Written by
Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Tanzania. The Tanzanian government is still preparing for digital cryptocurrencies, but economists have cautioned that uniformed adoption of the modern ways of monetary transactions was likely to shake the country’s economy.
In June this year the new Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan called for the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) to begin the necessary preparations for virtual-cum-cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.
President Samia supporting cryptocurrencies
President Hassan on 14 June encouraged Tanzania’s central bank to indulge in cryptocurrencies, clarifying that while African citizens have been using crypto assets for p2p transactions, the continent is yet to utilize the full potential the cryptocurrency market has to offer.
Ms Hassan made mention of El Salvador, the country that just adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, and has begun executing a plan to mine Bitcoin with the geothermal power of its volcanoes.
Hindrance
Some analysts say that this kind of monetary transactions cannot be regulated by the government because the Banking and Financial Institutions Act does not apply to cryptocurrencies.
However the Bank of Tanzania Director of Economic Research and Policy, Dr Suleiman Missango. told The Citizen that they were still working on the directives from President Samia, so that they will be able to update the public including the media on the progress made in a due course.
Why adopt so fast?
Tanzania is ranked in the top 20 Global Crypto Adoption Index, with analysts attributing it to the President’s positive position in regard to cryptocurrency.
According to Dr Donathan Olomi, an economist and business expert the trend showed that Tanzania was among early adopters of crypto. And this can mean different things, one being maybe more Tanzanians wanted to keep their wealth out of sight of the government.
