When history judges Africa's great economic turning points, perhaps one man should be remembered: Faustin-Archangel Touadera, President of the Central African Republic.
In a landlocked country, weakened by civil wars and dependent on international aid, he chose an unexpected path: to bet on Bitcoin and the tokenization of natural resources to build a new sovereignty through the $CAR token.
He is, for the moment, the only African president to have had the audacity to legalize Bitcoin, on a continent where governments are generally reluctant, despite real popular enthusiasm. Indeed, Africa is among the most dynamic areas in the world in terms of adoption, with in particular Nigeria leading in trading volumes, closely followed by countries such as Kenya, South Africa and Ghana
The journey of a professor who became president
Touadéra is not a typical politician. A professor of applied mathematics and later rector of the University of Bangui, he built a reputation as a serious intellectual before coming to power in 2016.
But governing the Central African Republic remains a colossal challenge: chronic insecurity, extreme poverty, lack of infrastructure and dependence on the CFA franc.
The context of a forgotten country
La Central is often described as a country “forgotten by the world.” Despite its vast territory and a subsoil overflowing with riches – diamonds, gold, uranium, precious woods – the population lives in endemic poverty. These resources, supposed to be a blessing, have turned into a curse: they arouse greed, fuel corruption and finance armed conflicts.
The Central African Republic is thus trapped in a cruel paradox: sitting on colossal wealth, it is nevertheless among the poorest and most fragile nations on the planet.
For Touadéra, Bitcoin represents a way out: a tool for financial inclusion and economic independence.
Bitcoin Audacity
In 2022, the country surprised the planet by becoming the second state in the world after El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tenderThe objective: to open its economy internationally and offer its unbanked citizens (more than 80% of the population) a global monetary tool accessible via smartphone.
The Sango Project: An Innovative but Controversial Idea
Touadéra then announces the launch of the Sango project, an ambitious initiative to create a national blockchain platform where natural resources would be tokenized and accessible to investors worldwide.
After the euphoria, the project has aroused criticisms and disappointments :
- Lack of transparency and monitoring.
- Fuzzy communication.
- Promises deemed too ambitious for a country without solid infrastructure.
The most skeptical even denounced a risk of scam. However, many observers agree that the problem was not a desire to deceive, but rather poor management, lack of organization and limited resourcesThis can be easily explained by considering the state of the country's digital infrastructure.
Towards serious tokenization: the CAR Token project
Today, Touadéra seems to have learned the lessons of Sango. The country has launched a more structured initiative: the CAR token, focused on the tokenization of natural resources. Thanks to this process, investors can now access the Central African land market in a transparent manner.
Unlike Sango, this project appears better followed, more serious and more pragmatic :
- The objectives are clearer.
- Governance appears more regulated.
- The international crypto community is watching more closely.
This is a way to demonstrate that the initial vision—to give digital and traceable value to the country's wealth—remains intact, but that the execution is being refined. The CAR token thus replaces the Sango project. In fact, investors in the Sango project were rewarded in CAR tokens to continue their investments.
For the first time, foreign and local investors can transparently access the Central African land market, bypassing administrative burdens.
Comparison with El Salvador
The parallel with El Salvador Street is unavoidable. President Nayib Bukele adopted Bitcoin in 2021, but his approach differs from Touadéra's.
- El Salvador Street : the country has invested massively in Bitcoin itself, built a strategy around tourism, Bitcoin bonds (“Volcano Bonds”), and infrastructure like Bitcoin Beach. The aim is to transform the country's image and attract foreign capital.
- Central : with much less means, Touadéra relies more on the resource tokenization than on the direct accumulation of Bitcoin. His country has neither access to the sea nor a strong tourism ecosystem, but it does have immense subsoil. The idea is to transform this dormant wealth into attractive digital assets.
One capitalizes on its geographical openness and modernized image, the other on its natural resources and the quest for monetary sovereignty in Africa.
A desire for a break
For Touadéra, the essential thing is there: to free oneself from dependence on franc CFA, attract foreign capital and give Central Africans back the value of their resources.
Whether seen as a utopia or an avant-garde vision, he has placed his country at the center of the debate on the monetary and energy future of Africa.
Conclusion: a risky, but visionary bet
President Touadéra will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the first African leaders to dare to bet on Bitcoin and tokenization as instruments of sovereignty. Sango project may have disappointed, but it could well be only a first, clumsy step towards a deeper transformation. With the CAR token, the Central African Republic is trying to prove that it can learn, correct and move forward.
This gamble is risky, but it has immense symbolic significance: that of a small landlocked country that dares to challenge the global economic order and chart its own course.
