The $35 million funding that the World Bank approved May 5 is meant for improving CAR’s existing public financial management system through digitization of processes such as payments of salaries and tax collections -- not the crypto project dubbed Sango, the lender said.

“The World Bank is not supporting “Sango – The First Crypto Initiative Project”,” the lender said. The digital governance loan “is unrelated to any crypto-currency initiative.”

“We have concerns regarding transparency as well as the potential implications for financial inclusion, the financial sector and public finance at large, in addition to environmental shortcomings,” the World Bank said.