Central African Republic announced the launch of its own CBDC

President of the Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadera announced on July 3 that the country would be launching its own CBDC, Sango Coin. The national-backed cryptocurrency initiative to increase the opportunities to build the digital assets industry in the country was revealed during the ‘Sango Genesis’ online conference.

Besides the announcement of a CBDC, speakers at ‘Sango Genesis’ also revealed the development of the upcoming Sango app, including in-app coin and NFT storage; purchases of tokenized land, both digital and physical; tax payments and interaction with government services, and in-app voting on government elections.

“Gold served as the engine of our civilization for ages,” President Touadera claimed during the Sango project opening, referring to Bitcoin as “digital gold.”

The project called Sango aims to create more of a space for cryptocurrencies and digital assets to expand in the country and attract businesses to the country.

Yannick Dols, tech developer and speaker at the online ‘Sango Genesis’ event, highlighted the lack of trust in modern society and how blockchain can help solve this crucial problem. As blockchain technology is decentralized, trust is computer-generated and global.

“The collective brain with coded trust and logic might help fight corruption if adopted properly,” he explained.

Tech developer Jan Scheele, another speaker at the conference, assured attendees that the technology is powerful enough “to bring trust back to society.” He also underlined that currently 2.3 billion people worldwide have no access to the traditional financial infrastructure.

Scheele offered an example of blockchain adoption in developing countries, citing Coins.ph, the biggest decentralized app in the Philippines, which has helped locals take control of their financial freedom.

The next speaker Mr. Raymond Mbitikon, the minister of natural resources for CAR, mentioned that the country is in the process of tokenizing and integrating into the Sango app natural resources of CAR such as limestone, coltan, copper, cobalt, uranium, and graphite.

Lately, many national leaders have expressed interest in implementing crypto and blockchain technology, such as El Salvador, which made Bitcoin a legal tender in September 2021. The Central African Republic has since become the second country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender.

Crypto-friendliness is a big part of CAR, with the country officially adopting Bitcoin as part of its legal currency earlier this year. The launch of the Sango project is designed to foster more culture in the business sector geared towards the digital assets industry. It will also go hand-in-hand with the country’s metaverse platform, with Sango Coin being one of the platform’s assets.