After adopting Bitcoin as a legal currency, the Central African Republic (CAR) is moving forward with its crypto-related projects. In the latest move, the CAR’s lawmakers approved a law that allows foreign nationals to invest in the country via cryptocurrencies.
The CAR’s New Law Seeks to Allow Tokenization of Natural Resources
On Monday, the Central African Republic adopted a law allowing foreign crypto investments, National Assembly president Simplice Mathieu Sarandji said in the announcement. The new law, which aims to enable “tokenization of natural and land resources,” establishes a framework “for using the Bitcoin and Sango virtual currencies in the investment process,” he added.
The move comes roughly a year after the CAR adopted Bitcoin as legal currency – a decision that the government believes would secure an independent financial future for one of the poorest countries in the world. Three months later, the African nation announced plans to roll out its digital currency, ‘Sango Coin,’ as legal tender.
These announcements made the CAR the first African state to make Bitcoin legal tender, attracting the attention of many in the crypto community and those representing the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The CAR’s decisions were a surprise due to severe poverty and lack of infrastructure in the country, where only one in seven residents can access mains electricity.
Meanwhile, the new law aims to lure “foreign nationals wishing to invest in mining, agricultural and forestry assets,” Sarandji said on Monday. In addition, investors will be allowed to transfer all their annual profits made in the CAR after paying taxes and other mandatory obligations.
The CAR’s Government Accused of Selling National Resources to ‘the World’s Gangsters’
Similar to adopting Bitcoin as a legal currency and launching Sango Coin, the opposition did not welcome the CAR government’s announcement of the new law. More specifically, the opposition’s MPs accused the lawmakers of selling the country’s natural resources “to the world’s gangsters.”
Upon unveiling the Sango Coin last year, the CAR said the country’s native cryptocurrency would allow foreign investors to purchase citizenship for $60,000 worth of crypto, with the matching Sango Coin funds held as collateral over five years. Further, foreign nationals can buy an “e-residency” in the CAR for $6,000, valid for three years, the Sango website stated.
The CAR is the first African country to adopt BTC as a national currency and the second globally after El Salvador.
Finance is changing.
Learn how, with Five Minute Finance.
A weekly newsletter that covers the big trends in FinTech and Decentralized Finance.
What do you think the CAR’s government aims to achieve with its recent crypto adoption efforts? Let us know in the comments below.
About the author
Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird’s US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.
