President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele says 44 countries will be meeting in San Salvador to discuss how cryptocurrency can be deployed to deepen financial inclusion and digital economy.
In a tweet, the president of the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as one of its official currencies said the 44 countries include 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities.
List of invited countries
The list which is dominated by African countries has the Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Ghana and Central Bank of Egypt among other attendees. Other are:
- Bank of Uganda
- Bank of Zambia
- Bank of Namibia
- State Bank of Pakistan
- Central Bank of Sudan
- Central Bank of Liberia
- National Bank of Rwanda
- Banco de Moçambique
- Bank Al-Maghrib (Morocco)
- Bank of Sierra Leone
- Nepal Rastra Bank
- Bangladesh Bank
- Central Bank of Lesotho
- Central Bank of Jordan
- Central Bank of The Gambia
- Maldives Monetary Authority
- Banque de la République d’Haiti
- Banque Centrale de Madagascar
- Banco Nacional de Angola
- Banco Central del Paraguay
- Banco Central de El Salvador
- Central Bank of Eswatini
- Ministry of Finance, Zambia
- Palestine Monetary Authority
- Reserve Bank of Malawi
- Central Bank of Jordan
- Banque Centrale du Congo
- Central Bank of Armenia
- Ministry of Finance of Eswatini
- Banque Centrale de Mauritanie
- Banque de la République du Burundi
- Banco Central de São Tomé e Príncipe
- Banque Centrale de la République de Guinée
- Financial Regulatory Commission of Mongolia
- Comisión Nacional de Bancos y Seguros de Honduras
- Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) Kenya
- Superintendencia de Bancos de la República Dominicana
- Ministère de l’Economie, des Finances et du Plan du Sénégal
- Superintendencia de la Economía Popular y Solidaria de Ecuador
- Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras de Costa Rica
- Direction Générale du Trésor, Ministère des Finances et du Budget, Madagascar
Significance of the discussion for Nigeria
The invitation which was extended to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) came a few hours after Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission SEC released new guidelines for digital assets operations in Africa’s most populous country.
The SEC’s new rules came more than a year after CBN restricted crypto traders from linking their bank accounts with their crypto accounts, limiting them from linking their debit cards to their trading accounts.
El Salvador Playing the Bitcoin Big Brother
Being the first country to make bitcoin its legal tender, second to its official currency, United States Dollar, President Bukele has jettisoned concerns raised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank about the adoption of bitcoin.
In recent times, he publicly said his country bought the dip. The recent one was during the cryptocurrency crash on May 9, 2022, he announced that his country bought 500 Bitcoins saying, “El Salvador just bought the dip! 500 coins at an average USD price of ~$30,744” @nayibbukele tweeted
Bukele believes that bitcoin could be deployed to bank the unbanked, stating that his country is well prepared to benefit massively from the gains of the first cryptocurrency in the world.
A few weeks ago, the Central African Republic followed the footsteps of El Salvador by announcing the adoption of bitcoin in the poorest country, thereby becoming the first African country to adopt crypto as official legal tender.
Most of the African countries that stand on the fence regarding crypto regulations see the North American country to look up to.
Most of the African countries including Nigeria are battling with a high rate of inflation and internal crises.