Africa adopting Bitcoin as legal tender won’t fix economic problems —IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday warned countries against adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.

IMF Director, African Department, Abebe Selassie, who spoke at a media briefing on the organisation’s economic outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa, cautioned that Bitcoin is not a remedy for the economic troubles in African countries.

The Central African Republic had a day earlier adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender, becoming the first country in Africa and second in the world, after El Salvador, to do so.

Justifying the move, Obed Namsio, Chief of Staff to President Faustin Archange Touadera, had claimed the decision “places the Central African Republic on the map of the world’s boldest and most visionary countries.”

The Central African Republic is a country with about 5.4 million population and one of the poorest and most fragile countries despite its natural resources, according to the World Bank.

Selassie, who is opposed to adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender, told journalists that “it’s really important to not see such things as a panacea for economic challenges our countries face”.

She said, “You have to make sure that the legislative framework, in terms of the transparency of financial flows, the governance framework around it is all robustly in place.”

The IMF had earlier in January, urged El Salvador to stop Bitcoin as legal tender.