The Central African Republic (CAR) has announced plans to proceed with its ambitious Sango Project by tokenizing access to the country’s abundant natural resources. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra posted a photograph of a statement on his official Twitter account Thursday detailing the next steps in the project.
The statement, signed by Minister of State and cabinet chief of staff Obed Namsio, read, in part:
“We are giving everyone access to the riches of our land. In other words, we are transforming them into equally valuable and important digital assets through an unprecedented new administrative and economic movement.”
It went on to say that Touadéra has asked the parliament to prepare a new strategy to create investment opportunities in the country’s economy.
The next step for us, the Central African Republic is the democratization & tokenization of resources, a new chapter with tremendous possibilities.
This #vision & strategy will open unique #opportunities for #investors #worldwide. #CAR #RCA pic.twitter.com/v7mzlsUeTw
— Faustin-Archange Touadéra (@FA_Touadera) June 2, 2022
The CAR, which in April became the second country in the world to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, introduced Project Sango last month. On the project’s website, it is claimed that the World Bank approved a $35 million development fund for a Sango crypto hub in the country — even though the World Bank has stated that it will not support the initiative.
Creation of a legal framework for resource tokenization is a key element of the Sango Project, along with establishing e-residency for investors, crowdfunding infrastructure and the founding Sango—the so-called Crypto Island metaverse. The CAR has reserves of gold, oil, iron, diamonds, copper, uranium, rhodium, limestone, cobalt, manganese and other minerals.
The benefits of launching Bitcoin as legal tender in the CAR have been called into doubt due to the fragility of the state and the low level of development in the country. Only a small minority of residents have access to the internet or electricity.