The Constitutional Court of the Central African Republic deemed certain features of the Sango initiative unconstitutional, in part, because it doesn’t view nationality as having a market value.
On 29 August 2021, the Constitutional Court of the Central African Republic (CAR) ruled that the government’s plan to offer e-residency, citizenship and land through the Sango initiative was unconstitutional.
As reported by Reuters, the basis of the Court’s decision is that nationality doesn’t have a market value and residency requires a physical stay in CAR.
The impact of this decision on Project Sango is unclear, however, presidency spokesman Albert Yaloke Mokpeme told Bloomberg “we respect the court’s decision and we’re now looking at another way to offer land and citizenship to investors”.
The Sango initiative was officially launched by CAR’s government on 3 July 2022. It’s a wide-ranging project that seeks to make CAR a leading crypto hub in Africa by revamping CAR’s legal system, issuing a cryptocurrency (Sango coin) and creating a special economic zone for crypto firms in CAR’s capital, Bangui.
The initial distribution of Sango coin will occur through an on-going sale that will run for a year via a series of cycles. E-residency, citizenship and 250 square metre plots of land were meant to become available in the next cycle at prices of $6,000, $60,000 and $10,000 respectively.
To acquire any of the foregoing, a purchaser would need to lock an amount of Sango coin equivalent to the required US dollar amount for periods ranging from three to ten years, before the coins were returned at the end of the lock-up period.
Although the crypto elements in CAR’s model are novel, a country offering residency or a pathway to citizenship in exchange for locking up capital domestically is not a new idea.
For example, Portugal offers residency in exchange for a minimum investment in real estate ranging from €280,000 to €500,000 based on location. Under this initiative, residents can apply for citizenship (and accompanying EU benefits) after five years so long as they visit Portugal for at least two weeks every two years.
According to the Sango roadmap, updates to CAR’s legal framework to facilitate the Sango initiative were meant to be completed by the end of Q3 2022, which is a month away. It remains to be seen what impact the Court’s decision will have on this process.
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