adopted last week by Parliament, the secretary general of the presidency said in a statement, referring to a “decisive step towards new opportunities for our country”. .
President Faustin-Archange Touadera supports the text because it “will improve the living conditions of citizens”, Obed Namsio told Reuters, without elaborating.
El Salvador last year became the first in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, a decision whose implementation has been accompanied by skepticism ever since.
(Report Judicael Yongo, with Bate Felix; French version Jean Terzian, edited by Nicolas Delame)