Central Africa's apex bank to issue digital currency

BREAKING NEWSOctober 3, 2023 at 10:25 AM UTC

The Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC), the common central bank serving the Central Africa countries that form the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), is moving ahead with plans to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the six-nation bloc.

CBDCs are directly issued by central banks and made available to citizens, households and businesses, without any form of intermediary. They can be transferred or exchanged using blockchain technology, which allows for records of transactions to be stored on a network of computers.

BEAC’s governor, Abbas Mahamat Tolli, signed a decision in mid-September to create a working group, which will be responsible for monitoring and implementing work relating to the digital currency project. The group is supposed to work in close collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Points clés à retenir

While the hype around CBDCs may have cooled off compared to this time last year, quite a number of central banks across the world are still keen on developing state-controlled digital currencies. At least 10 countries have launched these while 87 others, representing over 90% of global GDP, are exploring a CBDC. In Africa, there is a growing allure of regulated digital currencies among central banks and a recent call for a continental cryptocurrency indicates the era of cash could be drawing to an end. More so, CBDCs represent yet another fintech innovation in Africa, a continent that leads globally when it comes to digital payments.