The president of the Central African Republic, Fustin Archange Touadéra, bet heavily on cryptocurrencies during its mandate. The aim is to make the country a pioneer in cryptocurrencies by Africa. In a critical report published last week, the NGO Global Initiative accuses these currencies of even opening the door to organized crime and of not not benefit the population.

In July 2022, after making bitcoin a legal tender in the Central African Republic, the president Faustin-Archange Touadéra launched Sango Coin, his own cryptocurrency, with great fanfare. According to Nathalia Dukhan, director of the Central Africa Observatory at Global Initiative (GI-TOC, or Global Initiative Against Organized Crime), which has published the report “Behind the blockchain, cryptocurrencies and criminal capture in the Central African Republic”, at the time, the country was in a deep crisis and was looking for resources.

She indicated that “this financial crisis has led the presidency to seek external funding, because its military campaigns cost enormously. In reality, the idea was to attract foreign investments to give a financial boost to a State that was on the brink of bankruptcy.”

“Bookman Old Style”, serif">The report that was published on 17 December last year by the Initiative Global fight against organized crime condemns the policy of Cryptocurrency set up in the Central African Republic by the president Touadéra, candidate for his own succession in the presidential election in December.

According to the NGO, this program is far from benefiting the civilian population, as announced by the government. On the contrary, it would have opened access to natural resources from the country to private interests and foreign criminal networks.