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An Executive Director at the Russian Federation of Commerce and Industry has called on the government to make cross-border payments in the Central Bank's digital currency and digital currency (CBDC).
On Thursday, Federation President Sergei Katyrin sent a letter to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, proposing development cooperation with African countries.
In the letter, Katyrin advocated the use of CBDCs and cryptocurrencies for deals and payments in Russia's plan toward Africa amid sanctions from the West. "It would be very useful to direct the Russian Ministry of Finance, together with the Central Bank, to include in intergovernmental agreements with African countries on the use of national currencies and cryptocurrencies in agreements and payments."
The CEO went on to say that the establishment of an import-export bank and a trust to support the export activities of small and medium-sized enterprises in African countries is extremely important.
The news comes after many countries in Africa are considering cooperating with Russian-linked blockchain networks.
On Monday, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of congo (DRC) and the Republic of congo issued a joint statement on national plans to use TON – telegram's Layer 1 Proof-Of-Stake blockchain platform. The DRC is also considering launching a national stablecoin built on TON's Blockchain.
Telegram did not officially join TON's Blockchain platform after abandoning the project in May 2020. However, Pavel Durov, co-founder of Telegram, has shown public support for TON and the possibility of integrating it on the Telegram messaging platform by the end of 2021.
"These countries will go through a period of transformation to recognize cryptocurrencies as a major pillar of their economic structure," they said in the statement.
Russia is still finalizing a bill on cryptocurrencies after banning people from paying in currencies like Bitcoin in early 2021. In mid-February 2022, the Bank of Russia officially launched the digital ruble, successfully executing the first CBDC transactions.
Some countries in Africa are also developing CBDCs, and countries such as Kenya and the Republic of South Africa have shown some progress on CBDCs in early 2022. The previous year, Ghana had also tried to develop offline capabilities for their potential CBDCs to promote use in all social sectors.
