The Constitutional Court of the Central Africa Republic has declared that the country’s ambitious Project Sango is unconstitutional, casting doubt on several incentives.
According to a Reuters report, CAR’s top court ruled that the purchase of citizenship ‘e-residency and land using a cryptocurrency launched by the government was unconstitutional.
The court said in its objections to the plans that nationality does not have a market value and that residents are required to be physically present in the country.
Members of the Judiciary in CARIn July 2022, the Central African Republic escalated its plans under the Project Sango, as it unveiled a platform for investors to stake top cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, and B2B, before eventually unveiling the national cryptocurrency called Sango Coin.
The Sango Coin, depending on the amount one holds, would enable an investor to get the following privileges:
- Citizenship in the Central African Republic can be obtained by locking a fixed collateral of SANGO Coins in the amount of $60,000 for a period of 5 years. After the period ends, the SANGO Coins are returned to the owner
- The e-residency in the Central African Republic can be obtained by locking a fixed collateral of SANGO Coins in the amount of $6,000 for a period of 3 years. After the period ends, the SANGO Coins are returned to the owner
Moreover, the Central African Republic government, which indicated it is the biggest landowner in the country, said it was looking to decentralize the ownership of land property through SANGO, and the land plot could be obtained by locking fixed collateral of SANGO Coins.
The project has faced several distractions since the country announced in May 2022 that it had received $35 million grant from the World Bank that would go into the project that is expected to transform the financial system as well as the economy of CAR.
However, one of the early opposers of the project, the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) has now approved the plan that introduces a national cryptocurrency backed by bitcoin, and says it will ‘oversee the project.’
