The Central African Republic Adopts A Law On Cryptocurrencies

Central African Republic (CAR) has reportedly passed a law to regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Contrary to a report by Forbes, which claimed that the CAR has become the first country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as a payment currency, the African nation has not adopted BTC as a legal tender, but it has reportedly “legalized the use of cryptocurrencies in the financial markets.”

The cryptocurrency bill was introduced by Justin Gourna Zacko, the minister of Digital Economy, Post and Telecommunications on Thursday and was unanimously approved by the lawmakers in the parliament despite a protest from the opposition, according to a report by RFI.

This law aims beyond the creation of a legal framework for cryptocurrency, the establishment of a favorable environment for the financial sector, defended before the deputies the Minister of the Digital Economy.

Sending and receiving money with the Central African Republic is becoming very difficult, argued Minister Gourna Zacko, also noting the restrictive framework of the Central Bank. Digital currency has many advantages, he further highlighted, euros, dollars or CFA francs, transactions can thus be made with different currencies.

The new crypto law has also made provisions for offenders who break the laws. According to one report, offenders could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined between 100,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 Financial Community of Africa (CFA) francs.

In a letter, the opposition deputies Dologuélé, Ziguélé and Ngakola, members of the commission who studied the bill, dissociated themselves from the final report and expressed strong reservations. 

A total of 14 countries use the CFA franc pegged to the euro, printed in France and its monetary policy is controlled by Western powers. While the official peg was set at 1 euro to 655.96 CFA francs, the fiat has been depleting in value for quite some time.