By: Damian Okonkwo
The march towards cryptocurrency global adoption and legalization has been launched in Africa recently with the latest adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender by the Central African Republic. This has made the country the second in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender after El-Salvador became the first to do so last year.
The decision to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender in the Central Africa Republic was made after its lawmakers in the parliament voted unanimously to adopt a bill legalizing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the national assembly.
Following this decision, the president of the Central African Republic revealed that Bitcoin will henceforth be considered a legal tender alongside the country's fiat currency known as the Central African CFA franc.
While El-Salvador became the first to legalize Bitcoin, The Central African Republic has today gone down in history as the second country in the world as well as the first African country to legalize Bitcoin as a legal tender.
According to the president of the country - Faustin-Archange Touadéra, “This move puts the Central African Republic on the map of the most courageous and visionary countries in the world,”
Further, Obed Namsio, the chief of staff to the President called the move “a decisive step toward opening up new opportunities for our country,”
The South African Republic is one of the African countries known to be mineral resources, especially diamonds and gold. And notwithstanding its rich natural endowments, the country today still ranks as one of the world's poorest and least-developed countries in the world.
The decision to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender no doubt might be an opportunity for the country to attract more investors into the country and enhance its foreign exchange dealings.
On the other hand, the Central African Republic has set the direction for other African countries to emulate.
Nigeria and South Africa for instance have only introduced a Central Bank Digital Currency in the country without yet legalizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is therefore a laudable pace set today by the Central African Republic for other African countries to emulate the fast-growing Blockchain technology known as Cryptocurrency.