The Central African Republic (CAR) has passed a law that makes bitcoin (BTC) legal tender within its territory. It thus becomes the second country in the world to adopt bitcoin, after El Salvador. The law establishes the obligation to accept payments in cryptocurrencies.
The news was released on La Renaissance, which identifies itself as the official page of the CAR Presidency on Facebook. There is also shared text of the lawsigned by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and a Press release dated yesterday, April 26, signed by the Minister of State, Obed Namsio.
The text of the law states that Bitcoin is the reference cryptocurrency. It is clarified that “for accounting purposes, the currency of legal tender used in the Central African Republic is considered as the reference currency” (article 9).
Article 10 indicates: “any economic agent is obliged to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment when they are offered for the purchase or sale of a good or service.” And article 22 establishes that “all monetary obligations denominated in CFA francs existing before the date of entry into force of this law can be paid in cryptocurrencies.”
In the aforementioned press release, Namsio highlights that the adoption is a “historic” decision because it was approved unanimously by the country’s Congress. Likewise, he comments that this law is part of the “economic turnaround and peace consolidation plan”, taking into account that the RCA has been in a civil war since 2013.
The adoption of bitcoin as the official currency represents a decisive step towards opening up new opportunities for our country (…) The Central African Republic is not only the first country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as its reference currency, but also the first country in the world in unanimously adopting the bill that governs cryptocurrencies.
Obed Namsio, Minister of State of the Central African Republic (Translated by Google Translate).
According to the statement, with this decision, the RCA is positioned among “the most courageous and visionary countries.” According to United Nations (UN) statistics, the Central African Republic is the second least developed country in the world.
Update 4/27/2022: this article was updated to add a link to the mentioned law and to describe some of its articles.