BEAC Governor Challenged Central African Republic’s Crypto Law

A letter dated April 29, 2022 placed the Central African Republic’s new cryptocurrency law in direct conflict with the institutions governing its regional currency. Abbas Mahamat Tolli, governor of the Bank of Central African States, asked Central African finance minister Hervé Ndoba to convene extraordinary regional meetings to examine the law and restore compliance with the Central African monetary union’s rules.

The letter followed Law No. 22.004, signed on April 22 and announced by the presidency on April 27. The legislation established a framework for cryptocurrency transactions, described bitcoin as a reference currency and required economic agents to accept cryptocurrencies as payment when offered. It also contemplated automatic conversion between cryptocurrencies and the currency used in the Central African Republic.

Tolli argued that those provisions implicated powers assigned to the Bank of Central African States, commonly known by its French abbreviation BEAC. His April 29 correspondence said the national law had to be considered against monetary-cooperation agreements, the convention governing the Central African Monetary Union and BEAC’s statutes.

A national law inside a monetary union

The institutional issue extended beyond whether residents or businesses wanted to use bitcoin. The Central African Republic was one of six members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, or CEMAC, sharing the Central African CFA franc and a common central bank.

Article 3 of the monetary-union convention established one shared monetary unit and entrusted its issuance to BEAC. Article 6 identified the CFA franc as the member states’ legal monetary unit and provided that its name or definition could be changed only after consultation among the member states and France, which guaranteed its convertibility under the applicable cooperation arrangement.

Tolli’s position was therefore that one member could not unilaterally create binding monetary obligations that displaced BEAC’s regional authority. The letter specifically highlighted the cryptocurrency law’s acceptance requirement and its contemplated conversion into CFA francs. It characterized the regional agreements as ratified international and community commitments that prevailed over conflicting national provisions.

The correspondence sought extraordinary meetings of BEAC’s board and the ministerial committee of the Central African Monetary Union on May 5 and May 6. Copies were to be sent to the other member states’ finance ministers. That procedure made the dispute a regional governance question rather than a bilateral disagreement between the central bank and Bangui.

Adoption collided with operating constraints

Contemporaneous Reuters reporting published on April 29 found that BEAC had not been consulted before the law was adopted. The report also documented uncertainty among residents and analysts about implementation in a country with limited internet access, unreliable electricity and little established cryptocurrency infrastructure. Those observations did not invalidate the law, but they separated its formal monetary ambition from the systems required for routine payments.

The broader crypto market was also weakening. Kraken’s report for April 29 recorded bitcoin at $38,599, down 2.9% for its reporting day, while ether was $2,815.90, down 4.2%. Kraken reported $825.4 million in spot trading across its venue. These are exchange-specific figures under Kraken’s daily reporting convention, not a global consolidated close, and they do not establish that the Central African dispute caused either asset’s move.

What the April 29 record established

The letter did not itself repeal Law No. 22.004, suspend bitcoin transactions or produce a court ruling. Nor did it show that bitcoin payments had begun at scale. It established that the regional central bank’s governor had formally challenged the compatibility of the law and initiated a process for collective institutional action.

Later context

The letter became public in early May. On May 6, the Central African Banking Commission held a special session and moved to establish monitoring of cryptocurrency-related transactions at regulated financial institutions. A United Nations report issued on June 29 independently recorded that Tolli’s April 29 letter sought repeal of the law. Those subsequent records clarify the institutional response but do not change what the April 29 correspondence itself accomplished.