The Central African Republic intends to create its own digital currency Sango Coin by the third quarter of this year.
„Sango Coin will be the next generation currency,” President Faustin-Archange Touadéra said during an online briefing.
The Ministry of Finance of the Central African Republic will own 20% of the new digital currency, according to the official website of the project. Sango Coin can be used to trade the country’s resources and provide government services, including citizenship, residency, and land ownership.
„The Central African Republic has a mountain of resources – gold, diamonds, rare minerals. Sango Coin will provide direct access to our resources for the whole world,” Tuadera said.
Earlier in April, the CAR recognized bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the first country in Africa to adopt a cryptocurrency as a „base currency” and the second in the world after El Salvador.
The CAR plans to create a crypto-economy based on private investment. However, the country’s ambitions are questioned by many analysts, since the CAR is one of the poorest countries in Africa with an underdeveloped infrastructure. Only 557,000 people out of a population of almost five million have access to the Internet.